2013-05-22T09:02:52-04:00 Dean Royles http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=dean-royles Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Dean Royles Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2805221 2013-03-04T19:00:00-05:00 2013-05-04T05:12:01-04:00

Dean Royles http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-royles/
But when we have robust evidence of what staff think, through the publication each year of the world's largest staff survey - the NHS Staff Survey, no-one ever reports on the positive results that come through.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not being complacent; I know there are areas where we need to do more, much more. Staff report experience of absolutely unnecessary levels of violence and abuse. There are concerns about bullying and work related stress and I don't know anyone that suggests this is acceptable. I want every single one of our 1.3million staff to feel valued. The vast majority will never be an acceptable statistic. The press often cover these aspects as an indication of culture or poor management or lack of resources. But it seems leadership and management areas are not responsible for any positive results. This seems to be presented as happenchance...

Look at the year the NHS has just had.

Strikes, pay freezes, pension contribution increases, redundancy, massive reorganisation, industrial action, reconfiguration and more. A tough year in anyone's book but the survey shows us that the majority of indicators were stable or improved:

• Job satisfaction 78% up from 74% last year
• 74% felt able to make improvement suggestions, up from 68% last year and 65% five years ago
• 83% have appraisals, up from 77% last year and 65% five years ago
• Nine out of 10 would know how to raise concerns and the vast majority of them feel confident to do so, but we want every single member of staff to be confident
• Percentage happy with the responsibility they are given - up
• Feeling supported by line managers - up
• Overall levels of staff engagement (a key indicator in respect of patient care) - up
• Percentage believing their work improves patient care - up
• Percentage that would recommend their organisation as a place to work - yup, you've guessed it - up...

The NHS is a tough place to work. It's demanding, it can be stressful, it involves shift work and unsocial hours working. It involves caring for people in very distressing situations, it works at the limits of science. The NHS is an enormous system - one of the world's largest and change can take time but there are many positive trends. As employers and leaders, we owe it to our staff to relentlessly improve so they do remain committed and dedicated, working as they do when care and compassion are what matters most. The survey results should give some satisfaction and I know many employers will be using the survey results to work on driving further improvements.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2637245 2013-02-07T06:10:48-05:00 2013-04-09T05:12:01-04:00

Dean Royles http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-royles/
As a human resources professional working in the NHS you get to see the very best in people, the very best in our staff. Day in and day out in our hospitals, in our community services, in our GP practices and our mental health services. Outside of our organisations, you only have to watch reality TV programmes set in accident and emergency departments or maternity wards to see examples of unfailing compassion, bravery and the exercise of incredible skill, knowledge and expertise. Saving lives and bringing hope to people where care and compassion are what matter most. It makes me incredibly proud of the NHS and of its staff and the environment that makes this common place.

These innumerable acts of kindness, empathy and healing don't make the news headlines or generate inquiries but it is right that, even in the midst of making sense about Stafford Hospital, we acknowledge and recognise this element of our NHS and the staff that make it happen.

In HR you are also exposed to the situations where it goes wrong, whether through staff conduct, capability issues or sometimes though having insufficient resources at the right time. In the NHS this is always traumatic, always painful and can sometimes affect your belief in the generosity of the human condition.

How can these things happen? Where did it go wrong? Could we have intervened earlier? Mid Staffordshire highlights this in a stark and very public way. We will see those emotions play out as we all question and challenge ourselves

The report contains some recommendations that will certainly impact on the way we work, manage and lead our organisations. Away from the headlines about the role of regulators and national organisations, what we are left with is recommendations at the heart of our people management practices.

NHS organisations, and I'm sure those in the care sectors too, will be reviewing recruitment and selection processes, induction, appraisal, supervision and management, benchmarking staffing levels, reward, and recognition as well as policies and approaches to support staff health and wellbeing, how staff raise concerns and how they are responded to. These are key components that shape our organisational culture and provide an opportunity to test out and check whether our actions support or detract from our core organisational values. Do these management practices build respect, compassion, care and make sure everyone feels valued. This is a core leadership function and we have to ensure we get it right by grasping the opportunity now.

But a key question remains. Will the NHS come though this stronger or considerably weaker and more vulnerable than it was? If the latter is true it will have far reaching consequences for patient care for years to come.

Our leadership challenge now is to show quickly that we have the ability to take the Francis report and make sure the NHS, the services it provides and the trust the British public have in it increases and enhances its reputation as one of the world's leading health care systems. To take an approach of damage limitation, hunker down and hope we come though will be insufficient and wrong minded. The goal must be one of improvement.

Research by Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey, of the University of Bath School of Management, shows that those organisations that have 'trust credit' can come through crises stronger. The NHS has built up, over its 65 years, considerable credit and trust from our citizens. The results from a recent Ipsos Mori poll show that more people named the NHS as something that makes them proud to be British than the armed forces and Team GB. This is impressive. We cannot afford to let this slip. We all need an NHS that is well loved and respected and that is safely and efficiently managed. It's our job to deliver both.

The Francis report will mean we all take a long hard look at our approach, our leadership and the culture that allowed Mid Staffordshire to happen. This has to be far more than a collective cathartic process. Over the next few months our actions will be far more important than our words. It will involve teamwork and cross organisational leadership. It will require us to focus on zero harm and that means not disregarding occasional and sometimes tragic poor care just because there is so much more that is good. But there are other challenges too. The public inquiry, as important as it is and with its major focus on safety and compassion, doesn't address all the issues we as leaders need to focus on. We know there are other unnecessary but seemingly hidden deaths. We will need to shout loud to ensure we get across the importance of issues like:

- the public health challenges of alcohol and obesity
- health inequalities and the shocking disparity in life expectancy between regions
- the discrimination still suffered by some on the grounds of race, gender or sexual orientation

If we can marshal our spirits and do this, then we respond to Francis and the recommendations effectively - led by our common values and common purpose. And perhaps, in the next generation, Francis can become a byword for improvement rather than failure.]]>