HR Operations Team – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Corporate Services

Individual or Team Nomination?

Team

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

The HR Team have been critical to the pandemic. In March 2020 we saw a steep rise in absence and the HR team was asked to lead a covid-19 staff testing pathway. We quickly mobilised a team comprising HR, OH, Infection Prevention, Pathology, clinical teams and IT. Managing a clinical pathway was a departure from the norm but we rose to the challenge! Within a few days a testing pathway was in place with two drive-through centres. We worked with IT developers on a new system which meant that once an employee had reported an absence within a few hours we had made a call to them, booked a PCR test and results given by SMS next day (with some being available the same day). This was at a time when community testing centres were new and turnaround times could be as much as 4 days. The HR team quickly became experts in staff testing and all of this knowledge was built into a Clinical Standard Operating Procedure. With the HR team acting as call handlers we played a pivotal role in connecting with almost 10,000 employees/household members, providing support, explaining Government guidance on self-isolating and importantly booking a covid-19 test. Our approach at all times was “we are here to help you”. As covid-19 absences continued to rise, the HR team took a step back to redesign the pathway. We knew that improving the technology solution was essential. As testing capacity became available at community testing centres, acting fast was critical to ensure that employees were tested at the UHNM sites. This was critical to assist with outbreak management. We worked with our systems developer on a self-service solution, which meant that the moment the employee opened an absence they would receive an automated SMS message with a link to book a test. This development meant that staff could book a test 24/7, attend within a few hours and receive results the same day. This was a critical turning point. The HR team lead the contact tracing pathway and we were able to spot areas of concern and report these immediately. To date we have facilitated over 1275 contact tracing activities. We developed daily reporting flows for our divisions to help plan the likely date of return of staff which has been essential for service delivery and worked closely with the Trust Infection Prevention Doctor on a research project looking at the virus prevalence and staff absence. Over the course of the last 12 months, members of the HR team have worked every single day supporting with staff testing and in those early days we provided a staff testing service 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. During this time, we have helped over 9200 people obtain a test, talking to many thousands of employees/families. We have never underestimated the impact that a reassuring voice at the end of the phone will have had.