TRANSFORMING THE NHS

Contents

1. Background
2. The Brief
3. Discovery Findings
4. Vision & Opportunity
5. Approach & Methodology
6. Programme Workstreams & Goals
7. Agile HR Principles
8. The Journey
9. New Ways of Working
10. Results
11. Takeaway Tips
12. Thank you
13. Testimonial 

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"Sonia has been a phenomenal support in transforming the way we acquire talent. She has created a passion for excellence and customer focus that has truly set us apart"

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Alfredo Thompson

Chief People Officer - Royal United Bath Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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1. About the RUH

The RUH aspire to being one of the leading Trusts in the UK

The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) provides acute treatment and care for around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding areas. Services provided include medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency and diagnostic and clinical support services.

The RUH aspire to being one of the leading Trusts in the UK and are proud to put people at the heart of everything they do, striving to create an environment where everyone matters.
 

2. The Brief

"Break it apart and put it back together again"

The RUH People leadership team approached me with a problem - they had significant challenges with their recruitment. However, they weren’t sure of the root cause, and they didn’t know where to start.
I shaped a detailed discovery phase to work with their teams mapping out end-to-end processes to identify risk, waste, pain points, the impact on candidate and manager experience and Trust outcomes. I’d gather all available data and have conversations with Recruitment teams, HR, IT, stakeholders, cross functional teams, hiring managers and new employees.
From here I’d analyse findings, provide an overview of the current landscape, the root cause of the problem, practical quick fixes along with key priorities and a longer-term plan.
In line with their aspiration to be a leading Trust I asked if they’d be open to a blank piece of paper approach - to harness opportunity and for me to shape a vision for the future. The People Leadership team agreed confirming “break it apart and put it back together again in a way this is simple and customer focused. And help us build capability in our teams”.
The discovery phase then kicked off followed by a further project to take forward the new vision.
 

3. Discovery Findings

A leading NHS Trust must be enabled by an exceptional HR function with inclusive, effective recruitment and onboarding practice​

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My discovery and analysis revealed a disconnected structure with recruitment managed across different teams. The teams were, in the main, providing a recruitment administration service with much of the recruitment process sitting with hiring managers, many in clinical roles.
Processes were complex and manual, managed through spreadsheets alongside the NHS jobs website, with duplication and waste. Legacy ways of working and silo’s created delays and re-work within the system.
There was an absence of an inclusive recruitment strategy and practices, despite this being a key objective for the Trust.
The experience for candidates and hiring managers was impacted through often lengthy processes, confusion and frustration. As a result, 20% of new hires were leaving within their first year costing an estimated £2.8 million annually.
To realise their aspiration of becoming a leading NHS Trust, the RUH needed an exceptional HR function with inclusive and effective recruitment and onboarding practices. An integrated approach to collaboration and digitalisation was required.
The opportunity to transform was significant, to deliver efficiencies, great experiences for candidates and hiring managers, and the best outcomes for RUH people, the Trust, and Patients.


4. The Vision & Opportunity

A holistic, digital talent strategy to create a great place to work and an employer of choice

I believe the greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity. In line with the RUH's aspiration to be a leading employer, I shaped a new vision for a seamless, digital, engaging and inclusive employee experience. Helping people to be at their best and enabling managers to focus on their core roles, delivering exceptional outcomes for their people, the Trust, and Patients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Transformation Approach & Methodology

Simplify - Digitalise - Innovate - Collaborate

At the core of the transformation approach was agile. Utilising an agile mindset and key principles to create a fast-moving programme driven by excellence and customer value.
Changing perceptions, driving innovation, and collaboration whilst leveraging technology.
Creating streamlined, effective, inclusive and consistent solutions with the employee experience at the core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Programme Workstreams & Goals

Six workstreams each with their own goals, designed to work collaboratively and together enable the overall vision

The Digital Talent Programme was launched, co-sponsored by the Chief People Officer and Chief Digital Officer, with a cross functional team and six work-streams, each with their own individual goals, designed to work collaboratively, and together enable the overall vision:

Talent Acquisition & Onboarding
The goal: a fast, effective, inclusive talent acquisition and on-boarding experience creating high engagement, promoting us as an employer of choice.

Technology & Data
The goal: an automated, efficient, reliable and data driven recruitment and onboarding experience creating efficiencies, and enabling resources to be re-invested into value adding activities.

EVP & Attraction
The goal: an authentic and compelling EVP and attraction strategy to drive talent attraction, engagement and retention, positioning the RUH as an employer of choice.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The goal: inclusive and equitable recruitment, on-boarding and progression practices with transparent and real time data, building and sustaining diversity in the workforce.

Talent Management & Retention
The goal: inclusive and equitable development and progression practices with transparent and real time data, creating an environment where everyone matters.

Comms & Engagement
The goal: authentic, compelling communications to involve, engage and inform RUH people and bring them on the journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Enabling the Journey - My Agile HR Principles

Harnessing the power of Agile to transform ways of thinking and working

I introduced the teams to my Agile HR principles with six easily understandable steps, utilising some of the core concepts of agile. This jargon free approach enabled them to quickly start thinking differently and operating in new ways to realise the benefits of agile without having to learn new methodologies or frameworks.

Creating an environment of enablement & empowerment
Helps optimise flexibility, creativity and productivity, enabling people to do their best work.

Make the shift from process to experience
Instead of focusing of what we need to get done, re-design based on the experience for our people to speed up performance and results.

Lead with simplicity
Successful transformation is as much about removing what we don’t need as creating what we do need. If it’s not adding value, it’s got to go.

A culture of collaboration & continuous improvement
We are greater than the sum of our parts. Build cross-HR and cross functional collaboration to co-create the best possible solutions.

Design with our people, not for them
Bringing our people into our HR world to understand the problem from their perspective. Co-create streamlined, effective, compliant solutions that are easy to use, with strong adoption.

Deliver early, often and incrementally
Releasing improvements in stages and using the voice of our people to continually review progress enables us to deliver results quickly and frequently.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. The Journey

Think big, start small - test, learn, iterate

A fast-moving programme of work designed to build capability and deliver value as soon as possible. Co-creating successful, buildable, sustainable solutions that will grow with the RUH as their organisation, and the world around them evolves.

Discovery
•Process mapping
•Baseline data and feedback sources in place
•Risks, issues and root cause identified
•Future vision shaped

Transformation Begins
•HR and IT Partnership launched
•Cross functional project team assembled
•Strategy, plan and operating rhythm shaped
•Co-creation approach launched

Data Driven
•Quarterly customer surveys providing actionable insights
•KPI’s built with transparent processes and sharing of data
•Dashboards and heatmaps developed
•From reactive to proactive, and eventually predictive

Simplification
•Building a simplification mindset
•Removing non-value-add activity
•Removing duplication end-to-end
•Streamlining legacy complexity

Digitalisation
•Digital first mindset developed
•HR and IT co-creating the future
•Moving from manual to digital solutions
•Automation to maximise resources

Onboarding
•Onboarding strategy and messaging shaped
•“Join the RUH" onboarding experience launched
•Tools for hiring managers and buddies
•New employee guidebook and checklist

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
•Inclusive Recruitment e-learning design & build
•De-biasing the recruitment process underway
•Candidate attrition reporting with a DEI lens
•Reasonable adjustments process re-design

EVP
•HR and Comms partnership created
•EVP External Partner appointed
•Discovery, narrative & pillars shaped
•Creative and messaging build & test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. New Ways of Working

Key Foundations Built

Strong foundations have been built to ultimately deliver more value with less work, re-investing critical resources back into value-adding activities.

Collaboration
The foundations for a culture of collaboration have been built with a partnership between HR and IT, true cross functional working and the teams co-creating the new solutions.

Visibility
A digital recruitment process is now in place from vacancy approval through to onboarding providing clarity on the process, data, and visibility of the recruitment position for the first time.

Data & Insights
Collaboration and sharing of data sources between HR, IT and external partners has provided the ability to be data driven. Dashboards and heatmaps will enable decision making and better Trust outcomes.

Simplification
Real progress has been made in removing legacy complexity to create simpler, more effective and sustainable solutions. Teams are adopting a simplification mindset, driving continuous improvement.

Employee Experience
A shift is underway from managing transactional processes to focusing on the experience for candidates and managers, building on the aspiration of creating the RUH as an employer of choice.

External Insights
Strong relationships have been established with other NHS Trusts and corporate organisations to share best practice, using learning and insights to help shape the new solutions.
 

 

10. The Results

New ways of working have been established delivering more streamlined, digital, data driven and inclusive employee experiences

The landscape, and mindset across the teams is now unrecognisable. Significant efficiencies have been realised and much better employee experiences are in place. A culture of collaboration and being data driven is paving the way forward, and new hire attrition has reduced by half.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Discovery Phase – 2022

1. New hire attrition 20% - cost £2.85m
2. Customer dissatisfaction, root cause unclear
3. Manual process & spreadsheets
4. Minimal data & targets
5. Workload driven
6. Voice of the customer gap
7. No onboarding solution
8. Separate recruitment teams & silos
9. DE&I gap - no education or support
10. Legacy complexity - e.g. 16 offer letters
11. Functional silos & process black holes
12. Candidates & managers are numbers
13. No EVP to differentiate the organisation
14. Unable to quantify value

Transformed – 2024

1. New hire attrition 10% - 2023 saving £610k
2. Clarity, transparency, clear goals & progress
3. Digital end-to-end recruitment process
4. Detailed reporting, KPI’s, surveys & insights
5. Data driven
6. Voice of the customer led
7. “Joining the RUH” onboarding experience - strategy, tools & support
8. One Recruitment team
9. Inclusive Recruitment e-Learning
10. Simplified – e.g. 2 offer letters
11. Cross functional collaboration & co-creation
12. Candidates & managers are customers
13. Authentic, compelling EVP ready for launch
14. Can demonstrate clear ROI

 

 

 

 

 

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11. My Takeaway Tips

Powerful principles to enable success

Fix the Root Cause
Identify the root cause of problems and shape effective, sustainable solutions.

Simplify Everything
Remove everything holding you back - legacy policy, process, documentation, thinking.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
If it was easy, everyone would do it. Don’t be afraid to challenge anything that’s not working.

Cross Functional Collaboration is Key
Play on the same team to maximise your resources and co-create the best solutions.

Move From Process to Employee Experience
Make the shift from focusing on your processes, to designing around the employee experience.

Be Data Driven
Use data, insights and the voice of your people to drive your path to sustainable organisational success.
 

 

 

12. Thank You

Thank You to the RUH

With thanks to the amazing leaders, teams and people at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, whose commitment, collaboration and determination enabled this transformation.

 

 

 

13. Testimonial

"Sonia has been a phenomenal support in transforming the way we acquire talent. She has created a passion for excellence and customer focus that has truly set us apart"

Alfredo Thompson
Chief People Officer at the Royal United Bath Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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