Deepening the synergy between hospital managers and frontline workers with Locum’s Nest workforce solutions

Since Locum’s Nest was launched, our team has been working hard to bridge the communication gap within the NHS. We have created collaborative staff banks, generated dramatic cost savings and heavily reduced manual administration within people management.

Now, as the NHS aims to recover from the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are glad to see that our suite of products is enhancing collaboration between hospital admin users (managers and HR teams) and mobile app users (doctors, nurses, Allied Health Professionals and other healthcare professionals). With our digital solution, teams are more connected, more engaged and more productive.

Here, we share how, by advancing the synergy between hospital managers and frontline workers, the NHS can bring a sense of unity and enhance overall employee wellbeing.

Bringing a sense of unity during Covid-19

In 2020, we recognised our unique ability to help the NHS fight against the outbreak of Covid-19. Whilst Locum’s Nest Match was in full use, connecting vacant NHS shifts with qualified and available healthcare professionals across the nation, we saw an opportunity to support frontline workers even further.

The result was the launch of Locum’s Nest Community and PassportPlus, a duo of in-app solutions that would break down communication walls and better facilitate staff movement over the next 18 months and beyond.

By further connecting admin teams and mobile app users in a simple, yet effective digital solution, we were able to bridge the gap during a crucial time, making permanent improvements that have continued to be in use since restrictions were lifted. Below we share five core benefits:

1. Enabling communication between remote and frontline workers

Ongoing lockdown restrictions saw thousands of NHS management teams work from home throughout 2020 and the beginning of 2021. This presented an opportunity to enable better communication between admin teams working from home and frontline staff. 

Locum’s Nest Community was rapidly integrated into our app, enabling managers to share crucial information (such as PPE changes and risk assessment surveys) with workers in seconds. Newsletters, surveys, onboarding tips, bulletins and videos were also delivered. Such digital touchpoints not only ensured mobile app users were kept in the loop but that they were also experiencing a form of human connection at a time when this was in short supply.

This enhanced level of communication has continued to be embraced and remains a day to day part of people management for admin users. Healthcare professionals have fed back that this makes them feel more a part of the Trust, regardless of the regularity of shifts they take.

2. Enhancing visibility and security

During the peak of the pandemic, hospitals needed endless hands on deck to help fight the virus. However, transferring from one Trust to another was no simple feat. 

With Locum’s Nest PassportPlus, we enabled doctors to cross-cover shifts at neighbouring hospitals to allow more clinicians on the wards without going through a lengthy administrative process. Within the Digital Passport, doctors can easily drop required documents such as employment history and their GMC record, creating a folder that is easily visible for hiring hospitals. A unique verification link ensures that HR compliance checks are completed instantly, allowing users to join the staff bank quickly and without delay.

This immediately led to a stronger, engaged workforce during the pandemic and allowed hospitals to safely staff their wards without long lead times.

3. Simplifying processes to save crucial time

The complex nature of administrative processes has historically been an infamous, standstill issue within the NHS. But, since the pandemic, there are signs of long-awaited improvement.

Covid-19 brought issues to the surface caused by the duplication of paperwork, lengthy manual admin and human errors in rostering. It forced a culture of collaboration and free movement, allowing for better, automatic scheduling and HR processes. Our intuitive digital timesheet function was proven particularly valuable to NHS Trusts during this time, eliminating the considerable lag in timesheet submission and enabling quicker payroll - vital for those who experienced financial difficulties during 2020. Such improvements allowed finance teams to accurately forecast future temporary staffing spend and budget accordingly, saving the NHS millions of pounds.

4. Advancing the use of collaborative staff banks

We strongly believe in the power of a collaborative workforce. So, enabling the NHS to benefit from shared staff banks was a key goal during the start of the pandemic. With the introduction of PassportPlus, we were able to link a network of over 30,000 frontline workers’ digital passports in hospitals and GP practices to help Trusts reduce their staff shortages during the crisis. By May 2020, this saw a record-breaking 91% of vacant shifts filled across participating Trusts in The Digital Collaborative Bank

We have continued to develop this feature throughout the pandemic to meet the changing needs of the NHS, making vaccination shifts available to support the national vaccination campaign effort.

5. Frictionless management of workers from recruitment to onboarding

Recruitment has always been a sticky subject for NHS HR teams, with obstacles faced to attract talent, retain employees and manage the overall onboarding process.

Within PassportPlus, we designed a dedicated area for managers (and other members of admin staff) to gain oversight of their recruitment pipeline and clearly see where a worker sits within the process. A centralised system holds all documents in one place for quick visibility whilst in-app communication allows managers to directly chat with candidates and speed up their onboarding. The healthcare professional is then notified at every stage, such as when license statuses change, or when they have been approved for shifts they applied to. The technology allows Trusts to take ownership of their individual recruitment and be transparent with new workers, demonstrating a digital commitment to their wellbeing and communication from the get-go. 

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If you have any questions on how Locum’s Nest can help bridge the gap between your admin workers and healthcare professionals, please get in touch with our co-founder, Dr Ahmed Shahrabani, at ahmed@locumsnest.co.uk or contact the team here.

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