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Don't stop developing

Helen Wakefield, co-director of personal and professional development company Windmills, discusses the challenges involved in maintaining staff wellbeing through periods of significant change in the NHS.

Service cuts, redundancies, disgruntled patients – times are certainly tough for those working in the NHS at the moment. And all of this upheaval and uncertainty can mean only one thing for the workforce – anxiety.

After all, the NHS is one of the largest employers in the UK, so the threat of any redundancies will inevitably have a negative effect on its workers as they and their families try to prepare themselves for a potential hit on both their morale and their finances.

So how do employers ensure the wellbeing of their staff while leading them through the difficult circumstances posed by the current climate? And should they even be concerned with the personal and professional development of their employees when so many jobs are on the line?

Windmills has worked with dozens of public sector organisations, including the NHS, which are going through change, and we believe it is particularly vital that employers invest in their staff during the tough times. At some point, the economic climate is going to improve and we will need people that are fit and able and ready to take our organisations forward again.

If we stop developing our people now, there is always the risk that they will leave to find personal development elsewhere. And by the time we need that forward-thinking talent, we’ll look up and realise they’ve left.

And it’s not only the future consequences of ignoring personal development and staff wellbeing we need to be aware of. Investment needs to be made just to ensure our organisations continue to function smoothly now.

Stress and unhappiness amongst employees usually manifests itself in different ways. You might see it in a department that isn’t operating to its full capacity, or in a rise in staff sickness. One way or another, it will become apparent.

In the NHS Health and Wellbeing Review, Dr Steve Boorman and Dame Carol Black both point to the importance of supporting employee health through the workplace.

In addition, the quarterly CIPD Employee Outlook has reported that in the private sector, 37% of staff say they feel under ‘excessive pressure’ either every day or once or twice a week. In the public sector, that figure rises to 42%. That shows us the workplace at the moment is a stressful environment.

A number of those pressures are unavoidable. Budget cuts, a shortage of staff, and the uncertainty of potential change will unsettle even the happiest employees. But there are actions employers can take to try to improve the situation for their workers.

One organisation trying to do just that is Liverpool Primary Care Trust, whose Workplace Wellbeing Charter scheme is designed to get organisations thinking about the health of their workforce.

Liverpool PCT has invited businesses across the region to sign up to the charter, and has enlisted Windmills’ help in working with those who do so to foster wellbeing among their staff.

The charter focuses on seven key areas – leadership; sickness and absence management; alcohol and substance misuse; smoking; mental health and stress; healthy eating and physical activity; - where even small steps can make a big difference to the health of staff, and therefore the health of an organisation.

The outstanding work Liverpool PCT is doing is just one example of a public sector organisation recognising how staff health and wellbeing can affect the workforce – and tackling the issue in the right way.

The question, however, is often around which way is the right way. Because when it comes to slashing organisational budgets, isn’t it inevitable that learning and development will be the first to be cut? Understandably, when it comes to L&D, budget holders are usually concerned with how they can get to as many people as possible for as low a price as possible, and that often involves online learning.

However, what they don’t realise is that this seemingly cost-effective spending can prove to be a false economy. We have been called in on numerous occasions to help organisations who are spending out on staff development for the second time. This is often because they had previously invested in online learning alone, without realising its one downfall – it doesn’t take into account people’s learning styles so often doesn’t produce results in the way an external trainer can.

So what else does a real-life career development professional bring to the workplace that a basic internet programme can’t? You can argue that an external provider can give some impartiality and objectivity to a situation. There is a lot of disquiet about how some organisations are handling these changes, so someone coming in from the outside can be good as we can stand totally aside from the situation because we are not accountable for it.

The downside is that at a time of budget restraint and restrictions, bringing someone in externally can also be seen as a complete waste of money.

One of the crucial factors when working with L&D professionals is that the person at the top has a good grasp of the strategy and the forward direction of the business. They also need to know where organisational development fits in and to ensure it is embedded rather than sporadic and a little ad hoc.

For now, staff health and wellbeing vs budget spend remains a difficult balance to achieve. But there’s no contest – think about it, the performance of an organisation is usually judged by its results. And who do they rely on to produce those results? Their staff members.

It’s like refusing to spend on the maintenance of a top-of-the-range racing car. It might start off being shiny and dynamic, but without any investment into its upkeep, that car’s exceptional qualities will diminish in time. Unfortunately, many organisations don’t recognise that the same thing is currently happening right before their eyes – with some of their best employees.

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