Promoting the NHS employment package
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan places a key focus on retaining and growing the workforce so that it can meet the changes required to deliver an effective service for patients and the wider population. Having the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, who are recognised and rewarded fairly will play a crucial role in achieving the ambitious aims detailed in the plan.
The total reward package including pay and wider terms and conditions of service needs to be attractive and competitive to respond both to changes in people’s career aspirations and the labour market.
As well as pay (including additional payments), the NHS has a strong set of national terms and conditions which are attractive and comprehensive when they are looked at as an overall reward package. National benefits including the NHS Pension Scheme and generous annual leave entitlements make up a large proportion of the total package for an NHS staff member.
If staff are not aware of what makes up their total employment package they will have limited understanding of its value and what is on offer to them. To support employers with understanding, promoting and communicating this, we are developing a suite of personas which tell different stories of individual staff members working in the NHS at different stages of their life and career. These personas will be available in video format and also downloadable posters, to be used as a practical tool to help line managers and their staff promote and communicate the value of their total package. Below we have highlighted how employers could use these effectively once they are launched:
Line managers could use the personas during stay conversations as a retention tool if a staff member is thinking of leaving.
Line managers could also discuss these as part of one to ones or team meetings to communicate and educate the value of the total package to staff members.
The personas could be used as part of the induction or onboarding process of a new staff member.
The resources could supplement a job advertisement to support with attraction and recruitment for potential candidates who are thinking of starting a career in the NHS.
