An update about ESR Education
Different groups of staff access ESR, from professional service users - such as HR and Payroll, to Managers, Supervisors and Employees. All users have an important part to play in ensuring that the data in ESR is correct and complete. In order to achieve this, it is vital that all ESR users maintain an understanding on the effective use of functionality available in ESR.
To help support this requirement, the ESR Service offers a comprehensive education programme that is available to all ESR users at no additional cost. The programme, delivered in partnership between the NHSBSA ESR Service team and IBM Education team, aims to meet the varying needs of ESR users, and over the past 12 months has undergone significant redesign to better align to user and service needs.
The following educational support is available:
- The Online ESR User Manual
- ESR Education Online Learning
- New Starter Packs
- Online Webinars and Workshops
- Regional Face-to-Face Training
The Online ESR User Manual
The online ESR User Manual was redesigned in January 2024.
The streamlined design has 42 sections which contain numerous, easy to find functional subdivisions, as shown below.
Feedback from users has been positive, with a consensus that this is now easier to navigate and find specific functional guidance.
Additionally, the user guide is now fully searchable using the ESR HUB search content feature.
The metrics for October show the search function is extensively used, with “Payslips” being the term most searched for at 11,044. This was followed by “Pensions” with 1,292 searches and “Learning” with 1,256 searches.
ESR Education Online Learning
The ESR Education team has created a range of e-Learning resources that allow users to learn or refresh their ESR knowledge at their own pace.
The e-Learning available is split into three categories:
- ESR Portal Dashboards
- Portal Administration
- How To Guides
This additional offering is designed to further complement the ESR education and learning offerings, so as to provide maximum flexibility of access for your NHS staff.
ESR Portal Dashboards
This section is designed to help ESR users understand the different dashboards that are available.
By selecting any of the options you gain access to a step-by-step tutorial for the relevant ESR dashboard.
If you are new to ESR or want to refresh your knowledge, these resources should give you the guidance you need to get you started.
Portal Administration
This section is designed to help ESR users to understand the different portal administration roles.
How To Guides
These resources have been specifically designed to help users understand how to undertake tasks in ESR that they may not have done before, or where they need to refresh their knowledge.
Users can navigate to the remaining e-Learning modules via the pre-defined ESR functionality categories.
New Starter Packs
For inexperienced users of ESR, specially designed new starter packs are available.
The new starter packs guide new users through the online resources to ensure that they have the knowledge to get them up and running with ESR within their organisation.
Online Webinars & Workshops
Throughout the year there is a wide range of national and regional webinars and workshops that are available for ESR users. Information about these events: dates, locations, times and registration links are all available by visiting the ESR Events Calendar.
Delegates are required to register for the webinars, and the link is provided via the ESR Events Calendar.
Feedback from the webinars
The host was very clear and explained concepts in a structured and methodical manner. Being able to access these training sessions is truly appreciated. Thank you for making these events available - ESR BI – Creating BI Content
Trainer was very clear and professional, and I like the style of demonstrating then showing the slides for consolidating – OLM – Enrolments and Subscriptions
Great webinar and great host - I felt engaged the whole time and really found the live demonstrations useful. It was also great to see them recap what was covered in the demonstration - very thorough. The pace of the host was great, and her tone was very uplifting and easy to listen too. ESR can be a tricky system sometimes, but the host made it look easy and I learnt a lot – HR – New Starters
Regional Face-to-Face Courses
The provision of regional face-to-face Education started during February 2024 (see User Notice 3418) and takes place at locations that are hosted by NHS Organisations. This reduces the requirement for users to undertake extensive travel and means that the learning is shared between groups of Organisations in the locality.
ESR offers the following courses on a regional basis:
- ESR Business Intelligence (ESR BI) – Creating BI Content – 1 day.
- ESR Business Intelligence (ESR BI) – Customising National BI Content – 1 day.
- Oracle Learning Management (OLM) – Creating Catalogue Content – 1 day.
- Oracle Learning Management (OLM) – Enrolments and Subscriptions – 1 day.
The regional face-to-face training can take place up to 2 days per month where, for a maximum of 10 delegates, the training can be any combination of the courses listed above.
If you are interested in hosting regional training courses, please provide your expression of interest as follows:
- Email - ESR.IS-ESRCourseReg@nhs.net
- Email Title - Expression of Interest – Regional FTF Training
Email Body - please confirm:
-
- Your region, room capacity and availability*
- Your contact details
- The courses you would like to be delivered at your site.
* To ensure an optimum learning experience IBM are looking for host sites that can offer a room with a minimum capacity of 10, to accommodate 9 delegates and the trainer.
Feedback from the Face-to-Face courses
I would like to say a big thank you to the trainers. I have been in the role for 15 years and know my way around BI reports for what I need, but this gave me a deeper insight into the workings of reports and what goes on behind them – North West
I found the BI face to face interactive training really helpful; the facilitators were so friendly, engaging, patient and supportive. It was so much easier to ‘bounce’ questions around the room and I certainly felt I could confidently shout up if I didn’t understand something.
I also feel there was much more flexibility on the individual sections of the training, so we could speed up on the sections where everyone was pretty confident with and focus more on the sections where one or more of us needed more knowledge or practice on.
I would absolutely recommend the face-to-face training!
Rachel Breese - Workforce Information & ESR Team Leader – Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust
The ESR Education programme is specifically designed to support ESR users at all levels. Our team is here to help and support you to ensure that local knowledge and expertise is maintained, and that ESR is used following best practice guidance. If you want to know more about we can support your ESR education needs please contact your regional NHSBSA ESR team.