Modernising HR case management at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
The organisation required a dynamic HR case management platform that could improve data accuracy and case tracking, enhance reporting for HR business partners and senior leadership.
Project Highlights
- Supporting a workforce of over 5,000 employees
- Managing around 50 live HR cases at any one time
- System implemented and live within weeks
- Improved reporting, oversight and hearing preparation
Overview
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHCHSFT) employs over 5,000 staff across a range of services providing mental health and community care. With a busy operational HR team and an embedded HR business partnering model, the Trust manages a wide range of employee relations (ER) cases.
Situation
Prior to CaseworkER, the Trust’s HR team relied on spreadsheets to record ER case activity. While functional, this approach presented multiple risks and limitations:
- Single-user restrictions – only one person could edit at a time.
- Data integrity concerns – overwriting and inconsistent entries were common.
- Lack of timelines – there was no effective way to track procedural stages or delays.
- Limited reporting – extracting data required manual reconciliation, making trend analysis and assurance reporting laborious.
- Difficult user experience – for a new head of HR, gaining oversight of live cases was time consuming and unclear.
James Ball, Head of HR and Organisational Development, recognised the opportunity to implement a cloud based platform to bring structure, visibility and efficiency to ER case management at Gloucestershire Health and Care.
James explains: “Coming into the organisation, it was difficult to get a grip on what was going on casework-wise. The spreadsheet didn’t allow us to see where the blockers were or provide the kind of analysis we needed for governance and accountability.”
The Trust required a dynamic HR case management platform that could improve data accuracy and case tracking, enhance reporting for HR business partners and senior leadership, save time on administrative processes such as the creation of hearing packs, and support both standard and accelerated disciplinary processes.
Customer profile
Moving from a manual spreadsheet to a vibrant dashboard has been a real step change. The ability to pick out priorities quickly and provide oversight without manual work has been really helpful for the team
Solution
Following a procurement process, GHC NHSFT selected Conformity Software’s CaseworkER platform. The system was implemented within weeks, with HR managers transferring open cases into the platform while closed cases remained on the spreadsheet for record purposes. This approach allowed the HR team to test the system against live cases and resolve teething issues early.
The implementation was supported by Conformity’s team, who worked closely with the Trust to configure templates and customise processes. Notably, CaseworkER was adapted to reflect Gloucestershire Health and Care’s dual disciplinary approach (standard and accelerated). Conformity advised on merging these into a single workflow with optional stages, reducing the need for users to switch templates mid-process.
Today, CaseworkER is embedded across the Trust’s HR management structure, with HR managers using it to oversee day-to-day casework. The HR Operations Lead providing oversight, supervising caseloads and balancing capacity. HR business partners analysing reports and trends across directorates, and the Head of HR & OD using the system to provide assurance and accountability at a senior level.
At present, the Trust manages around 50 live ER cases within CaseworkER at any one time. Spanning disciplinary matters under both the standard and accelerated processes, grievances and dignity at work concerns, sickness absence cases covering both frequent and long-term absence, performance management issues and flexible working applications.
Benefits
Although CaseworkER is newly implemented, Gloucestershire has already seen tangible benefits:
- Greater accessibility and oversight – HR managers and leaders now access live dashboards, providing a clear view of active cases and overdue actions. This has improved prioritisation and accountability.
- Time savings for hearing preparation – case packs that once took hours to assemble from multiple sources can now be generated instantly.
- Improved reporting for governance – the system enables easy production of highlight reports showing live caseloads by area. These have been welcomed by the Trust.
- Reduction in team burden – previously, HR staff had to manually reconstruct case timelines when queries arose. Now, directors and senior managers can access progress updates in a timely manner from the HR Team.
- Customisable processes – Conformity’s flexible approach allows the Trust to streamline disciplinary workflows and adapt the system to local needs.
James adds: “Moving from a manual spreadsheet to a vibrant dashboard has been a real step change. The ability to pick out priorities quickly and provide oversight without manual work has been really helpful for the team.”
Forward thinking
The Trust is now focused on embedding CaseworkER more deeply into its HR processes, with future plans centred on expanding functionality and using data to drive improvement. This includes rolling out the enquiries function to capture informal ER and HR Advisory-related requests, thereby strengthening the business partnering approach, and exploring public forum functionality as one of the early NHS adopters to connect casework insights with wider cultural and organisational development activity.
The Trust also aims to harness data from the system to inform policy and process improvement by analysing trends in resolution times, case types, and demographic insights, ensuring a more evidence-based approach to workforce management.
James concludes:
“The support from Conformity has been excellent, the team have been responsive, collaborative, and future-focused. They’ve helped us shape the system to our needs and shown us what’s on the horizon. CaseworkER is already adding real value, and we’re excited about the benefits it can bring in the future.”
By moving to a modern case management platform, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust has built a stronger foundation for employee relations, enabling smarter decision-making, improved governance, and a more efficient HR service.
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