Trust's staff retention recognised at national award ceremony
The Trust been recognised for working hard to improve retention after being awarded Retention Team of the Year at a national award ceremony for Nursing.
We have been commended for its work in retaining nursing staff and achieving one of the best retention figures in the region, with a turnover of just 8.84% in 2018/19.
The 8.84% turnover rate equivalent of 43 more Registered Nurses and 36 more Health Care Assistants (HCAs) remaining with the Trust, with 11 further registered nurses returning to practice rather than taking retirement – an improvement of 15% on last year’s figures.
The Trust joined the NHSi Retention Support Programme in 2017 and a Nursing Optimisation Group was established, focusing on campaigns and initiatives to ensure staff are choosing to spend their careers at UHDB. The group consisted of members of the Workforce Transformation team, Trustwide Senior Nursing, the Occupational Health & Wellbeing team, and Communications team.
Prior to the formation of UHDB in 2018, the former Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had an average turnover of 9.63%, while Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust averaged 12.23%. However, over the past 18 months through the hard work of the team and people across the Trust, our combined turnover figure has reduced to 8.84%.
The project included the introduction of an internal transfer scheme for nurses and HCAs, a new Retention Framework with initiatives transferable to the wider workforce, as well as our Working For Longer project aimed at supporting the workforce choosing to work longer by promoting various initiatives, such as retire and return and further pensions information. In addition, two conferences were run for managers showcasing support around menopause, reasonable adjustments, mental health support and planning future teams.
Jennifer Cole, a nurse of six years, is one of the success stories of the internal transfer scheme. Jennifer took some time away from work in 2018 due to personal reasons.
After months of questioning her career choice, Jennifer’s manager on Ward 302 enquired about the Job Transfer Scheme and in October 2018, switched departments to join the Endoscopy team.
Jennifer said: “When I applied for the transfer, there was no way that I could’ve gone through the process of applying for a new job and interviews, so I feel very lucky that UHDB offer this supportive transfer process. I would definitely recommend it to any other members of staff who are thinking of applying.”
Krishna Kallianpur, Director of Nursing (Professional Standards), is part of the Nursing Optimisation Group, and expressed her delight at the award win:
“I’m incredibly proud of how our nursing teams across all five sites have supported and embraced new roles into their area, made the experience on our wards really positive so that our student nurses have applied for jobs with us and have supported staff transfer to gain a different experience.
“All off these initiatives have improved our retention rates and have nearly halved our nurse vacancy rates.”
The team continue to develop further retention initiatives such as the introduction of Stay Conversations between managers and staff as well as an online questionnaire aimed at capturing the whole employee experience of starters and leavers called ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’.