Enhancing and Embedding Staff Engagement in the NHS: Putting Theory into Practice
On 3 November 2014, The NHS published a series of engagement guides and a toolkit on enhancing and embedding staff engagement, which stem from a research project led by Prof Katie Bailey (Professor of Management in the Department of Business and Management).
The project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), undertook a rapid review of the evidence-base relating to employee engagement. Enhancing employee engagement has been hailed as ‘the solution’ to low levels of staff performance, poor morale, and dissatisfaction. In the context of a service based organisation such as the NHS, engagement may be particularly relevant.
The study was based on peer-reviewed academic articles, involving a narrative evidence synthesis of all research published on engagement since 1990. As a result, significant evidence around engagement has been gathered - both for the workforce as a whole and for the healthcare sector in particular - that shows that engagement really makes a difference.
In addition to the overall evidence synthesis report that will be published by the NIHR in 2015, the project team have produced a series of guides on engagement aimed at NHS managers, Trust leaders and Human Resource Managers professionals. The guides summarise the evidence relating to engagement, and provide step-by-step advice on how to raise levels of engagement amongst the workforce. They also show managers how to measure engagement levels and how to interpret the results of staff surveys.
Steven Weeks, Policy Manager at the NHS said that the materials are
"Addressing some complex issues in a clear and comprehensive way. They fill a gap in resources available for senior leaders and significantly expand the material for line managers.
"In addition, they update the evidence base for HR colleagues to draw on.’ NIHR Staff Engagement in the NHS resources Over the next few weeks the materials will be further disseminated to staff engagement leads, HR Directors and line managers via features in bespoke publications."
The project is led by Prof Katie Bailey in collaboration with
- Dr Adrian Madden (Research Fellow in the Department of Business and Management)
- Dilys Robinson and Luke Fletcher (Institute for Employment Studies)
- Dr Kerstin Alfes (Tilburg)
- Prof Graeme Currie (Warwick)
The project was overseen by an Advisory Group, chaired by Prof John Purcell (Griffith University) and comprising a wide range of NHS staff, professional and patient representatives, and engagement experts from other sectors.