The importance of staff engagement is also clearly stated in the Macleod report that gives an in-depth look at staff engagement in the UK and concludes that a wider take up of staff engagement will impact positively on competitiveness and performance across a range of sectors.
High levels of engagement result from a combination of experiences at work, including being supported, healthy, developed, fulfilled and involved
In the 2009 staff survey results, staff engagement (ie the range of measures to demonstrate how far staff are involved in and identify with their work) has improved but not evenly. Also, just over half of all staff now feel that they understand the national vision for the NHS and more now understand how their role relates to the work of their organisation. By contrast only a quarter felt that senior managers involved them in decisions and one third (36 per cent compared to 34 per cent in 2008) felt their trust encouraged them to come up with new ideas. There was more ability to engage within wards and departments. Two thirds of staff were enthusiastic about their job and two thirds looked forward to their work.
The Department of Health (DH) has established, as part of its Workforce Leadership work stream, a policy group to oversee a range of work to improve staff engagement which has been increasingly recognised as an important indicator of performance across both the private and public sectors.
To enable wider take up and measurement the staff survey now includes a staff engagement indicator. This composite indicator (covering the dimensions of engagement in relation to involvement, advocacy and job related satisfaction) allows organisations to compare progress and also identify which aspects of engagement need to be focussed on. The survey showed positive levels of staff engagement in the NHS at national level although there remains scope for improvement at local level given variations between trust scores.
To support improvement the Staff Engagement Policy Group has produced a framework that provides:
- evidence on the background and wider context to help understand the need for staff engagement
- recommendations for guiding principles to help develop bespoke local mechanisms around staff engagement.
Where can I find out more?
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Further information and resources on staff engagement is available from:
We encourage the NHS to work in partnership to ensure effective engagement at national, regional and local level. |