'The future of NHS HR & OD 2030 vision': 6 key actions to plan for the future and create a great employee experience

In continuity with the ‘NHS Interim People Plan’ and the ‘NHS Long Term Plan', NHS England launched a new action-oriented report to further support the people profession. Co-created with those working within and alongside the NHS, this report sets out a vision of where the NHS HR profession wants to get to by 2030 so it can play its unique part in supporting the healthcare system.

“Meeting healthcare challenges in 2030 will involve working beyond existing organisational boundaries, overcoming barriers and transforming roles. This will mean spreading innovative practice and ensuring widespread adoption, to create a consistently compassionate, inclusive, values driven culture.” — The future of NHS human resources and organisational development

The report acknowledges the growing evidence of links between staff wellbeing, quality of care and retention and provides a clear call to action that people teams across the healthcare sector can get behind.

In this article we share a snapshot of actions NHS HR & OD teams can start to implement to future-proof workforce planning and create long lasting cultural change in their organisations. These 6 key actions were directly extracted from 3 out of the 8 main themes laid out in ‘The Future of NHS HR & OD 2030 vision’:

Enabling new ways of working and planning for the future
Creating a great employee experience
Embedding digitally enabled solutions

Enabling new ways of working and planning for the future

We enable our people to work differently, to support new models of care. We anticipate the needs of the health and care system, and play our part in creating a sustainable supply of workforce which meets the needs our patients now and for the future.

Action 33 - digital enablement

“Organisations and systems need to ensure that planning for the future, including workforce planning, is digitally enabled and draws on more robust and timely data.”

Technology is key to future planning and collaborative tools such as Locum’s Nest Rota enables HR & OD teams to benefit from real-time, accurate data throughout the rostering process with a focus on staff wellbeing. Medics are empowered through fairer scheduling and are able to proactively communicate their availability and preferences. Whilst the software ensures all allocated shifts are compliant and optimised by connecting with critical systems such as ESR or use data from HES to support more intelligent, optimised rosters.

Action 34 - working differently and more flexibly for better care

“Organisations and systems need to support our people to work differently and more flexibly. Organisation and ICS CPOs should:

enable our people to access wider opportunities across the system
implement digital staff passports, to enable seamless moves between teams and organisations
use the benefit of scale to develop shared bank and temporary staffing arrangement”

To be ready for the future, the NHS must adapt to new models of care, anticipate the needs of the population’s health and create a sustainable supply of workforce. The above set of recommendations can already be addressed with Locum’s Nest solutions. By applying the principle of transparency, we’ve enabled the 40,000 healthcare professionals using our mobile app to browse through vacant shifts outside their organisations. Our mobile app can also allow them to join a neighbouring staff bank to support and learn with varying teams. This is made possible with our Digital Passport technology - crucial pre-filled information including compliance records and employment documents, frontline workers can share with hospital teams for a swift and efficient onboarding process. Since 2015, we’ve supported numerous NHS Trusts from creating to scaling and sharing their staff bank as well as developed an entire library of resources.

Action 35 - overcoming supply issues [to achieve by March 2023]

“Organisations and systems should continue to lead action to address local supply issues, using the benefit of scale wherever possible and innovative approaches that broaden access to roles for the local community.”

The full implementation of the report’s actions will support the delivery of the People Plan and embed the People Promise for all staff. However, the report highlights this specific recommendation as a key priority to achieve by March 2023. NHS organisations can tackle local staff shortage by bonding with neighbouring Trusts, unify their workforce vision and share an open and much wider pool of healthcare professionals. We’ve seen the power of open collaboration first hand with The Digital Collaborative Bank (DCB) - the biggest workforce coalition of NHS Trusts in the country enabling hospitals to advertise vacancies to over 6,000 doctors. Spanning across 6 ICSs, the 10 NHS Trusts part of the DCB consistently achieve a shift fill rate 8-10% higher than Trust working independently.

Creating a great employee experience

We understand the diverse needs, expectations and experiences of our NHS people, and use that insight to tailor our people services. We attract and retain people in health and care, creating a positive impact on our communities.

Action 25 - fair and inclusive recruitment

“Organisations and systems should use fair, inclusive and modern recruitment methods and simple processes to provide a high-quality candidate experience. Organisation and ICS CPOs should:

design recruitment processes to focus on skills and competencies, enabling potential candidates to demonstrate how their skills could best fit with roles
use technology to create a ‘frictionless’ recruitment pathway that improves the candidate experience
use the opportunity to recruit at scale across a system, to create a more open and efficient process”

A key goal of the NHS Long Term Plan is to grow and nurture a diverse, inclusive culture. It will therefore be up to the people profession to ensure jobs are designed so that people can thrive at work and continue to deliver high quality patient care. Yet to attract and retain the NHS workforce, organisations must evaluate recruitment methods, ensuring all processes are fair, inclusive and up-to-date.

As the best-rated app for flexible working in the NHS, Locum’s Nest workforce solutions are created with users in mind, from healthcare professionals to HR & OD teams.

“Efficient, easy, doctors love it.”

— NP, Temporary Staffing Manager

“Finally, an easy and effective way to be able to book shifts!”

— RG, Doctor

We’ve made it super simple for HR teams to see all healthcare professionals’ information. With PassportPlus, HR teams can stay one step ahead of workforce compliance and rapidly recruit new healthcare professionals on the organisation’s bank with their pre-filled digital passport. We’ve added a number of automation so teams are proactively alerted on soon-to-expire documents and maintain the compliance of their substantive and contingent workforce. On top of that, we designed our service so that HR teams can also ask additional questions to healthcare professionals directly through the app, to ensure all candidates are given the opportunity to show their expertise.

Embedding digitally enabled solutions

We make best use of technology and digital solutions to deliver great people services. We develop our digital capability to equip ourselves for the future.

Action 9 - better insights through digital services

“Collaborate at national, ICS and organisation level to optimise the procurement and the introduction of digital services, creating more efficient and aligned digital services through using economies of scale to provide richer, more timely insights to support decision-making. Organisation and ICS CPOs, within a national framework, should:

ensure that digital services are procured in compliance with national technology standards and commercial digital frameworks (by 2023)
leverage the use of procurement frameworks to adopt digitally enabled and intuitive transactional processes at all levels, including the opportunities for efficiency through robotics, which will provide high-quality and responsive services that minimise time spent on administration in areas such as pay and recruitment”

The NHS has continually reinforced the benefits of technology, committing to invest funding into e-rostering software, faster diagnostics and artificial intelligence. The HR and OD teams will be key to transforming the way people access services and digitising the healthcare system.

A number of frameworks are available to provide a streamlined path to sourcing compliant and fitting technology suppliers. Take a look at this article to navigate through the different existing healthcare procurement frameworks and identify a secure route to accessing your ideal tech innovations. Such innovation will not only transform people services across the NHS but will also only release more time for HR and OD professionals to prioritise overarching improvements.

The Locum’s Nest technology is built to reduce admin time - from filling shifts to managing applications, to completing and sending timesheets. In fact the academic body, Kent Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSS AHSN) conducted a 6-month long independent analysis of our impacts via a sample of eight NHS acute Trusts. The real world validation and cost-benefit analysis showed a 50% reduction in time taken to manage and fill a vacant shift. In addition to the ease of filling a role, there are other benefits such as the ability to issue an electronic timesheet, which includes a digital signature. This reduces the time required by healthcare professionals and managers to complete a timesheet, as well as reducing overall admin time, and enabling quicker payment for the shift. It also enables a clearer audit trail and saves on unnecessary printing of paper.

“Takes literally 10 % of the admin time I had to spend previously completing and sending my timesheets for approval.”

— MR, Specialty Doctor

Our recently developed Pre-match feature goes even further in reducing admin time, by allowing rota managers to fast-track trusted healthcare professionals to a vacant shift. The healthcare professionals receive a notification on their mobile app asking if they want to accept it which places the power back in the healthcare professionals’ hands and grants freedom of choice - essential to supporting their autonomy and wellbeing.

Action 10 - high-quality reporting

“Organisations and systems should have high quality reporting of people data and insights, enabled through the use of digital services to support effective, informed decision making. To support this the national team will establish data standards across multiple people digital systems to enable interoperability and informed decision making (by 2023).”

Technology can already answer the need for comprehensive reporting of workforce data and once properly embedded in processes will fully support efficient decision making. An example of which can be seen in Locum’s Nest Intelligence, our leading product for HR and Finance teams that provides real-time data and forecasting in one seamless dashboard. This product simplifies reporting with the ability to download NHSi-compliant reports, streamlines workforce needs forecasts and integrates all data sources into one. We believe that data integration and global interoperability is an integral part of any robust healthcare innovation. For this reason, we have developed Link - the nation's first interoperability hub, for the NHS. Here our partnering NHS Trusts can link up to multiple technology providers including Rotageek and Allocate to create a world-class end-to-end process. Healthcare organisations can use Link and design rules to become a bank-first organisation, manage which agencies receive unfilled shifts and seamlessly integrate all core workforce solutions into one function.

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To learn more about how Locum’s Nest can help your organisation boost workforce capacity, create a great employee experience and enhance workforce planning, please get in touch with our co-founder, Dr Ahmed Shahrabani, at ahmed@locumsnest.co.uk or contact the team here.