September 2008 - Government Bussiness

A North Staffordshire NHS Trust wanted a more dynamic approach to managing the process of recognising its employees University Hospital of North Staffordshire is based in Stoke-on-Trent and employs in the region of 7,000 full and part-time staff.

The Trust, which is the legal body that runs the hospital, had historically operated a long service policy rewarding staff that had been with the organisation for over 20 years or those that were due to retire. The reward would typically be gift vouchers redeemable at a local shopping centre.

The Trust decided to look for a more dynamic approach to managing the process of recognising its employees when they reached retirement and contacted reward and recognition specialists Michael C. Fina to come up with a solution.

The Solution
Michael C. Fina created a bespoke programme for the University Hospital designed with a focus on rewarding retiring staff with quality, high-end gifts, making public reward presentations, offering a personalised service, demonstrating value on the employee, encouraging a positive workplace culture and promoting a corporate ethos. Michael C. Fina took control of managing and delivering the programme with an end-to-end solution.

The Challenges
The former recognition scheme had been in place for a very long time so any change would require a full launch campaign. Additionally, as Helen Fowler, deputy head of Supplies at University Hospital of North Staffordshire, explains: “The size and diverse nature of the Trust meant that communicating the new scheme to our employees effectively was one of the biggest challenges.”

To overcome these challenges the hospital utilised its intranet system, which is accessible to employees across all of the hospitals divisions. This was used to raise awareness, launch and promote the new retirement rewards programme. Additionally, ‘champions’ of the scheme were trained across the various specialities in the Trust to provide a further resource that could help to raise awareness via direct interaction with staff. This meant that staff throughout the whole organisation would have contact with one of the scheme ‘champions’ to ensure that everybody was fully aware of the new policy for rewarding long serving employees.

Equally, the scheme ‘champions’ and content on the hospital’s intranet provided all of the information needed for employees wanting to find out about any aspect of the scheme.

The New Scheme
Under the new scheme, each line manager is responsible for notifying Michael C. Fina when a member of staff is due to retire. The company will then compile a personalised and fully branded presentation gift pack containing a letter of thanks from a senior member of staff, a certificate of recognition and a gift card containing a unique code for the employee to claim their own choice of gift online.

The presentation pack is sent to the line manager who will set some time aside to make a public presentation in front of colleagues and managers. The employee takes home a personalised, University Hospital branded ‘thank you’ from their employer and is able to log in to a dedicated portal on the hospital’s intranet where they can redeem an additional gift.

Gifts are valued up to £250. Replacing the voucher scheme, the new selection includes a choice of ornamental crystal ware, home products including vacuum cleaners and steam cleaners, luggage sets and electronics such as televisions, digital cameras, DVD players and satellite navigation systems. Michael C. Fina is responsible for managing and despatching all gift redemptions.

On the importance of offering high quality gifts, Sheila Sheldon, director of European Operations at Michael C. Fina, commented: “The previous voucher scheme did not offer aspirational, high value rewards so part of our brief was to improve the gift offering substantially to make the scheme much more appealing. Effectively, as the hospital wanted to demonstrate how valuable the long-serving staff had been to the organisation, this matched the value of reward to the achievement.

“Being able to track the most popular gift redemptions through our recognition schemes means that we can offer a range of aspirational and high quality products that we know appeal to employees. In addition to the personalised keep-sakes contained within the reward presentation pack with the certificate and letter, the gift adds real value to the overall package and will be forever associated with a memorable occasion.”

The Results
“The scheme has now been widely welcomed across the Trust and we believe it recognises the value our employees make to the organisation”, says Helen Fowler. “The solution has made the process of recognising our employees much more streamlined, it is a more cost effective and robust alternative to the previous scheme.”

The Trust is currently planning to widen the scheme and introduce an ‘Employee of the Month’ award using a similar reward mechanic.

Helen Fowler finished: “We believe that the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust is a forward thinking Trust, that recognises the importance of rewarding its loyal employees and the new programme has dovetailed nicely into that ethos.”

Sheila Sheldon added: “The importance of recognising employee achievements within the public sector gets overlooked all to often, leaving many workers de-motivated and disconnected from their employer. Indeed, Investor In People research revealed that 41 per cent of public sector workers felt de-motivated. The success of the University Hospital’s scheme provides a great example of the types of measures that can be implemented to better engage public sector workers.”