Implementing Supervisor Self-Service at Cornwall Partnership NHS FT
Cornwall Partnership NHS FT are an NHS Community and Mental Health provider Trust.
They deliver care to people at home or in a hospital care setting to improve their physical and mental health. The workforce provides specialist support to people with dementia and a learning disability. Around 5,000 people make up the Trust, including doctors, nurses, therapists, administrators, and support staff. Over 500,000 people call Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly home, and the number of people they can support increases dramatically when people visit on holiday.
Following successful implementation and embedding of Employee Self-Service, with 98% of staff accessing this functionality regularly, the next natural step for Cornwall Partnership was to explore Manager Self-Service. The Self-Service functionality would also enable the Trust to achieve their aim of being able to provide access to key data, e.g., absence, turnover, staff numbers etc., for managers at the click of a button.
Paul Tyler, Workforce ESR & Data Manager explains:
During an initial pilot launched in 2021, we struggled to reach our required levels of engagement from managers. The Covid pandemic may have influenced this; there was learning for us in understanding the importance of engagement and changing mindsets of staff. Understanding why we use ESR was an important message to share – many managers saw ESR as purely the mechanism for paying our staff, with no concept of the wider functionality.
We decided that breaking down the rollout into phases of functionality rather than giving small groups of managers access at a time would be a better approach. This way we could limit the functionality initially open to managers and create a snowball effect of early adopters, encouraging others to access, so our initial pilot was with Supervisor Self-Service (Limited Access).
Smartcard access was a prerequisite for us, as all staff have a smartcard as part of their access to clinical systems. This would future proof the system when extending access and upgrading the URP from Limited Access. We turned off manager access via username and password as we considered the risk of enabling this on non-NHS devices. As a result of this action several managers sought their smartcards, finding they had expired as they had only used their username and password to access ESR for Employee Self-Service.
The launch of the first phase, on 1st April 2023, gave all managers access at the same time. We ran twice weekly awareness sessions and gave clear guidance on the functionality we were initially concentrating on. Additional bespoke sessions for service areas have also been provided.
The first phase focused on reporting, access to staff information for completing contract change and termination forms and entering of appraisal completion dates. We developed local BI dashboards, based on the format of the existing reports managers already received from us monthly, setting the parameters so all they needed to do was open the relevant report and view or export to Excel if required. We have also developed local reports to be able to monitor access and target managers that may need additional support, either because they are not accessing, or they are entering appraisal information incorrectly.
We’re now just over two months since the phase 1 launch, and we have identified that support and clear guidance is key. Whilst staff are quite comfortable accessing their payslips, being given access to a whole host of additional information and data for the staff they manage is a whole new world! In addition to support, it is becoming evident that our team will need to evolve and upskill to be able to meet the additional demand for support from the 520 managers with access. We are excited to move into the realms of system administration, development, and end user training.
Future phases will look to widen the functionality used, including flexible working and potentially the full appraisal process, utilising forms in ESR, and building up to full access to ESR for managers, enabling them to make contractual changes (with approvals required) via Manager Self Service.
Using the ESR Property Register
Solent NHS Trust was established in 2011, and is a leading provider of community, mental health services and learning disability services to communities in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Their workforce of over 5,000 staff delivers compassionate, person-centred care to people close to home, at all stages of their lives.
The organisation has utilised the ESR Property Register since June 2021 to record various assets and items to assist managers and other teams within Solent NHS Trust.
The Property Register function is available to different URPs (User Responsibility Profile) and includes national standard Business Intelligence (BI) reports, automated workflow notifications and informs/reminds role holders and Manager Self-Service users of property/assets to be returned when direct reports leave the organisation.
Laurie Hillman, ESR Manager at Solent NHS Trust (pictured right) explains:
The property register is functionality found within ESR and items can be added to ESR using various URPs:
- Property Management
- HR Administration
- Administrator/Supervisor/Manager Self Service
Role Holders can also be nominated to receive automated workflow notifications advising when employees with property are leaving the organisation.
Who enters the information at Solent?
Although items can be added using different URPs, the ESR Team use the Property Management URP to add items for the Trust. This can be processed one record at a time or if you have several hundred, then processed as a mass update. If you wish to record something that is not on your property items list, you can create your own.
What can you record?
You can record whatever you want on the property register. Here are some of the items that are recorded at Solent:
- Fuel Cards
- Credit Cards
- Prescription Pads
- Laptops
- Lease Cars
- People Safe devices
- Cycle to work scheme
- AD Logins
You can have duplicate items with different asset information. You can also have multiple start dates for items.
Why record these items?
Looking at the list of items you will see they are not all HR related. The ESR Team work with different departments across the Trust to record and update the information, which then allows us to run reports and share with teams so they can check their data. Some of the teams we currently support are Finance, IT, Pay & Reward and Estates.
Real benefits of the Property Register:
- At Solent, we have rolled out Manager Self-Service, therefore when a manager is processing a leaver, they are told which property register items the staff member has. This reminds the manager to ensure all equipment/items are returned, for example, laptops and mobile phones.
- Staff may have to complete payments for lease cars/cycles or return items.
- It reduces potential fraud, for example if a person leaves the Trust and still has a prescription pad.
Other benefits of the Property Register in ESR include the ability to monitor use of equipment (i.e. uptake of benefit schemes or equipment) or to plan future equipment requirements (i.e. equipment upgrades). Managers can view and update the property recorded for their direct reports. Employees can also view their property via the Employee Self-Service URPs.