Jill's blog of burning issues: Supporting staff and teams

A 'burning issues' piece focussing on supporting staff and teams through listening events

I was privileged to meet over 200 staff across the Trust during March and April who attended the 10 listening events we held.

Whilst one of the aims of the events was to discuss the three priorities for the year ahead, the other was to get a sense of what life is like for staff in the Trust right now. I was really grateful for all the feedback staff gave me. Both at the events and using an online conversation on our new Your Voice Counts website, we collected over 350 contributions, including ideas, comments and votes.

We’ve crunched this feedback into a set of commonly reoccurring themes. These are things that you think we need to stop, change, do differently or just get better at. We’re calling these our burning issues. I’ve compiled a list of these you can read here – they include things like staff wellbeing, appraisals, IT and recruitment and retention.

I’m pleased to say that on most of these burning issues we’ve already started working on making things better. However, one of our weaknesses as a Trust (ironically) is that we are not very good at sharing information and letting you know what we are up to as an organisation. So I’m going to try and tackle that through the medium of blogging; starting with supporting staff and teams and appraisals (see below).

However, there were a few things that came up that we’d not heard before or perhaps we didn’t have a plan for. Those, along with other burning issues collected from the staff survey and the staff friends and family test, are going to be discussed by the Executive Team at one of our workshops in May. As a leadership team, we need to work out what’s really pressing and needs adding onto the job list for this year, or whether we just need to focus on what we’ve already identified and do that well before moving on to other things. I’ll be letting you know about this too.

Personal and team resilience

One area that was raised by a number of staff was the importance of personal and workplace resilience – particularly for staff that work in front-line services and often have to support people who are in distress, but also for all of us who have to cope in a world where change is constant and happens at a great pace.

There are a number of programmes we offer to both teams and individuals to develop resilience. Our Learning and Organisational Development team have worked with a number teams and resilience is an area of focus that they will continue to support and develop throughout the Trust.

In fact, they’ll be running the first ever series of personal resilience workshops this summer – there will be more about this coming out soon, but please get in touch with them to register your interest.

Appraisals

The quality of the Trust’s appraisal process came up during the listening events, and this is nothing new. You said you want more “useful, nurturing feedback” and that the current appraisal process feels “dry and mandated”. Appraisals are not about ticking a box and we need to give staff the time and space to make them a positive experience.

This is something we’ve been looking at through our Your Voice Counts programme where a diverse group of staff came together to look at the process and make recommendations. I’m pleased to say that their work has come to fruition and we’ve made some significant changes as a result.

Firstly, the procedure has been simplified; especially the scoring matrix which is now based on the trust values and a behavioural framework. The updated procedure and documents will be published on Staffnet soon.

Second, we’ve invested in training. A new modular training package (two half days) has been developed with the first sessions starting in June. Module 1 will focus on the amended appraisal procedure, revised documentation and setting of SMART objectives. In Module 2 the emphasis will be on ‘How to conduct a quality appraisal conversation’ based on using a coaching and facilitative approach.

Third, we’re hitting the road. Colleagues from Learning and Organisational Development are getting out and about extolling the virtues of the new appraisal process at various locations throughout May. Appraisers at Band 7 and below will be invited to take part to hear first-hand what we’ve changed, how it’s improved and ask any questions about it. All Band 8 managers will receive the presentation at the Leadership Forum on 26 May.

The updated procedure and documents have been designed by staff for staff and should make appraisal far more straightforward. So please don’t feel you need to wait for the training before you can use the updated materials.

Supporting staff and teams through coaching

Coaching is a useful way of developing people’s skills and abilities, and of boosting performance. It can also help deal with issues and challenges before they become major problems.

A coaching session will typically take place as a conversation between the coach and the employee and it focuses on helping them discover answers for themselves. After all, people are much more likely to engage with solutions that they have come up with themselves, rather than those that are forced upon them!

Did you know…we have a team of 26 coaches who are all involved in supporting our staff? We’ve already invested in developing our in house coaches over a number of years. Coaching is accessed by staff to support learning, development, performance and well -being. As coaching guru John Whitmore put it, coaching is about “unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance”.

It’s not just about individuals; a number of our coaches are also experienced in team coaching which can help teams to reflect, set goals and work together to achieve higher levels of performance.

If this sounds like something you or your team could benefit from, get in touch with our Learning and Development department.