Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 28 October

October 28, 2022

This week I have two key topics to cover, one of which I have talked about before, but it is such an important part of our strategy that I make no apology for repeating it.

1.Complete your staff survey

The annual NHS staff survey is now out and every employee has been invited to take part, either by email or by receiving a paper copy. I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to complete the survey and have your say. The results of the survey tell us what matters to you and how we are doing in our ambition to deliver our three Ps strategy, but in particular the “People” objective – to cultivate and sustain happy, productive and engaged staff. How we get there is described in our People Plan, which has been developed in outline but we need to hear from you to understand what will really make a difference to improving your experience at work.

My expectation is that everyone does this as part of your role. Use your working time and your team meetings to do this. If you can’t access the survey contact Quality Health 0800 783 1775 or helpline@quality-health.co.uk for help. There are incentives for completion such as monetary vouchers for a prize draw and food vouchers for teams who do really well in terms of responses. Hopefully this encourages you and your colleagues to take just 10 minutes out of your working day to tell us your views.

2.Your safety at work matters

We know that a big contribution to people’s experience at work is your working environment and whilst we cannot promise 100% renovated areas to work in, we should all be able to expect (and demand) a safe working environment. We recently commissioned an independent assessment of a range of health and safety measures across the organisation and this report makes sober reading. The findings include examples where fire doors were propped open and other risks not appropriately assessed. Keeping yourselves and your colleagues safe is everyone’s business but not only that, it is the law. Sloppy practice in terms of health and safety should not and cannot be tolerated.  Please ensure you follow our health and safety protocols, seek help from our specialist team if you need advice and speak up if you see a safety concern.

Have a good weekend.

Richard