Your ESR News

Frimley Health’s Journey, Transferring Learning Data to ESR with Strategic Insight

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, a major provider of acute and specialist healthcare services in the South East of England, supports a workforce of over 13500 staff through its integrated use of the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system. As part of its strategic workforce planning and digital transformation efforts, the Trust has been actively optimising ESR to enhance employee self-service, streamline onboarding, and improve data quality across the employee lifecycle. Recent developments include the rollout of supervisor self-service, enhancements to learning management, and the introduction of appraisal date recording - all aligned with national NHS People Digital Strategy goals.

Background and Challenge

At Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, the transition from the legacy MAST (Mandatory and Statutory Training) system to the national ESR Learning Management System was a major undertaking. With over one million data records, 13,500 employees, and more than 800 courses in scope, the challenge was not just technical - it was strategic.

The goal was to ensure that learning records were transferred accurately and sustainably, while also reducing duplication and preparing the Trust for a more streamlined, ESR-led future.

Lessons Learned

Lesson 1: Seek Support Early
One of the most valuable steps we took was reaching out for help early in the process. By reviewing what others had done before us and actively engaging with our ESR implementation advisers, we were able to draw on their experience and insight. Nelson’s guidance, in particular, was instrumental—helping us navigate challenges, resolve issues efficiently, and build confidence in our approach. He was also able to use his network of trusts he had supported in the past to connect us with key stakeholders at other organisations, giving us the opportunity to learn from their experiences and apply those insights to our own implementation.

Lesson 2: Know What You’re Moving
The first step was to define the scope of the transfer. We focused on CSTF-aligned training and made sure we had a validated list of what we wanted to move. This meant working closely with stakeholders to confirm course mappings, expiry rules, and equivalencies. Having a clear, validated list up front saved significant time and rework later.

Lesson 3: Be Specific About What You’re Asking
It’s not just about what you want to upload—it’s about how you ask for it. We had to repeat an upload because we hadn’t included end dates on some local competencies. In another case, we matched records to the wrong version of a safeguarding course. These issues arose from unclear or overly technical questions. The takeaway? Think about how to phrase your questions in a way that non-experts can understand and respond to accurately.

Lesson 4: Make It Repeatable
The transfer was completed over 18 separate uploads, each capped at 25,000 records. This taught us the importance of designing a repeatable process. Whether it was data formatting, validation, or upload sequencing, we built templates and checks that could be reused - because when you’re doing something 18 times, consistency is everything.

Lesson 5: Decide Early on Competency Application
One of the most critical decisions was how to apply training competencies. We chose to apply them at the position level, rather than the individual level and those that applied to the whole trust at Business Group. This approach aligned with our long-term sustainability goals and allowed for easier maintenance and reporting. It also ensured that new starters in the same role would automatically inherit the correct training requirements.

Lesson 6: Use the Resources You’ve Got
We uploaded ESR data in two ways:

1. Using the Data Loader tool internally - this allowed us to make updates to any errors or changes needed for smaller numbers of records, and we used it for most of the competence requirements uploads.
2. With support from the ESR Central Team, who helped us process larger volumes - particularly for the competency uploads, where the scale was greater.
   Because we were working to a fixed timeline, we planned each upload based on how many people were targeted, ensuring we maximised the number of records per load.

Lesson 7: Have a Plan and a Timeline
It was only once we mapped out how long the uploads would take - and why this needed to be a priority—that we really gained momentum. That clarity helped us align other elements like communications and training, and it kept expectations realistic. We also factored in unavoidable downtime—not just for the system, but for people too. In our case, this included the Christmas period, when availability naturally dipped. Avoid overpromising; instead, focus on delivering what’s achievable within your timeframe.

Lesson 8: Plan for Things to Go Wrong
No matter how good your analysis is, you’ll still need to repeat steps - and things will go wrong. We built time into our plan for rework, corrections, and unexpected issues. That buffer proved essential. For example, one of our uploads failed because a local competency had only been created in ESR earlier that year, but staff had held that competency for several years. The system couldn’t reconcile the dates, and we had to rework the data. Planning for these kinds of edge cases made all the difference.

Outcomes

The result was a clean, accurate, and future-proofed learning record system. We successfully moved just over 250,000 records from our old MAST system into ESR. Post-migration, our training compliance was within 0.4% of the figures reported in the legacy system - well within the tolerance we had set for ourselves. By focusing on current compliance and holding historic data externally, we avoided the pitfalls of error-prone bulk uploads and dual-system complexity. ESR is now positioned as the single source of truth for training compliance at Frimley Health.

Hampshire Hospitals Self Service Journey

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) serves a population of approximately 600,000 people across Hampshire and parts of west Berkshire.

HHFT launched Employee Self Service (ESS) during the Covid pandemic to initially provide online access to payslips for staff, and this meant the benefits of extending the use of Manager Self Service (MSS) could also be realised.

It was recognised that moving to an agile workforce and the greater need for detailed workforce planning and having the right people in the right place, it was important to empower our managers and our financial teams to be able to access data in the moment. Through the importance of this and the benefits it would realise, we were able gain key stakeholder buy in from the senior executive leadership team to be able to implement Manager and Employee Self Service, and a business case was put forward.

The project was established within the Education Team, led by the CPO which was unique compared to how other trusts who have previously implemented this.

An ESR Self Service Standards and Levels of Attainment assessment identified the current use of Employee Self Service and the efficiencies that could be gained by further manager Self Service optimisation.

At that time, all employment changes were made via an online ‘Change of Details’ form which was issued to relevant approvers (HR Business Partner, Finance and Budget Manager) before being submitted to the Payroll Team for the change to be made in ESR. This was a duplication of effort i.e. Manager enters details on a form, then Payroll enter the same details into ESR.

The Project & Pilot

A business case was submitted to implement MSS and ESS to realise the full benefits this could bring, not only to the trust but also to the wider workforce having better access to their personal information. The following outcomes were detailed in the business case:

• Implement ESR as the primary source/system for workforce data
• Move away from a reliance on manual process
• Reduce administrative burden to all staff having one entry point for changes – estimating a 61% reduction in time to complete assignment changes
• Ensure high quality and accuracy of data and reduce errors, queries and delays
• Ensure HHFT is fit for the Future NHS Workforce Solution and accurate workforce planning
• Recruiting a project team or using NHS Business Services Authority Workforce Optimisation Team (WOT)

The project work began in November 2023 with the key stakeholders from HHFT (Recruitment, BI, Payroll and Finance), ESR and the NHSBSA’s Workforce Optimisation Team (WOT), who can be commissioned to provide additional support for organisations who are implementing ESR functionality or undertaking ESR data cleanse and data quality projects.

As part of our initial scoping works with the BAU team, we identified roles and responsibilities for both parties and within this, the NHSBSA WOT provided project management and data entry services. This involved managing the weekly project meetings, project governance and risk register; in addition to identifying stakeholders and their roles and the data collection, analysis and entry (Supervisor fields and URPs).

To help us understand what ‘good’ looked like we needed to ascertain the starting point of our processes used within the trust, and to enable this to happen the ESR team and key stakeholders undertook some process mapping work. The South ESR Regional Team provided support by delivering early training to managers, Payroll and Adhoc Approvers. Once we stabilised our approach, we then created training that was more detailed and relevant to our workforce, creating training for our people by our people. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were also updated by the relevant teams/stakeholders.

For the launch of any new change management initiative, education and communication is fundamentally the primary route of success. At HHFT we concentrated our efforts on creating a trust wide communication strategy that drip fed the message that change was coming. We developed project specific branding for all our communications to help deliver our messages throughout the trust. We started with Education and then our CPO to help us cascade our messaging.

We chose our corporate division for our initial go live (starting in January 2024), as this was an area where it would have least impact on clinical delivery. Most areas of corporate functions were represented within the project board as key stakeholders and there was a reduced element of risk, where we could realise lessons learnt before applying to the more complex areas.

Further online training was delivered to Manager Self Service users in the run up to go live and continuing afterwards.

The Roll Out

Towards the end of a 10-week pilot, the internal HHFT BAU Team were also appointed and joined all stakeholders to discuss the successes and lessons learned to refine and repeat with the next 3 divisions. Training and user guides were adapted for Self Service users to reflect HHFT’s processes and online training for managers continued. In addition to the online classes, eLearning content was also created for managers to refer to at any time. These weren’t developed during the pilot as processes were still organic at that point.

The last division was launched at the end of November 2024, meaning all divisions were now live using Manager Self Service.

HHFT now have approximately 900 MSS users, with 70% logging into ESR per month successfully making changes to their team details.

Next steps

HHFT have implemented the recording of Apprenticeships in ESR during the MSS roll out and the Organisational Development Team are now piloting the use of the MSS/ESS appraisal function.

Now that we’ve completed the project phase of the MSS ESR rollout, we are entering a period of evaluation and review. This will allow us to reflect on the success of our self-service implementation, while also identifying areas for improvement. Once this review is complete, we will consider the next steps, including whether to proceed with Establishment Control. Implementing Establishment Control within HHFT will require a different approach and clear ownership to move forward effectively.

Quantifying success

With any project the measuring of success or change comes in many forms. We have adopted a varied approach as no one option fits all and some of these successes are below:

• Feedback from staff and stakeholders - surveys/QR codes.
• Measuring the usage of self service using BI dashboards (can skew figures as we use payroll approvers).
• Requests completed on the old system are returned asking for completion in Manager Self Service. There is also a monthly report run and education material sent to those managers to ensure they are completing requests correctly. This has enabled us to see reductions in requests going through the old system and move to Manager Self Service.
• During the project we have completed the following across the 4 main divisions that have gone live:
  • 3,346 Supervisor Changes
  • 963 Manager Self Service Access Allocations
  • 7,282 Employee Self Service Access Allocations
• Reduction in time/resource to complete - it is believed that we will see a 61% reduction in time to complete assignment changes in MSS vs forms - once project is fully live, this will be quantifiable / financial saving applied.
• Reporting on the old request system vs Manager Self Service - seeing the number of requests on the old system fall and Manager Self Service increase.
• Reflection sessions before moving to next division, what went well / do differently.

Lessons learned

• Ideally, if the HHFT BAU team were in place at the start of the project, the learning curve would be less steep.
• Having key stakeholder champions at executive level to cascade this directive within their own portfolios.
• Longer period for communications would have supported the drip feed affect.
• Not all Trusts were able to share feedback for lessons learnt as they were balancing their own organisational pressures.
• TOR’s (Terms of Reference) for each of the working groups that clearly outlined and enforced the need for departmental representation to keep momentum going.
• Better understanding of our medical workforce and the impact Manager Self Service would have.
• Self Service Champion volunteers were given separate training from MSS users, but their role was never utilised by the Self-Service community.

Benefits

• Employee Self Service - Enables staff to take responsibility for their data, in turn resulting in more accurate workforce data.
• Processes would be completely standardised across the Trust.
• Improved data quality – the data entered on the legacy forms wasn’t always correct (i.e. cost code, organisation, position number). As this data is now already available to the manager, and often pre-populated, the manager now just selects the relevant choice from the options available in ESR. Also, the reduction or removal of paper-based forms improves the trusts carbon footprint and reducing information governance risk.
• Reduction in duplication – the Payroll Team no longer have to re-enter data that managers have already entered.
• Allows managers to view, report and manage key performance indicators such as absence and turnover.
• All sickness, special leave and unpaid absence are recorded in ESR in real time.
• Supports career development and staff pathways by recording qualifications and registrations and see talent profiles.
• Reports allow managers access to staff requirements such as DBS checks, Right to Work, Appraisals date and revalidation dates.
• Reports provide audit trails of transactions undertaken, providing confidence that data is accessed and used appropriately.

Managers can view a wider range of employee data through national dashboards with no additional reporting resource. This is only a summary of some of the benefits to adopting Manager and Employee Self Service, there are more and we will be happy to share these if other organisations are interested.