The National Health Service

"Flametree's* Manager Training gave me space to fully explore the issue of flexible working, discuss the problems I was experiencing, dispel some of the fears and challenge beliefs. The outcome is that I can now approach the subject with more flexibility and with knowledge of the wider working practices and influences necessary for successful implementation"
Jane Savory
Corporate Affairs Manager
Westminster Primary Care Trust


 

* Flametree is a trading name of PricewaterhouseCoopers


 

The issue

The UK Government's Department of Health wanted to set a model of good HR practice and so introduced the Improving Working Lives (IWL) Standard into the National Health Service. All NHS organisations are now required to achieve accreditation and demonstrate they are improving the working lives of their staff.

Flexible working and work-life balance are major aspects of the IWL standard and have a significant impact on recruitment and retention - a key area of concern within the public sector. As the biggest employer in Europe, the NHS is already one of the most forward-thinking organisations on flexible working practices. As such, the issue for the NHS was not whether there was a need for work-life balance, but rather how best to manage flexible working.

Our approach

Flametree is a division of PricewaterhouseCoopers Human Resource Services, specialising in advising on work-life balance and flexible working. The IWL representatives recommended us to the London region of the NHS after hearing one of our consultants speak at a conference. We started the project by speaking to trade union representatives, HR practitioners, and medical staff including doctors, nurses and clinicians, to identify the challenges that NHS staff face with managing work-life balance, and the root causes of these challenges.

We then created and delivered two training programmes, backed up by bespoke NHS specific work-life toolkits:

  • train-the-trainer - two-day training sessions delivered to 130 champions who would act as change agents to promote flexible working within 34 NHS organisations
  • manager training - one-day training sessions to 500 managers to provide them with the understanding, tools and confidence to address their team's flexible working issues.

We recognised that time constraints would make implementation difficult, so the focus of the training was to aid and encourage managers to lead by example, by equipping them with the techniques they needed to implement and sustain flexible working practices within their teams. Topics covered included examining the root causes of work-life imbalance and overcoming the barriers to change, handling requests to work flexibly in compliance with the Employment Act 2002 and sharing best practice.

The outcome

We cost-effectively reached a huge audience of 500 managers and 130 champions, who then disseminated the flexible working message amongst their staff.

Feedback from the training sessions was very positive:

  • 100% of delegates now feel confident implementing flexible working in their teams
  • 91% of delegates found the course content very informative
  • 89% of delegates rated the manager training programme as very good/excellent.

Within the London Region, 96% of the trusts trained have now achieved 'Practice' level standard in IWL accreditation, compared to 90% nationwide.

For further information about this case study, please contact Stephen Pugh by email or on +44 (0) 20 780 40903