The challenge
NECS was brought in to help ensure there was sufficient workforce across the East region to deliver the COVID-19 and Flu Vaccination Programme. This included an ambitious retention programme which aimed to retain all the volunteers and temporary staff that helped with the delivery of the vaccination programme, within wider roles in the substantive NHS workforce.
Our specific workforce objectives included:
- Ensuring sufficient staff and volunteer deployments
- Co-ordinating military responses
- Planning for long-term workforce sustainability
- Leading development and implementation of a regional retention project.
Our response
In order to achieve our retention aspirations, we agreed a set of guiding principles with all key stakeholders, before agreeing a more comprehensive strategy and delivery plan. The project implemented career surveys and conversations as standard practice, with a supporting candidate career pack, to introduce all volunteers and temporary staff to the wide range of career opportunities available within the NHS. It also tracked career opportunities across the system and matched potential candidates to these throughout the career conversations.
We were instrumental in setting up new career pathways / training opportunities to retain volunteers and temporary vaccination staff in the substantive NHS workforce. The project also matched individuals to apprenticeship opportunities and provided application and interview support.
Outcomes
At the end of the programme, we had successfully retained over 6,000 colleagues, which was the highest number for any of the seven regions in England.
“NECS has completely exceeded my expectations on this programme. They bring a mature approach that reflects sector and specialist knowledge but are also both creative and innovative. Their approach to leading a retention project across the region has led to excellent results and their development of a regional workforce strategy for vaccination has been well received across stakeholders within the region. I have no hesitation in recommending NECS, their standard of work is exemplary.”