HSJ Awards 2018: Staff Engagement

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust – LTHT People

Historically, employee engagement has been a challenge at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. In the 2014 national staff survey, the trust was below average on 18 key measures of engagement. The leadership team recognised that colleagues did not feel their experiences were as positive as those working at other organisations, and understood the potential impact on patient care and experience.

The Leeds Way, created in 2014, set out the vision, values and goals for the organisation. Co-created with the workforce, it received a positive reception from staff and from patients as well. But leaders felt that if the goals were truly to be realised, then every single member of staff would need to be engaged with the plan.

And so the organisation established a formal staff engagement group. Chaired by the chief executive, it created five workstreams: health and wellbeing, recognition and celebration, effective two way communication; organisational learning and leadership; and employee journey.

The impact can be seen in the numbers. Over 2,000 staff members participated in iFactor, a campaign to share improvement ideas; more than 300 supported local action groups by joining in with Be a Santa to a Senior, buying Christmas presents for local older people; and over 800 staff have joined in with the trust’s eight week challenge, designed to help people work together as a team to improve wellbeing.

The trust has seen the biggest national shift on staff engagement scores for acute trusts in recent years, and 22 findings were above average in 2017.

Read a detailed case study about this project at HSJ Solutions