New guide to improve NHS staff retention

NHS Employers has launched an in-depth guide to staff retention, which explores seven themes that could improve staff retention in UK hospitals.

Bringing together the lessons learned from the 92 participants in the retention collaborative run by the organisation since late 2016, Improving Staff Retention: A Guide For Employers examines the potential benefits of flexible retirement options, building line manager capability, improved development and career planning and supporting flexible working.

For example, flexible retirement options could include allowing staff to step down to a different role with less responsibility, while support for flexible working could include the implementation of e-rostering systems.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council reported in July that 20 per cent more nurses left its register than joined between 2016 and 2017, while NHS Improvement statistics show that 10.5 per cent of nurses left the health service altogether in 2016, up from 8.3 per cent in 2010.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “As the words ‘workforce crisis’ continue to dominate headlines in relation to health and care, it was clear to us that we must waste no further time in finding ways to address it. Retention of talented individuals, and especially our clinical staff, is just as important as recruitment to keep vacancy levels low - that’s why NHS Employers has been working with 92 NHS organisations to support their work to retain staff.

“While there is growing concern that the public sector pay cap and national investment in professional development are impacting upon retention of staff, there is also an acknowledgment by employers that there are other important factors in their control that influence whether staff choose to work in the NHS, and we must be alive to those factors. They include not only pay and reward, but development opportunities, flexible working, work/life balance and the values that an organisation displays.”