Organisational Development Leadership and Learning

An inclusive and valued led culture is a strategic priority for us at NHS 24, and the past year has seen a huge collective focus on workplace culture, wellbeing and continuously improving staff experience at NHS 24.  We are thrilled to see positive impact from that work through our iMatter results against the previous year – an increase of 6% in our response rate, and an increase of 3 in our Employee Engagement Index.

The Organisational Development, Leadership and Learning (ODLL) Team, within the Workforce Directorate, has seen specific collective improvements in areas which positively impact on team culture and psychological safety:

I have confidence and trust in my direct line manager; my direct line manager is sufficiently approachable; I get the information I need to do my job well; I get the help and support I need from other teams and services within the organisation to do my job well

We are proud of these improvements within the ODLL team as confidence and trust in a line manager, who can be approached easily is an important factor in an improved staff experience.   A positive working relationship between line manager and staff member can support individual wellbeing and a positive, inclusive culture.  The quality and teamwork demonstrated by effective collaborative working across teams and directorates further enhances this.

We’ve also seen increases in the areas of colleagues agreeing that they would recommend the team as a good one to be part of, and NHS 24 as a good place to work.

The work has included various initiatives to support culture and wellbeing within the ODLL team:

• Roll out of a bespoke multi-level Values and Behaviours Framework which both defines our organisational values and describes the desired behaviours – essentially how we treat each other and how we can expect to be treated.  The framework provides a common language for how we go about our daily work.  To maintain the values focus and ensure consistency.

• More widely, we have aligned key ODLL workstreams, such as Induction, Appraisal and Leadership Development Programmes to the framework content.

• Delivery of Values and Behaviours workshops, to build engagement and familiarity with the framework, and the ways in which it can be used practically to support and improve communications, treat each other with dignity and respect, and build personal connection to organisational values.

• Establishment of a cross team Culture and Wellbeing Group to identify and deliver actions to improve staff experience and encourage feedback from colleagues.  One piece of work the group recently delivered was a “Ways of Working Charter”, based on staff input, which defines good practice in how we communicate, structure meetings, and demonstrate consideration for the wellbeing of ourselves and our colleagues.

We are delighted to see through our iMatter results, that our focus to be values led in all that we do, and identifying specific actions to improve our culture and wellbeing has strengthened relationships within the team and beyond – always mindful that when our colleagues feel they have what they need to do their jobs well, they benefit from that and ultimately our patients do too.

Whilst we have made great progress so far, we recognise that the work to maintain and improve an inclusive, values led culture, in any team can never stop.  Organisational culture is fluid and must always remain a priority – and ensuring staff feedback continues to flow is a key driver for this work.