ESR Road Map Update

We are now two-thirds of the way in to delivering the Development Road Map – our biggest and most challenging strategic plan for ESR from its inception.  Since September last year, when we introduced the first key development into ESR - access via the internet; we have introduced  a significant number of improvements that have fundamentally changed the way the NHS now interacts and uses ESR, including:

 

Provisioning and Roll Out

Over the spring and summer the NHS ESR Team worked with organisations to provision access to the new ESR Portal.  https://my.esr.nhs.uk is the new Portal gateway into ESR.

NHS organisations in Wales completed their provisioning by the end of July and NHS Organisations in England completed their provisioning by the end of September 2017. This means that every NHS organisation in England and Wales now has access to the Portal, and the latest statistics show that at the end of September 2017 201,976 unique employees had accessed  ESR via the portal.

Having access to the Portal and Portlets is only the beginning of the journey for NHS Organisations and employees.  The real benefits are realised once managers and employees are interacting with ESR via the Portal, using the full capability within Self Service:

• Improving data quality because individuals have greater ownership of their personal and professional record;
• Reducing central printing and local distribution costs by switching off printed payslips;
• Real time management of key workforce indicators linked to Compliance, Absence and much more with ‘at a glance’ Business Intelligence dashboards displayed on the landing page when Managers log in;
• Greater compliance with e-Learning and improving attendance at class room education and training;
• The ability to communicate to all staff across the organisation using the broadcast message on the landing page – such capability proving to be a great way advise staff of key operational updates or provide reminders – for example, communicating the need and provision for annual flu vaccination.

ESR Release 36

Release 36 was deployed at the end of September 2017 and brought further changes and enhancements into the ESR solution.

New ESR Search

This development gives users a completely new search capability and is specifically designed to help professional users of ESR e.g. Payroll, HR and Learning. The search is presented in a new page and is based on URPs held by the user, allowing searches to be conducted across multiple VPDs and returning ex-employees as at the termination date. The new page features the ability to search against the following data items:

• Person Name
• Employee Number
• Applicant Number
• Organisation
• NI Number
• VPD
• Person Type

Key Features include:

• Ability to search across multiple VPDs (subject to URPs held)
• Launch specific forms for the search results
• Provides a consistent approach for person/assignment in ESR
• Displays both current and ex-employees in one results page
• Available from the ESR Portal and forms

Searching from the ESR Portal:

The new ESR page for performing searches and navigating to associated records:

  

Multiple Supervisors

The introduction of this functionality facilitates the recording of multiple supervisors against a person record where, for example the Manager is part of a job share.

Existing functionality in relation to employee initiated requests will be sent to both Managers who will both have access to the assignment record to perform changes. As part of this development a new check has also been introduced to the existing Supervisor Hierarchy Ntf role to include a new section for additional supervisors.

Self Service Comments

Comments entered against the following 8 key Self Service transactions can now be captured and stored to allow them to be reported using ESR Business Intelligence

Absence	Assignment
Hours	End Non-Primary Assignment
Supervisor	Location
End Employment	Manage Hire

Continuous Development of ESR Portlets

As part of our commitment to listen to our users’ suggestions about improving ESR’ functionality and usability, the following changes have also been implemented:

Team Actions and My ESR Calendar

The ESR Calendar, available to both Employee and Manager items has been updated to include Competency Expiry and Incremental dates.

My Annual Leave

More detailed information about carry over, Statutory days and Bank Holidays is now available in the Annual Leave portlet for Employees, helping them to see how their gross entitlement has been calculated. The breakdown of the entitlement is held in a drop-down to preserve the existing design.

Local Links

We have introduced the ability to add and re-order local links for Administrators.  There is a new portlet available allowing them to be displayed on a dashboard. Users need to add this portlet to a dashboard of their choosing from the portlet library.

Release 36.2 - scheduled for deployment over 28th & 29th October 2017 (subject to completion of successful testing and release)

Class Update Portlet

Introduction of a new portlet that can be added to the Learning Administration dashboard that allows the update of the learner status on classes up to 7 days in the past.  You can learn more detail about this portlet in the next edition of the Road Map Bulletin, scheduled to be published this week.

Education

As with previous releases the ESR Education Team has developed HTML captivate lessons, which are now available on ESR Infopoint.

These lessons demonstrate the following new functionality:

• Self Service Organisation Chart
• Multiple Supervisors
• ESR Search

In addition the following guides will be made available within the User Manual for ESR Portal and be accessible via the ESR Infopoint:

• Portal Familiarisation – User
• Portal Familiarisation – Administrator
• Portal Familiarisation – Manager
• Portal Familiarisation – Core User

Key Dates

ESR Release 37 is scheduled for deployment at the end of December 2017. This release will require an extended period of downtime, as communicated in the July edition of the Road Map bulletin.

Reporting Strategy

Release 36 brought a large number of changes for reporting in ESR, to enable users to more flexibly report on data held in ESR. This includes the ability to access BI Reporting on mobiles and tablets, as well as a full redesign of the reporting model for the Learning Management module of ESR

In detail the following changes for BI reporting were deployed as part Release 36:

• Ability to report on Annual Leave and Study Leave Entitlement Balances;
• Future Leave reporting;
• Replication of the Date-Track Changes and Highlights reports from Discoverer;
• Full remodel of the Education and Learning Subject area, providing significant benefits for Learning Administration Users;
• Ability to report on Certifications;
• Mobile/Tablet Access to ESR BI, allowing managers and directors to access board reports directly;
• Ability to generate alerts from ESR BI based on threshold values;
• Disaster Recovery and High Availability extended to include ESR BI;
• Ability report on External Learners in other subject areas.

Below is an example BI report using the new Entitlement Balances information:

 

 

Further Information

If you have any questions about anything in this bulletin or want more information about the ESR Development Roadmap, please contact your NHS ESR Functional Advisor or Account Manager.

Using ESR to undertake robust Employment Checks

The need for NHS organisations to follow good recruitment and HR practice was recently highlighted with concern that [1]patients are being put at unacceptable risk because unregulated NHS staff are being allowed to perform invasive procedures without checks on their qualifications. 

All NHS organisations are required to meet the NHS Employment Check Standards for prospective and existing employees. These standards include checks required by law, those that are a Department of Health policy and those that are required for access to the NHS Summary Care Records Service.

To ensure that prospective and existing employees are qualified and competent to undertake their duties, organisations can use the wide range of ESR functionality available to meet these required standards. This includes the ability to record and monitor employee qualifications, compliance and professional registrations (where required), as well as having the ability to undertake regular appraisals, set objectives and assist in identifying training needs for staff.  This is further strengthened by using the full self-service functionality to empower managers and staff to manage staff information.   With the latest developments in ESR Reporting and the launch of the new ESR Portal, this information is more visible and accessible, making the management of this data even easier for organisations.

Recording Qualifications

All qualifications can be recorded in ESR, from NVQs through to Degrees.  ESR Business Intelligence (BI) can also report on these at varying levels.  Managers can amongst other things, view their employees Talent Profile which shows all details relating to qualifications, compliance, professional registration status.  It is vital that all staff have their qualifications verified and recorded as part of a robust recruitment process as per NHS Employment Check standards as specified by NHS Employers.

Talent Profile

Appraisals and Compliance

Using Self Service functionality, both employees and managers can interact in the appraisal process and record dates. They can also create and agree objectives that can be tracked and aligned to the organisation’s overarching objectives and vision, as well as the ability to find additional training options held in ESR where staff require further skills training. Also, where training supports an employee’s clinical development, training credits can be awarded, which can be used to support employees revalidation with professional bodies.

The compliance matrix in ESR quickly identifies where competency requirements are being met and workflow notifications also remind employees and managers when they need to renew a particular competency - this is vital for patient safety. A suite of standard BI reports is also available at all levels.

Manager Self Service

Manager Self Service is a powerful tool for both the manager and their organisation, empowering them to actively manage and monitor their staff and be assured that they are compliant and capable of undertaking their role, thereby reducing risk.

The launch of the new ESR Portal enables data to be presented to managers in a clear visible format that allows efficient and effective actions to be easily identified and acted upon.

ESR Portal - Manager Dashboard

Team compliance

 University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in the West Midlands uses the reporting and compliance functionality in ESR to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and qualified. Dave Mander, ESR & Workforce Information Manager, says:

"One of the main aims of the organisation is that all staff must meet their compliance requirements. We actively monitor 37 competences across the varying staff groups including bank staff and report this to the Trust Board on a monthly basis”.

“Our managers have full access to ESR Self Service so that they can easily view the compliance matrix for each member of their team. In addition the ESR workforce team provide mangers with monthly detailed ESR reports, showing their departmental RAG rating against set compliance targets. Using the full breadth of the ESR Self Service functionality is a key tool to help us monitor and achieve our compliance targets in order to secure our patient safety”.

 

Professional Registration

It is also worth remembering that for staff regulated by the NMC and GMC there is a daily interface directly with these professional bodies, providing assurance that these staff are appropriately registered. For other staff groups the ESR BI reports offer an invaluable tool to enable workforce leads to monitor the registration details and dates as necessary. This is further supported by the Expiry Notifications that are available to both key HR roles and managers via Self Service.

Organisations are strongly encouraged to maximise ESR capability to enable a robust recruitment and HR process is undertaken to reduce the risk of staff undertaking duties that they are not competent or qualified to do. The functionality available in ESR also supports the activity undertaken in the streamlining agenda.

For further information about ESR functionality visit our website or contact your Regional Account Manager.

 

 

[1] HSJ News article, 23 August 2017.  https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/exclusive-safety-fears-over-thousands-of-unregulated-nhs-staff/7020415.article

Switching to on-line Payslips - Best Practice

Background

A key element of the ESR Development Roadmap was the enhancements made to the employee pay advice, including:

• One consistent view for both printed and on-line versions for all users of the pay advice;
• Ability for employees to access their pay advice directly from their Portal page;
• Employee access to their pay advice from the internet and on mobile devices;
• The ability for organisations and employees to make a choice to stop the production of the printed payslips.

The use of on-line pay advice has grown significantly as a result of these developments:

• In September, 43,251 unique employees accessed their on-line pay advice from the Payslip portlet. A further 177,154 accessed their pay advice from within their Employee Self Service access;
• The proportion of employees on ESR who have now opted out of receiving a paper payslip has now increased to 15.6% – 283,207 employees - at the end of September 2017;
• 60 organisations, as at the end of September, have now taken the decision to stop the printing of paper payslips at organisational level;
• Other organisations have not opted out at a global level – but within those organisations, 88,373 employees have made the choice to opt out of a paper payslip themselves.

Benefits to Employing Organisations

The scope of benefits – both organisationally and for employees include:

• The timely delivery of the on-line pay advice prior to payday for employees to view;
• Employees being able to access their pay advice at any time whether at work, at home, or on the move via their mobile device;
• Previous pay advice are available, within the current employment, if the employee needs to reference them for mortgage applications, etc.;
• Reduced costs by no longer needing to distribute paper payslips and P60s;
• Reducing the risk of and breaches of confidentiality associated with manually distributing printed payslips and P60s around locations and departments;
• The reduction in the use of paper and carbon footprint is a key benefit for many organisations.

Implications of System Unavailability

Any IT solution the size and complexity of ESR is always going to require system unavailability to undertake both system developments and essential maintenance. The scheduling of such downtime is always considered from a user/business impact perspective, recognising it has a direct impact on the operation of the solution at local organisational level.. However, the drive to increase employee access – particularly with the increased flexibility and range of access channels – places greatest emphasis on the impact of solution unavailability.

One of the key considerations when planning solution unavailability is the data available to the Programme from organisational Payroll Calendars – which is why it is essential that organisations complete and update them. 

Extended periods of system downtime, and in particular the quarterly major releases, are normally at the end of the month, primarily to take into account the following:

• Downtime planning attempts to avoid clashes with payroll processing. Analysis of data shows that the last weekend of the month has fewer processes running than at other times in the period;
• Payroll processing is busy on the first weekend of the month, during the 3^rd week of the month and on occasion up to a few working days before month end;
• To prevent issues with partial payroll processing, solution changes are usually effective from the first few days of the following pay period. Therefore, deploying solution changes at the end of the month, as far as possible, will reduce unwanted/significant Retropay and/or part period issues that may arise if they are applied mid-period and after the effective date.

How Should Organisations Manage the Impact of Planned Unavailability?

To ensure that employees are able to view their on-line pay advice at a time that is convenient to them, consideration will need to be given to the impact of any system downtime which will prevent access. Such planned downtime is always communicated in advance.

As most monthly pay dates fall near to system downtime, best practice would be to ensure that the payslips are available to view as soon as possible after the final payroll run. Using the on-line Payslip View means that the on-line pay advice can be available to employees up to 3 days before their pay day.

Communication, as in many scenarios, is key, and it is advisable to communicate periods of unavailability directly to your employees. Whilst, as a Programme we will look to maximise the channels open to us, we would strongly recommend the use of the Announcements functionality available to organisations from within the Portal. This will enable organisations to tailor the messaging for their own employees – including references to pay dates, pay advice availability dates and the actual downtime start and end details.

Following the above steps will ensure that staff are able to view their payslips in a timely manner, empower Payroll/HR departments to assist with resolving pay queries in advance of  pay day and reduce any impact that system downtime may have on the employee.

Guidance on how to set up when the payslips will be available on-line can be found in the ESR User Manual: http://portal.mhapp.nhs.uk/esrusermanual/html/NAVU480.htm

If you are considering switching to on-line payslips, you can read about the experiences of another user organisation that has done this. Go to the Case Study section of this edition of ESR News.

Using ESR to support our Talent Management Strategy

A Case Study by South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 

Background

Our Trust provides mental health, learning disability and specialist children’s services across South Staffordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. We also provide services on a wider regional or national basis, including perinatal, eating disorder and forensic services. The Trust’s Inclusions service provides psychological, drug and alcohol services and has contracts across the country. We also provide genitourinary medicine services in South Staffordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.

Back in 2014 the Trust engaged with staff, service users and partners to develop a Behaviour Framework which focussed on how we live our Trust values. During recent years we have been working to integrate this Behaviour Framework into all aspects of our Trust activities, including recruitment and induction. A key element of this work focused on revisiting our appraisal process so that value is also acknowledged in how we display these behaviours as well as our performance in roles. To this effect we now use a Performance Development Conversation where each individual employee is rated on a Performance and Behaviour matrix.  The matrix is colour coded, and employees who are displayed as Purple are recognised as being individuals who excel in both behaviour and performance and who are ready for their next role/challenge or step in their career. This approach is akin to that adopted by Health Education England’s Talent Conversation Toolkit and their Maximising potential Matrix.

The Challenge

The Trust had been using the new appraisal approach for over 2 years and whilst the feedback from staff was excellent - regarding the shift in focus to having really great conversations, we identified that there was a strategic gap; in that we were not able to easily identify -either at team, directorate or organisational level, where our high potential staff were located.   The Workforce and Development Team were asked to explore how we could use these ratings to better inform our approach to Talent Management within the organisation, and our proposed solution would need to achieve the following:

• Be cost effective – there were no additional funds to develop or buy a system;
• Involve minimal data entry – the organisation did not want to place onerous data entry requirements onto managers;
• Be secure – there was a need to maintain confidentiality on individual employee ratings;
• Facilitate centralised reporting – in order to look strategically at talent we needed to be able to look at key themes and ratings summaries across the organisation.

The Solution

Around the same time that this work was being implemented we undertook our ESR Assessment. The NHS ESR Central Team met with us, and using the Assessment tool examined how we utilised the ESR system. Whilst the Trust is a progressive user of ESR functionality the Assessment was a really valuable process for us. We already used the ESR appraisal functionality to record the date that appraisals took place but the Assessment highlighted that there were ways of recording the detail of the appraisal that we hadn’t considered.

By undertaking the ESR Assessment we were presented with a report that outlined against our organisation’s objectives the quick wins, medium and longer term objectives or projects making better use of ESR that would further support our strategic aspirations.  We established an ESR working group to review the way appraisals were recorded to identify how we could incorporate our local ratings.  Initially we looked at creating a questionnaire using HTML which those inputting would have to link to as they worked through the appraisal screens. Whilst investigating this option and creating local templates we realised there was an option to link to a rating scale. This seemed perfect for us as the rating scale does not require you to link out to a separate questionnaire – it appears on the inputting screens as a user goes through normal appraisal entry.  Our solution was therefore to create a local template which contained a locally created rating scale which replicated the colour coding on our rating matrix. Once we had created this we tested it internally within our team in Workforce and Development.

We then created an easy guide which took users through the steps to enter both the appraisal date and rating using our new template.  This was cascaded around the organisation with supporting communications to help ensure that users were aware of the change. A big advantage to this approach was that we were not asking our users to do anything different from their normal appraisal entry process other than choose a new template name. There was also an additional benefit in that by using a local template it actually made the appraisal entry process simpler, as staff did not have to skip through multiple screens on the standard templates that they did not need to use.

 

 

 

Once we had the solution in place to record the rating in ESR we were then faced with the additional challenge of how to get the information out of ESR in a format which would assist our Talent Management approach.

We liaised with (and used the expertise of) our regional NHS ESR Account Manager and the NHS ESR Business Intelligence team to work together to have the overall rating incorporated into the Appraisals report on the Appraisals and PMP dashboard. It’s fair to say that within the Workforce and Development team we were excited to be able to run a report which enabled us to see the spread of ratings across the organisation!  Our appraisal template went live at the end of April and as at the 31^st July we were reporting over 1,000 staff appraisals recorded using this method.

The Benefits

This has been an integral part of our developing approach to Talent Management.

We are now able to present a strategic view of emerging key themes to our Trust Board and we are also able to use the reports in our talent discussions with heads of service. This has been beneficial not only within Talent Management discussions but also to ‘sense check’ the outcomes across the organisation to ensure that the ratings are being interpreted consistently in our Performance Development Conversations. 

Theresa Shaw, Head of Learning and Leadership Development said: “This is a really useful tool and an important step forward for us in being able to have meaningful talent and succession planning conversations with operational service managers, and to enable us to identify individuals at all levels that have high potential to succeed. Our aim is to be able to develop a talent pool that will help us to plan more strategically to develop individuals for our future business critical and leadership roles.” 

Further Information

If you have any questions about this case study please contact Sharon Dennison, Learning and Development Manager Sharon.dennison@sssft.nhs.uk

Completing Performance Appraisal Reviews through ESR Self Service

A case study by NHS England

 

Background

NHS England is the body that sets priorities and directions for the National Health Service in England. Its work includes commissioning health care services and the contracts for GPs, pharmacists, dentists and local health services.  We employ approximately 5500 staff, in over 100 locations across the country.

NHS England was formed in April 2013 and began utilising the HR and Payroll modules of the ESR from the outset.  We implemented Employee Self Service during October to December 2013 followed by Manager Self Service during March and September 2014.  Our employees and managers utilise a broad range of functionality through Self Service including changing personal details, recording absence, assignment changes and BI reporting.  We were provisioned for the new ESR Portal in May 2017 and have successfully rolled this out across the organisation.

The Project

We have a yearly appraisal cycle whereby objectives are set at the beginning of the financial year and recorded onto a third-party system.  Objectives are referred to throughout the year at regular 1-2-1 meetings and at interim review which is a formal review of progress, 6 months into the year.  Given the extensive Self Service functionality already being used across NHS England and the familiarity staff already had with ESR, it was logical for us to look at capturing yearly objectives using ESR rather than a third-party appraisal system.  This removed  the need for employees to have a separate log in, realised cost savings associated with the procurement of a third party appraisal system and improved data quality and efficiency by not having to manually maintain a separate database with employee details.

Our regional NHS ESR team delivered a presentation and demonstration of the appraisal functionality available through ESR Self Service and we liked the fact that there were a number of different ways to use the system including objective setting, creation of appraisal questionnaires and Personal Management Plans.  In exploring ESR for the capture and storage of objectives we were keen to retain similar functionality to our existing appraisal system with the added benefit of staff being able to access it via ESR alongside the other functionality that they were already using. 

Accordingly, after undertaking some local testing on the ESR training database (TPLY), we decided that we would initially implement the objective setting functionality with a view to adding an appraisal questionnaire at a later stage, once staff were familiar with the new system.

We used a variety of communication methods to support the initial launch of the functionality and as an ongoing reminder of the actions that need to be taken to ensure the outcomes of appraisals are recorded in ESR.  We have achieved this through face to face training sessions, WebEx sessions (live and a recording has been published on the intranet) and used the Announcements Portlet and Local Links section on the ESR Portal to direct employees to the relevant ESR screens and supporting guidance.

Key Benefits

Utilisation of the Appraisal functionality through ESR Self Service has provided:

• Flexibility for staff as they can enter their objectives directly into ESR or attach a word document detailing the agreed objectives
• Retained an emphasis on a quality appraisal conversation rather than a complex system to record objectives
• Staff were already familiar with ESR Self Service so there was minimal training involved
• Feedback from employees is positive because the functionality is easy to use
• Ability to use the ESR Portal Announcements portlet to remind staff of the need to record their objectives in ESR and to direct them to appropriate guidance
• We haven’t had to create any BI local dashboards to report on appraisals: all the required data is included in the national BI Dashboard

Challenges

Our staff have been using the appraisal functionality since April 2017 so we are still in the process of fully embedding its usage across the organisation.  As we are a national organisation with a large number of locations, ensuring that communication and training is reaching all staff is understandably more challenging than if we were in a single location. However, we believe that the variety of communication and training methods we used during implementation enabled us to successfully reach a lot of people. Ongoing support is continuing to ensure the usage of the PDR functionality continues to be a priority.

Next Steps

We currently use a third party Learning Management System to manage our learning activities and we are in the process of transitioning across to ESR OLM for face to face training recording and delivery of e-Learning to staff. This will also include assigning competency requirements to all employees for Statutory and Mandatory training.  Additionally, as part of our talent management strategy we are looking to apply further local competencies to measure placement on the 9 box grid.  The PDR template will then be updated to include competency requirements and enable integration of learning and talent management into the PDR process, further enhancing the functionality already afforded to staff via ESS and MSS.

Further Information

For further information please contact Louise Bodsworth, Workforce Systems Manager on louise.bodsworth@nhs.net

Implementation of online payslips

A Case Study by Provide

 

Background

Provide is a Community Interest Company that delivers NHS and Local Authority community services across East Anglia. We currently employ approximately 1000 staff across a number of sites in a wide range of roles, from frontline patient-care roles (such as nurses, therapists, doctors and other healthcare workers) to supporting roles (such as corporate, facilities and estates staff).

In October 2016, we initially implemented the ESR Employee Self Service Limited Access (ESS LA) functionality, before implementing the Employee Self Service Full Access in January 2017. During this transition period we communicated to staff the variety of functionalities available within Self Service, also highlighting that they could now opt out of receiving paper payslips and P60s as they could now access them online via ESR. Our plan was to achieve full roll out of online payslips and P60s by April 2017 at the start of the financial year. Initially only a small percentage of staff opted out straight away so we decided the most effective approach would be to switch from paper payslips and P60s to online at  organisation level with effect from April 2017, as this would reflect our organisational aim towards sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint.

Our Approach

Supported by our Board, the payroll team was informed that we would be moving to online payslips and P60s at the beginning of April 2017. The consecutive changes and process to switching from printed payslips and P60s to online had been discussed between the HR and payroll teams. We sought the guidance from our NHS ESR Account Manager and Functional Advisor and we established a process for providing support and information to our staff. 

We began by our communications approach through a staff bulletin and electronic noticeboard three months before the roll out (February 2017) and again in April 2017 after we switched to online payslips. We also ran open days and training sessions in different locations to demonstrate to staff how to access ESR and payslips and also provided learning enhancements and further guidance documents. The launch of online payslips in our organisation has been successful and positively received. The ease of access both at work and through the internet remotely has been largely appreciated.

“The move to online only payslips and P60s fits with our organisational Sustainability Strategy. It has also promoted the further development of our staff IT/digital skills and awareness, through encouraging our staff to access employee self-service on a regular basis. Whilst the approach has led to financial savings and efficiency savings, it has also driven better data accuracy and security. This has given us a great foundation for driving further changes through manager and supervisor self-service over the coming months.”
Richard Atienza-Hawkes, Executive HR and OD Director.

 

Benefits

• The payslips appear online two days prior to payday for staff to view them.
• Our staff can access their payslips at any time whether at work, home, or on the move via their smartphone.
• The reduction in the use of paper and our carbon footprint is a key benefit for us as an organisation.
• Staff can go back and look at previous payslips if they need to for mortgage applications etc., as ESR stores a secure accessible database of historical payslips and P60s.
• We have reduced costs by no longer needing to distribute paper payslips and P60s.
• We have removed the risks of and breaches of confidentiality associated with manually distributing printed payslips and P60s around locations and departments. 

“Being able to view everything in ESR is fantastic. From a manager’s point of view, all direct report details can be viewed from current compliance to absence. From an employee’s point of view, payslips are all accessible along with being able to book annual leave and keep updated with compliance and training. Moving forward I think ESR will be a great employee and manager tool.”
Amy Parker, PA to Assistant Director, Primary and Prevention Pathways Executive Clinical and Operations Director.

 

The Next Steps

We are now in the process of scoping and assessing the further use of Supervisor Self Service and will begin looking at and testing the functionality of Manager Self Service to understand its benefits. It is hoped that the increase in usage of the Self Service functions will give greater autonomy to our managers, lead to more timely decision making and a reduction in administrative time and overheads.

For More Information

If you are thinking about moving to online payslips and want to talk to Provide about their experiences please contact Kaiser Chowdhury, Workforce Planning & Information Analyst on 01206587228 / 07815546831 or email  kaiser.chowdhury@nhs.net

We have published some helpful Best Practice Guidance for moving to on-line Payslips - go the Programme News section of this edition of ESR News to learn more. 

Welcome to the new Functional Advisor for the East Midlands and East of England

Whilst Sorcha Callus, the Functional Advisor in the East Midlands and East of England is on maternity leave, the NHS ESR Team welcomes Linda King in to the team to take the reins.  Linda has a wealth of ESR knowledge and experience, having worked in the Midlands region.

Read Linda’s story below about her ESR experience as an ESR Lead in a large Acute NHS organisation and how she was instrumental in getting the organisation Provisioned independently on to the new ESR Portal.

“I can honestly say that I have never felt so satisfied about working on a project; getting our organisation provisioned to use the new ESR Portal.  The involvement of the management teams and the staff were critical in bringing the project together.  Let’s be honest here - anyone involved in leading an ESR project knows that it’s not always plain sailing. From dealing with disengaged teams to managing and working within the local IT infrastructure; the whole process can, if you let it, be very challenging and disheartening. However, if you establish from outset your quick wins and engage with staff from the very beginning a successful and positive outcome is always more than realistic. 

For me personally, nothing beats managing a project where things finally fall into place. Through the many months of moving a project forward you can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel; there is no greater feeling. I have worked with the Electronic Staff Record for the last eleven years so I, along with colleagues have experienced the challenges and the physical and emotional effort needed across the organisation to successfully roll out a new system. When things don’t quite go to plan it could feel quite disheartening and you question why you are bothering. However when you see your efforts finally coming to fruition, and that new system you worked so hard to roll out is finally in and being used by your colleagues, and more importantly that they like it; it creates a huge sense of satisfaction. 

I have had over twenty five years’ experience of working within the NHS. From working originally within Finance to Training and Education so I have always had a strong interest with the Electronic Staff Record. My drive and passion comes from helping our NHS staff to get the most from ESR; empowering them to take ownership of their personal and professional data.  ESR has come a long way  since its original roll out in 2007 and, let’s remember where other systems have failed within the NHS; ESR has  remained stable and continued to develop into a truly world class system that’s unique to the NHS.

If I could offer any advice to anyone embarking upon an ESR project, it would certainly be to plan, plan and plan some more. Build a strong network of managers and staff who also have an interest in improving systems, data quality and reducing the admin burden on staff.  If they are interested in ESR and are keen to shape how they use it then that’s a great start! It’s not easy but it can be done. Ask them what they want to achieve, show them how ESR can work for them. For example, some of the basics in ESR are still not fully utilised by all NHS organisations, so show your Managers how to they can use Appraisals and Compliance, how BI can give them easy to use dashboards that will show them where they need to take action.

Set up steering groups with key leads such as HR, Recruitment, Employee relations, IT, Finance, Payroll, Training and Education etc. Having clear set project plans; looking at how Self Service can form part of your Trust policy’s (i.e. Appraisals, Statutory and Mandatory training) and ensuring that key leads are identified within teams, will all enable successful planning. As I provisioned the Trust to access the new ESR Portal, we established a support network to help deal with any problems and issues that were identified. Don’t get me wrong it takes time to set up, but the key to successful Provisioning is having your IT Dept. on your side. Work with them, understand their frustrations too. For me, focusing on the problems (i.e.: java/internet explorer upgrades/national cyber-attacks) enabled us to iron out any issues before they managed to slow us down.

I cannot stress enough how important good communication is.  We used bulletins, webinars, training guides, group and 1 to1 sessions to help have a successful rollout. Showing the new ESR App was also a great way to engage with staff. If they could work a mobile phone then the App was certainly a good starting point to getting used to interacting with ESR.   Although the App is only a signposting tool to a range of ESR related links, by showing them that they could log in to ESR and view their payslip or look at their pension statement was a ‘quick win’ in our engagement approach.

I appreciate the value of taking people at their own merit and the importance of developing a working relationship that is tailored to their needs. I am so pleased to be part of the NHS ESR Functional Advisor team for the next nine months, working with the NHS Account Managers to support the East Midlands and East of England NHS Trusts.  I have had extensive experience of leading and supporting service transformation to rollout electronic monitoring systems/databases. I have used ESR since 2006 and I have been actively involved in readiness assessments and benefits realisation. By using personal experience, I will be able to give Trusts a clear direction in how to get the best from ESR”.