Spent the week preparing for two members going live with our e-Recruitment technology this month. It is quite brilliant that these days training can be so creative, and the easier a system is to use, then it can be learnt very quickly. Our fantastic team and partners have designed a whole suite of very quick and simple training web-based videos and we also did some face-to-face training this week for Guy‘s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Placing the mouse over various parts of the screen in the e-Recruitment system also brings cool reminders and tips for even better and quicker processes. It really is amazing. I experience this when using online shopping or my iPhone, and now to get it on a recruitment tool is brilliant innovation.
We wish all the best to Gareth Griffiths who moved on from his role at East London NHS Foundation Trust to the private sector in social care. Gareth was the recruitment manager who worked with Synuron to implement the e-Recruitment system at the East London. Thanks for all your work Gareth.
Talking of saving cash, there are only a couple of weeks left to look at the Spending Challenge website at Her Majesty’s Treasury. If you didn’t rate any of the ideas (it was very easy to do but a bit sad to spend the summer doing it), then you can see the highly rated ideas for a short while. Three things interested me with it:
- of all the categories to post ideas, health came third (3633 ideas) behind central government (5975) and civil service (6227) but above all the rest.
- how many NHS and GP staff posted ideas. I would say hundreds, with many naming themselves and their employers. I would strongly recommend reading just a few.
- This is my final point: many of them are really easy to implement, do not need a government policy and are about removing waste and wasteful activity. A lovely e-mail from a clearly highly-skilled materials management leader who, despite the effort she is making on procurement, had shocking practices going on in her system at the level of the line, which she finds hugely frustrating.
Unbelievably, some of the ideas on the Spending Challenge website were about simple things like sending e-mails out for appointments (this the highest rated by the public). We can do this in nearly every part of our lives but not, it seems, for outpatient appointments. Another was from a pharmacy porter with ideas for removing waste and plastic bags.
I found it interesting that the practice of spending-up year-end money featured very highly from staff and public alike, also the well articulated idea of an NHS Working Capital Bank for Foundation Trusts. Interesting to see what comes of it all in the Spending Review on October 20th.
My favourite podcast of the week was the winner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2010 award for access to learning by use of technology… in a public library for 180,000 people, which even in Greece, has managed to secure funding from local people. It take 5 minutes to watch.
Next week I will be sharing our plans for supporting members to benchmark their HR back office costs, this week’s hot topic! Have a good start to September.
Sian
P.S. Don’t hesitate to share your comments and views about this post below!
