Providing user-friendly case management for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Being a large Trust, UHS required a truly efficient and seamless case management system, which would give the employee relations team the user-friendly experience they needed.
Project Highlights
- Processes simplified, saving time and improving efficiency
- User-friendly and visual nature of the CaseworkER system allows for seamless case management
- Dashboards providing central view, allowing individuals and teams to monitor cases with ease
Overview
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) is a large teaching Trust with around 13,000 employees and approximately 1.9 million people using its services on a day-to-day basis, in addition to those using the major trauma centre.
The employee relations team itself consists of 13 team members, including the associate HR director, senior employee relations manager, employee relations consultants, and administrators. The team handles between 120 and 200 new cases each month.
Situation
The Trust’s previous case management system had been in place for eight years, and over time it became more challenging to use. With a growing case load to manage, the team faced a lack of support when it came to implementing changes and running specific day-to-day processes. Employee import was particularly difficult, with the system struggling to cope when processing employee information on a monthly basis. The team would spend a significant amount of time correcting errors that arose during the process, taking time away from day-to-day case management.
Being a large Trust, UHS required a truly efficient and seamless case management system, which would give the employee relations team the user-friendly experience they needed.
Rebecca Long, Senior Employee Relations Consultant at UHS comments, “The way we used our system meant that our requirements would naturally grow and change over the years, but it was quite difficult to get support if there were any problems, or if we had any suggestions to manage a process in a different way. We would have to vote via a web-based system along with other organisations that were also using it, and if the suggestion got a high score, then the changes would be implemented. We wanted the ability to make changes more easily and have peace of mind that we would be supported with potential problems. Ultimately, we were in need of a new system that would meet our evolving needs as a team and have a positive impact on short and long-term case management.”
Customer profile
We now have a place to record informal conversations with managers, helping us record and monitor activity before it even becomes a case. This could be anything from policy advice to flexible working or maternity leave. Previously recording and capturing those conversations was difficult, it’s a great resource to have.
Solution
Following a successful demonstration and tender process, Conformity Software was selected with its CaseworkER system to meet the needs of the UHS employee relations team. The Trust went live with CaseworkER at the start of January 2024, beginning with an initial two-week training period for the team to familiarise themselves with the system and provide feedback.
The whole employee relations team uses the system to manage cases, the most common involve short and long-term sickness, disciplinary, probation, and grievances. The daily workload of cases is managed by the team using CaseworkER’s individual dashboards, providing an easy-to-access view of the number of open cases. UHS and Comformity also worked collaboratively to develop policy templates that allowed for a uniform approach to case management overall.
The enquiry section has also been particularly helpful feature for users. Rebecca Long comments, “We now have a place to record informal conversations with managers, helping us record and monitor activity before it even becomes a case. This could be anything from policy advice to flexible working or maternity leave. Previously recording and capturing those conversations was difficult, it’s a great resource to have.”
Benefits
The employee relations team has seen huge positive change as a result of using CaseworkER and working with Conformity Software. The benefits have included:
- The dashboards deliver a clear view of all case information via graphs and charts, allowing users to manage cases quickly and effectively, and ensuring that urgent cases are prioritised. They also make it easier to see overall case load for the team and monitor performance
- Policies have templates which guide team members through the different policy stages, actions and recommended durations, ensuring they can approach case management with consistency and compliance to reduce risk
- Monthly development releases allow the team to suggest system improvements, which are fed back to Conformity’s development team and translated into swift, effective change without compromising on system efficiency. This has increased the ‘user-friendly’ feel of the system, enabling the team to adapt it to their needs
Long concludes, “The solution is very thought out, and the implementation process itself has been full of support from Conformity. If we ever need any advice or we have a query, we can seek support quickly via email or Teams. The process, from start to finish, has been very smooth. We have had very positive feedback from the employee relations team, and it has been great to see that reflected in the exceptional case management taking place following the implementation.”
Share post
Further news
Copart wanted to streamline its case management process, drive efficiencies and ensure compliance with its HR policies and ethical practises. Having previously used spreadsheets, the team found the process to be too manual and it slowed down the pace at which cases could be managed
As a forward-thinking and dynamic department, the Employee Relations (ER) team at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals wanted to modernise its existing case management solution and utilise a more flexible approach to managing and tracking ER cases.
The Human Resources team at Royal Papworth previously managed their HR cases using spreadsheets. Over time it became clear that this approach was not meeting their needs.
