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Grow Your Own Bank

STHK Toolkit

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In January 2018 St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals launched a campaign to grow the Trust bank through the utilisation of new and

innovative strategies relating to both external and internal recruitment. The aim of this is to develop a skilled and experienced temporary

workforce who can be called upon to support wards and services through filling rota gaps without the need to utilise agency staff, ensuring

staffing establishment is always managed well in order to benefit both patients and staff.

The initial strategy was broken down into three areas to identify how bank staff can be effectively recruited, how they can be encouraged to

remain at the Trust and how they can be incentivised to work regularly. Further information on the sub-strategies and actions involved in

this are detailed throughout this guide with templates, examples, case studies and procedures provided wherever available.

Key Successes

The campaign has proven to be very successful as the Trust bank has grown by 20% with 574 individuals joining since 1st January 2018, 24% of whom were recruited

externally. We also have structured recruitment plans in place to further fuel our external campaigns across 2018 involving continuous recruitment for Bank Registered

Nurses and monthly recruitment for Bank Health Care Assistants. To ensure bank recruitment continues to progress at a fast pace we are also implementing a

shortlisting and interview schedule with clinical staff already identified to support.

We also became aware of the importance of tailoring our bank recruitment in order to specifically meet the needs of our Trust. One of the initial steps taken involved

a review of our filled and unfilled rates for bank shifts, working on the premise that a 100% bank fill rate is the optimum for any Trust. The three areas with our lowest

bank fill rates, and therefore highest agency spend were Paediatrics, Accident and Emergency and Intensive Care. To address this we worked closely with these

services to develop tailored campaigns, all of which were heavily promoted via social media.

Another success has been the closed Facebook group set up for bank staff to join to receive news, updates, tips, appreciation and information on outstanding bank

shifts. The group has also been extremely effective in creating a sense of community amongst bank staff and bridging the communication gap between staff and the

Trust Staffing Solutions team. The group now has 653 members and we continue to receive positive feedback from staff with one individual getting in touch especially

to tell the team she thought the group is ‘a brilliant way of communicating with (the team) from home.’

We have also developed relationships with senior staff across the Trust to ensure that bank processes and procedures are reviewed and updated with a clinical input

in order to advance the Staffing Solutions service to a point where it is able to best meet the requirements of wards and services.

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Strategy Who is being

targeted? Actions Key Considerations

Available Resources

Recruitment

Internal staff

Review the internal process for joining

the bank.

How long does it take a member of substantive staff to join the bank? Once they have requested to join, how long do they have to wait before they are able to access bank shifts? What can you do to ensure this takes as little time as possible?

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Case Study 1: Internal Bank Recruitment 11

Create a ‘Bank Welcome Pack’ for

internal staff.

It is likely that substantive staff won’t have had any contact with your Temporary Staffing team prior to joining the bank. Make sure you get in touch to welcome them by introducing the team, providing staff with copies of procedures they may need to follow and letting them know how you can help with any bank queries.

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Template 1: Internal

Welcome pack

Spend a day out and about in your services and allow

staff to join the bank there and

then.

If your internal process allows for this, it could be a really effective way to grow your bank quickly with reliable and experienced staff. Visit your wards with a clipboard and simply note down the names and email addresses of those who would like to join the bank – what could be simpler! Alternatively you could set up a stall in a busy area of your Trust and attend Trust events, e.g. Nurses Day celebrations. It also gives your team the opportunity to integrate with clinical teams, answer questions on banking and clarify any misconceptions which may be leading to a negative perception of your Trust bank.

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Internal Staff

Auto-enrol substantive new starters onto the

bank.

Auto-enrol your new starters onto the Trust bank, giving them the choice to opt out if they wish.

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Procedure 1: Bank Auto-Enrolment

Advertise the bank internally.

Are your substantive staff aware of what they need to do to join the bank? If not, here’s how you could let them know…

• Trust intranet page for Temporary Staffing

• Opportunity to advertise via site banner on Trust intranet

• Include a message on payslip notices for substantive staff

• Posters in staff rooms

• Information included in Trust newsletter/global emails

• Internal #JoinTheBankNow campaign

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Example 1:

Internal Bank Advertisements

(poster)

Provide leavers with the opportunity

to join/remain on the bank.

Consider at which point in your Trust leaving process this could be identified. Will authorisation from line managers be required? Note that leaving bank assignments open on ESR may prevent the generation of a P45 for substantive terminations. Link with your Payroll team to clarify what the end-to-end process should look like in order to avoid complications.

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Case Study 2: Joining the Bank for Substantive

Leavers

External applicants

Review your bank job adverts.

Do your adverts accurately advertise what applicants can expect from working via the bank at your Trust? Are you selling the benefits of bank work? It’s important to consider what competition there is from the agencies around you. Search for the role you are advertising on job websites and compare your advert with agency adverts that appear in your search. Also check out your agency competition – how can you compete and what do you need to change in your job advert in order to do this?

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Example 2: STHK Bank Registered Nurse Job

Advert

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External applicants

Review the external process for joining

the bank.

How quickly from submitting their application are successful candidates able to book a bank shift? What slows this down? Have a look at our case study to see how we removed some of the obstacles in this process.

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Case Study 3: External Bank Recruitment

Process Review.

Use social media to advertise bank

vacancies.

Does your Trust or Recruitment Team already have a presence on social media which you can link into? Are you able to set up social media accounts specifically for bank recruitment? Are you utilising different social media platforms?

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Instagram

• LinkedIn What can you post on social media to entice individuals to apply for your bank vacancies? Are you using analytics to measure the success of your social media?

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Example 3: Bank

Recruitment via Social Media

+ Tips and Tricks

www.facebook.com/sthkrecruitm

ent/

www.twitter.com/sthknhs/

www.linkedin.com/company/st-

helens-&-knowsley-teaching-

hospitals-nhs-trust/

Utilise newspaper and radio adverts to advertise the bank.

These are usually costly so it’s important to ensure your campaign has been fully developed and you have a clear focus when advertising. Are you highlighting the most attractive benefits of your bank vacancies?

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External applicants

Are you able to implement a way of measuring the success of this? For example, why not add a question to your application form to find out how applicants found out about the vacancy?

Ensure there is a bank presence at all Recruitment

Fairs attended by your Trust.

Flexible working opportunities are likely to be very attractive to students studying to work in the Health Care profession, therefore recruitment fairs held at universities are a great way to advertise. Ensure your Temporary Staffing team are in attendance at all those scheduled to be held in your local area, and most importantly, make sure they are equipped with the tools to be able to provide the necessary information (e.g. leaflets, posters, pull up banners). Whilst you may find you mainly recruit Health Care Assistant’s initially, individuals are able to gain an insight into your Trust and are likely to be encouraged to develop their career with you once qualified in their respective field.

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Example 4: Bank Registered

Nurse Recruitment

Leaflet

Review the information about the bank on your

Trust website.

Log on to your external Trust website – what information can you find about applying to join the bank? Does this need to be reviewed and updated? Is it accurate? At STHK we’re working with our Communications team to put together some information to be added to our Trust website when our new site goes live over the coming months.

Recruit those who are successful but not appointed to

the bank.

Could you amend your substantive interview paperwork to include the option for successful candidates who were not appointed to join the Trust bank?

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Case Study 4: Bank Option for

Successful Candidates

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External applicants

Why loose skilled and experienced staff? Advertise the Trust bank to them instead of turning them away!

Retention

All bank staff

All bank staff

Review bank induction process.

It’s important to first establish what this should look like with considerations of the following:

• Mandatory Induction Training – how quickly do bank staff receive this?

• How are bank staff welcomed to the Trust in the absence of a line manager? STHK are looking into the prospect of holding Bank Welcome Meetings which new starters can attend to receive important information otherwise communicated to them in emails/paperwork.

• Is necessary information readily available to bank staff? Do they know how to get a uniform? Do they know the process for cancelling shifts? Could this all be collated in a ‘Bank Welcome Pack’ which staff can refer to as and when they need to? You could upload this to your Trust intranet site to make it easily accessible.

• Are bank staff immediately booked onto any other training they require or do they have to request this? If this isn’t mandatory, are these training opportunities still advertised to bank staff?

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Template 2: External Bank Welcome Pack

Review reward and recognition for bank

staff.

What could you introduce to ensure your bank staff feel valued and appreciated? Here are a-few ideas…

• Bank worker of the month

• Bank staff awards

• Social media ‘Thank You Thursday’ posts Does your Trust have reward schemes (e.g. salary sacrifice), and if so are these advertised to bank staff? If not, could you look at introducing rewards for bank staff? At STHK we’re looking in to the possibility of…

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Example 5: Thank You

Thursday Social Media Posts

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• Subsidised parking

• Discount at Trust restaurants TIP: Companies will offer benefits and discounts simply for being an NHS worker. Are your bank staff aware of this? Are there any companies offering this local to your Trust? Could you promote this via social media?

Identify engagement

opportunities for bank staff.

Do you actively advertise opportunities for bank staff to get in touch with you, express their thoughts, report issues and provide feedback? Could you do more to promote this? Here are some of the possibilities we are looking into at STHK…

• Bank weekly/monthly drop-in sessions

• Bank annual feedback survey

• Bank exit questionnaire

Productivity

All bank staff

Ensure all bank staff have the necessary access to book bank shifts.

Are your bank staff aware of the correct procedures to book bank shifts? If your Trust uses a rostering system (e.g. Allocate), do bank staff utilise the online function of this rather than contacting your Temporary Staffing team? Can you make the process of booking bank shifts and easier/quicker?

Set up communication

channels to improve fill rate.

Contact staff about outstanding shifts via…

• Contact functions – how can you send out regular communication to all bank staff about outstanding shifts? Can

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Example 6: Communication to Improve Fill

Rate

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All bank staff

All bank staff

this be done through texting/emailing functions if you are using a portal system (e.g. Allocate)? Alternatively, could you set up a distribution list for bank staff? Note this will only be effective if you have up-to-date contact details saved for your bank staff.

• Closed Facebook group – you can utilise this to build a sense of community and let bank staff know when there are still shifts outstanding. STHK were able to fill shifts at late notice through advertising on the Facebook group during winter pressures. In addition to this, any social media groups you have should be advertised regularly to encourage bank staff to join them. Here’s how…

• Include in new starter paperwork

• Upload links to your Trust intranet

• Include in your Trust newsletter/global emails

• Advertise on all communications (posters, pull up banners, etc.)

• Include links in email signatures of Temporary Staffing team

Introduce incentives to bank.

What could you offer bank staff as an incentive to work bank shifts? At STHK we have been exploring the possibility of entry into a prize draw for every ‘X’ amount of hours worked. Also consider the minimum shift requirements you have in place for bank staff? Do these need to be reviewed to encourage regular banking?

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Case Study 1: Internal Bank Recruitment

When launching our campaign to grow the Trust bank, we identified that internal staff were disinclined to join for the following reasons:

• Lengthy application form

• Duplication of pre-employment checks including DBS and occupational health check

• Staff often wanted to pick up a shift within a-few days of requesting to join the bank and this was not possible

To address these issues, we reviewed the process and the following changes were implemented:

• No application form – staff simply have to send an email to the Bank Recruitment team to be set up with a bank post

• Removal of the need for any pre-employment checks as these were being carried out and verified regularly via another piece of

work within the Recruitment function

• Faster processing allows staff to pick up a bank shift on the same day they have requested to join

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TIP: At STHK we set up a new email address (jointhebanknow@sthk.nhs.uk) for

internal staff to send their requests to. Whilst the address is simple and easy to

remember, it also allows us to monitor the success of our internal campaign. Since the inbox was set up in December 2017, over 500

members of staff have emailed with a request to join the bank!

Template 1: Internal Bank Welcome Pack

Make sure you welcome staff to the Trust bank and

provide them with the information they need before they

have to get in touch to request it from you. Here’s a guide

to give you an idea of some of the information you may

want to include:

• Say HELLO – welcome staff to the bank and let

them know that your team are on hand to support

with questions and queries

• Temporary Staffing opening hours and contact

details

• Out of Hours contact information

• Employee Online user guide

• Payroll information (cut-off times for weekly pay

etc.)

• Links to social media pages/groups

• Information on ‘How To…’

- Re-set Employee Online password

Welcome to the STHK Bank ☺

You have recently become registered on our trust bank so we just wanted to say a big hello from Staffing

Solutions. We’re here to help with any queries you might have relating to bank work so please don’t

hesitate to get in touch.

We’re on hand 7 days per week (Mon-Fri, 09:00-17:00 & Sat-Sun, 09:00-14:00, excluding bank holidays)

when you can contact us on 0151 430 1302. Outside of these hours you can reach us by sending an

email to Staffing.Solutions@sthk.nhs.uk which we will pick up as soon as we’re back in the office. If you

need to urgently speak to a ward/service outside of office hours then please contact Switchboard

(Whiston – 0151 426 1600, St Helens – 01744 26633) and request to be put through to the relevant

department.

You will also receive an automatically generated email with log-in details to our Employee Online system.

This email will contain your username and password for Employee Online, which you will be prompted to

change when you log in for the first time. This will then enable you to view and book available bank shifts.

(Please note that if you already have a substantive post at the Trust, you won’t receive another Employee

Online user account. You will continue to access the system with the same Employee Online log in details

you already have, the only difference being that you will now be able to view bank shifts in addition to the

other functions you can already access).

Staffing Solutions also have a Facebook group and Twitter page specifically for STHK staff. You will find

bank updates, information about outstanding shifts, bank polls and top tips included so please make sure

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Procedure 1: Bank Auto-Enrolment.

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At STHK the entire recruitment process stretches across a number of different teams.

See details of the procedure below to understand how we have implemented bank

auto-enrolment successfully, ensuring all teams are aware of their responsibilities:

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