Staff experience in the NHS
When excellent staff experience is achieved, staff become inspired to be the best people they can be, which in turn delivers the best patient care. To achieve excellent staff experience employers must create an environment where staff can feel valued, supported, encouraged and ultimately succeed.
Why is staff experience important?
The Long Term Workforce Plan sets out how employers will address existing and future workforce challenges by recruiting and retaining more staff and working in new ways to support staff experience.
To meet these aims, employers must prioritise giving space for employees to stay and thrive within the NHS, continue to build on lessons learned and ensure that the NHS People Promise is a lived reality.
Despite the continued pressures on NHS trusts, we are seeing great examples of innovation and transformational change to enhance the experience of staff. We know employers are working hard to provide a supportive, compassionate and psychologically safe environment for all NHS employees.
Bringing the NHS People Promise to life
The NHS People Promise explores seven elements that would make the greatest difference in improving the experience of NHS staff. We have created a visual (above) to demonstrate how, when these seven elements are combined, meaningful staff experience can be achieved.
"This is a promise we must all make to each other – to work together to improve the experience of working in the NHS for everyone."
Our visual above highlights the key people and teams who can influence, shape and bring the NHS People Promise to life – including leaders and line managers. When organistions work collaboratively they can shift cultures, challenge ideas, maximise impact and make a lasting difference to the experience of NHS staff.
We understand organisations may not have one person responsible for each of the people promises, or may have one person responsible for more than one promise. However, we wanted to show that when all these roles are combined, real improvements to staff experience can be achieved. The people involved just might look a little different in each organisation.
Staff Experience in the NHS: routes to retention
On 5 December 2023, our annual staff experience conference explored how a positive workplace experience is crucial to staff retention, and how the retention aims of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan can become a lived reality.
We looked at the key themes of what good work looks like, how to better support employees and the practical measures employers can take to help staff to remain and thrive in the NHS.
We also launched a suite of retention resources for both practitioners and workforce leaders to support in the planning and implementation of organsisational retention plans.
Explore our suite of staff experience retention resources.
Key staff experience resources
We produce and collate a range of resources showcasing adaptation and innovation in staff experience within NHS trusts. This information is aimed at helping strengthen local approaches to staff experience and improving attraction and retention of our valued workforce.
You can find a wide range of resources across our staff experience web pages, including the key resources highlighted below:
- Our flexible working resources support both leaders and line managers to embed a positive staff experience culture through the option to work flexibly.
- Raising concerns guidance for managers and employer actions outlines key considerations when developing a speaking and listening up culture.
- Supporting staff with the rising cost of living offers a series of online video masterclasses featuring key employer actions to support staff, alongside a range of further guidance on this topic.
