A RECORD number of staff at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust took part in this year’s NHS Staff Survey.
More than 3,100 staff completed the survey, a major increase on previous figures, giving the Trust a valuable insight into how they can make life better for its employees.
The survey, during October and November 2019, highlighted a number of improvements made by the Trust especially around the quality of appraisals, the ability for staff to fully utilise their skills and the number of supportive managers who encourage training and development.
Other areas identified as strengths included a high score for the number of staff members who looked forward to going to work, were enthusiastic about their job roles, felt involved in changes that were taking place and the ability they had to give feedback about incidents.
There were also a number of areas for improvement such as relationships at work.
Chief Executive, Kevin McGee, said the results of the staff survey provided valuable feedback.
He said: “There was a huge increase in the response rate from 2018 and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who completed their survey. The views of 3,100 people provide us with a valuable and reliable insight.
“This survey is important to us so that we can better understand how staff feel about working here and importantly what we need to do to make their experience at work better.
“The Trust has a new leadership team in place and staff engagement was quickly identified as being a major priority for that team.
“We are now constantly listening to feedback from staff and taking steps to make changes.
“We have already developed a programme to support this work with a series of “Big Conversations’’ with staff across the Trust to get their views, frequent senior leadership visits to speak face to face with colleagues and a regular “Great Place to Work Group’’ meeting where staff tell us how we can improve their working lives.
“We are incredibly proud of our staff and the fantastic work they do but we know there are areas where we can do better, particularly in terms of organisational culture.
“We have already taken steps to do that with a Compassionate Leadership strategy which is central to everything we do because we are determined to create an environment where our staff feel safe, respected and – above all – valued.’’
To read the Trust’s complete NHS Staff Survey results, please visit http://www.nhsstaffsurveyresults.com