Military Cross Award for Naval Medical Assistant Kate Nesbitt

You Talked, We Listened
We know – because you told us – that communications and
the culture of the organisation aren’t right. You told us in
Staff Surveys and in the feedback you gave at Vision and
Values sessions that more needs to be done both in terms
of communicating with you and ensuring you feel valued.
But Staff Surveys simply give percentage responses, what they
didn’t tell us was what you wanted to see changed and what
your ideas were for practical improvements.
So the HR and Communications teams worked together to
dig deeper. We undertook a nine-month Listening into Action
qualitative research project – a large scale conversation with
representative groups of staff from across the organisation. We
have listened to 169 of you from all staff groups and all sites in
14 different sessions.
How did we select staff? We randomly selected staff from all
staff groups and sent out personal invites to sessions (with the
lure of cream teas) as well as holding open sessions.
We then triangulated what you told us in these sessions with the
results from the Staff Survey and the Vision and Values feedback
information. We are now personally feeding back to all of you
who took part in the sessions.
This is the quick-glance summary of what you told us:
Listen to me
l Staff want to be listened to and see either their input acted
upon or to receive feedback as to why it can’t be.
l Where this does happen and leaders are visible and
accessible, staff were more evidently engaged in both their
department and the Trust.
Involve me
l Staff want to be genuinely involved and listened to about
changes that affect them. They want more local control.
l In an example where staff did feel involved in changes
to their department, they reported feelings of being
empowered and “of all being in it together.”
Value me
l Staff would like genuine recognition and praise. They want
to be treated like adults and involved and they want to be
trusted.
l In areas where staff did feel valued, basic processes like a
good induction, knowing their role and responsibilities and
who to go to if there was a problem had contributed to this.
Staff in these areas described a feeling of contentment.
In response we have drawn up a plan to change. This
programme, based largely on the suggestions of those who
gave feedback, is being called
Care to Talk, Care to Listen, Care to Lead
Listen to me
l Introduce a formalised, mandatory Team Brief led by
the Senior Team with feedback loop. Managers will be
trained in running briefings with staff. Staff will be able to
ask questions and receive a response via the Team Brief
mechanism.
l Overhaul Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust’s intranet, including
user-involvement, in order to make it fit for purpose.
Involve me
l Overhaul the way we do change, policy and process.
Introduce a Staff Involvement and Engagement policy with
link to revised process for managing organisational change.
Develop a toolkit of engagement techniques available to
managers to assist in involving staff in change, working from
the bottom-up.
l Create a Staff Forum
Value me
l Define a leadership behaviours framework – What a
Plymouth Hospitals Leader looks like which lays out how
good people lead in our organisation. This will be supported
by a tailored development programme. We will positively
role-model our good leaders and take action to support
those who need more help in becoming good leaders.
l Create a Staff Charter
The Trust Board has agreed this and you should see change
which directly benefits you starting to happen now. If you would
like to know more about any of this, please contact us.
Team Brief
September saw the launch
of the new Trust-wide
Team Brief at the Clinical
and Operational Leaders
Meeting.
The Team Brief has
been reinvigorated and
re-launched in direct
response to feedback from
staff during the Listening into
Action sessions when you
told the Communications
and Human Resources team
that your most preferred
method of communication
was face-to-face meetings.
Paul Roberts, Chief
Executive delivered a Core
Brief which was then cascaded to all nominated managers and
supervisors to communicate with their teams and feedback any
questions, issues or suggestions to the Communications Team.
Leading up to the first Core Brief, three awareness-raising
sessions were conducted with senior team leaders within which
a basic overview of the structure and procedure was given in
order to help them deliver their Team Brief to the best possible
standard. Over 50 people attended these sessions and in turn,
they disseminated the key messages to the other managers and
supervisors in their teams.
Following the first Team Brief a number of questions have been
returned to the Communications Team on a variety of different
topics and the answers are attached to November’s Team Brief
document. It is hoped that this will ensure a two-way dialogue
between all levels of staff within the Trust.
If you have any feedback or questions regarding the Team
Briefing process the Communications Team would like to know
so please get in touch with the Team Brief inbox via internal
email.
Cascade
Autumn 2009
15