NHS total reward personas
Our new total reward animations and posters will help employers and line managers to explain the value of working for the NHS.
They can be used during the recruitment process, when onboarding new staff and to improve employee engagement and increase retention of existing staff.
The resources can be accessed in both video and poster format, and we would encourage you to use both where you can. The national terms and conditions and benefits covered within each persona can be accessed by all staff under NHS terms and conditions of service. The pay information illustrates what the characters take home pay on a typical month might look like, covering a variety of roles and bands, used within the resources.
Remember to download and edit the poster(s) to include your local rewards and benefits, so staff can fully understand what is on offer to them.
To support employers and line managers further, we have developed a checklist and guide to support you to explain all of the national elements of the total reward package, and information on the Agenda for Change pay system to staff in your organisations. To access the check list and guide please visit the 'Explaining the total reward offer across the employment journey' page.
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Share the personas with your recruitment teams – there are a number of ways how they could be used to attract new employees from outside the NHS, including:
- On recruitment / careers websites.
- During recruitment fairs.
- Attach the poster or include a link to the videos in your job advertisements to show what pay, terms and conditions are on offer to prospective employees.
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There are a number of ways in which employers induct new employees into their organisation, here are some examples of how you can use the resources when onboarding new members of staff.
- Corporate induction programme – you could use the aminations as part of this to help new employees realise how pay, terms and conditions and benefits work, and what might be on offer to them.
- Team/manager level inductions – teams and managers play a big part in on-boarding new starters to make them feel a part of the team as quickly as possible. The posters would be a great resource to use within one-to-one conversations when an employee joins to help explain in more detail what the total reward offer entails.
- Trust welcome events – whether you host virtual or in-person welcome events, the videos and posters would be a helpful resource to share with new employees.
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Communicating the total reward package to employees can benefit your organisation by helping to improve employee engagement, increase retention and reinforce your organisational values. It also demonstrates your investment in staff and can have a positive effect on motivation and engagement.
- Regular one-to-ones are a great way to get to know your staff and find out how they are feeling at work.
- The animations and posters may support line managers when they are having conversations with employees who are thinking of leaving the NHS. Exploring in more detail the competitiveness and attractiveness of the total reward offer in the NHS, along with the local benefits on offer to them, might be a helpful tool to help boost retention.
Persona 1 - Bahvana
This example highlights some of the key benefits a band 7 information analyst based in central London has received.
Persona 2 - Jamal
This example highlights some of the key benefits a band 5 nurse based in North East England has received.
Persona 3 - Sophie
This example highlights some of the key benefits a band 6 midwife based in the West Midlands has received.
Persona 4 - Hassan
This example highlights some of the key benefits a band 2 porter based in the East Midlands has received.
Additional resources:
- Explaining the total reward offer across the employment journey - This guide gives an overview of the NHS total reward package and supports line managers to promote the offer at various stages of an employees career.
- Pay education hub: the journey of pay in the NHS - This content helps employers to understand the history, changes and developments of pay in the NHS.
Please note:
As financial circumstances differ from one person to another, the above examples are based on a 'typical' set of assumptions and are for illustrative purposes only.
The assumptions used to calculate take home pay within these personas have been created using the following:
- The individual is not a resident of Scotland.
- The individual is not over state pension age.
- A default tax code of 1257L has been used.
- Class 1 / band A National Insurance (NI) contributions has been used.
These values have been checked using an online calculator provided by a non-HMRC source. This is due to the HMRC calculators not being able to cope with each scenario. The unsocial hours payment (UHP) data is based on an ESR extract (February 2024) and it specifies a 'typical' payment for that staff group at a particular band and step point. As shift patterns vary it is correct that some staff groups on a specific band and step will not have attracted UHP in that month.
This resource has been created using actors and the scenarios are fictitious however, the personas provide a true representation of the types of NHS terms and conditions of service on offer.
