HR AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Whilst the use of self-rostering can offer NHS management a way of giving their staff more autonomy – which studies have suggested leads to higher staff morale – it also needs to be used responsibly. NHE spoke to HR consultant Kelvin Cheatle to fi nd out more.
here have been a variety of studies showing that the more control staff have over their jobs, the happier they are – but that nevertheless, this autonomy must be handled correctly.
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“I think if staff are allowed to self-roster without clear parameters in place, then it can be the recipe for some degree of cha- os,” explained Kelvin Cheatle, immediate past president of the Healthcare People Management Association.
“I know of a few trusts who have tried this in a way which was not thoroughly controlled and they ran into diffi culties. However, when staff do have more control over their working patterns, they feel more identity and more commitment, meaning that it is a defi nitely plus for morale.”
The idea of self-rostering, or e-Rostering as it is sometimes known, has been around for many years and is widely recognised as being a great way to increase staff morale (and therefore in most cases productivity) and also to boost trust effi ciency.
Whilst many trusts who use self-roster- ing report a signifi cant reduction in the amount of sickness and absence following the introduction of such systems, many also realise major reductions in spending.
One study found that, if adopted across the entire NHS, self-rostering could help to save around £150m, if the results which had been reported at some trusts were rep- licated across the entire health service.
These results included a saving made by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust,
which managed to reduce its spending by £500,000 in a year, because of implement- ing e-Rostering.
Cheatle said: “Although e-Rostering can- not save money by itself, it is an essential component in revising shift patterns. After consultations and negotiations have been made with staff, it is then the implementa- tion tool to carry out those revisions.”
It has proved so popular with nursing staff, that some trusts are now using e-Rostering to allocate doctors’ shifts as well.
Cheatle explained: “There is absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t be applied to doc- tors or any other groups of staff within the health service who have varying patterns of work.
“This is especially important now that the European Working Time Directive neces- sitates doctors having very clearly laid out shift working arrangements to ensure that their own working hours are covered, along with their clinical commitments.
“I know of a number of places which have used it and then extended it to associated health professionals as well; there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be applied more widely.
“Given that doctors are a fairly semi-auton- omous group within the health service, it is however unclear whether this self-roster- ing would have the same effect on their mo- rale as it would do on, say, nursing staff.”
Although it has not proved to be the most popular piece of legislation, the European
Working Time Directive does in a curious way lend itself to the e-Rostering of doc- tors.
Cheatle said: “I think that before the Directive came in, e-Rostering of doctors and consultants would have been diffi cult because of the complexity and the overlaps between private and NHS work. So, along with the consultants’ contract, the condi- tions are far more fertile in regards to using e-Rostering now.”
That is not to say that there haven’t been problems in the past, he continued: “Whilst a lot of work has gone into constructing more cost-effective and clinically effective rostering patterns, they often fall away be- cause the right controls are not in place. Therefore I think that e-Rostering is the glue which helps new rostering agreements stick.
“In terms of the controls which need to be in place, fi rstly you would have to clearly state to staff what the variables are. For ex- ample, if their shift pattern was a fi ve on, two off there would need to be clear rules in place in terms of cross cover.
“There also needs to be a clear understand- ing about the number of options staff have for working the less popular shifts, so that not everyone bows out on a Saturday night. It simply means having clear boundaries.”
Kelvin Cheatle
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.hpma.org.uk
national health executive Jul/Aug 11 | 47
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