Interactive Recruitment CD
The NHS is the most significant issue for the electorate in the UK today, and is subject to immense public scrutiny. Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust are striving to meet the Department of Health's targets and are acutely aware that recruiting the best possible trained healthcare staff is essential to deliver better services for their local communities.
The Trust is set in an historic market town in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, with excellent rail, road and air transport links. It has high clinical standards, new facilities and a commitment to staff development - a highly desirable place to work.
Nursing's challenge Nurses account for 40% of the workforce and provide the main contact with patients so building up the nursing team is crucial to improving the service. Nursing Director Judy Gillow admitted they had a problem. "We were finding it very hard to attract applicants. When we managed to get potential recruits to visit the Trust they were surprised by how friendly and innovative we were. They expected the Trust to be very old fashioned and imagined Winchester was a boring, conservative and expensive place to live!"
Deciding on a CD With Carol Hemsley, the Communications Manager, Judy realised they had to find a way of presenting the trust and its location to potential applicants in a new and lively way. Together they hit upon the idea of developing an interactive CD Rom, which would be included in an information pack.
The CD seemed the right route for a number of reasons. Carol comments, "At a practical level it can provide a great deal of information, and it is easy to distribute. We knew that with an appealing design it could have a strong impact, but what was really important is that by using 'new-media' we would send out an upbeat and modern message about the Trust. Video had been done before - we wanted to be innovative." They quickly decided to widen the project to support the hospital's overall recruitment drive, involving managers from other areas such as physiotherapy and radiography, which also have staff shortages.
Getting help from DVA Carol set about tackling the project within the lean budget available and as a new-media novice, she realised some expert help was needed. She selected communications agency DVA to work with the Trust. "It was an easy choice - they have extensive CD and video experience, they took time to understand our objectives, and we immediately liked their creative ideas. With all the technical facilities in house I knew we would save time and money on co-ordinating production."
Planning the project A brainstorming session involving Judy, Carol and DVA kicked the project off. The aim was to work through what was important to include on the CD, and generate ideas. Carol explained, "After the meeting, DVA suggested I set up a box for each area and gather all the information available - leaflets, information sheets, photos and videos - even rough notes of ideas. I had one- to-one sessions with each head of department and several weeks later I turned up at DVA's offices with a carboot full. We went through each box and refined the CD structure, and I came away with a detailed action list. DVA were very good at telling me what I needed to do by when to keep the project on track!"
Content was organised into 5 areas - Nursing, Therapy Services, Medical Imaging, Pharmacy and Pathology, with information on each department, its facilities and the training and development opportunities offered to health professionals. Women returning to work after taking time off to have families are an important source of trained staff for the NHS, so details of flexible working arrangements were highlighted. Each department volunteered staff willing to talk about the training and knowledge they gained working in a small hospital in a supportive team. Carol and Judy were clear that the interviews would get accross the Trust's welcoming style and openness much more convincingly than a leaflet saying, "we are friendly"!
Including Winchester The brainstorming session had also prompted the idea of creating video case studies where members of staff would describe their experience of working in the Trust and living in Winchester, including their leisure activities. Carol was concerned, "We knew that a personal interview, with shots of the surrounding area would be much more engaging than a list of local facilities but of course video is expensive to produce." DVA helped Carol plan the budget to best effect. "We were able to make informed decisions about what to put on the CD. DVA suggested we could include more video clips by reducing the production overheads in other areas. We decided to create all the information pages as PDFs, which we could produce internally. This has a double benefit of reducing updating costs in the future."
The CD's plan consisted of 30 screens, over 70 documents and eight 4-minute video sequences. Warned that the project was going to consume a great deal of her time, Carol was determined to keep it moving. "Unfortunately I still had the day job to take care of, including handling the petrol crisis and several staff changes. DVA were very flexible, and let me put the project on hold for a week or two when it was really necessary.”
To save time she worked with each department manager on an individual basis to pull together new content, arrange photography and set up the interviews and action shots. DVA's video producer helped select locations and plan a cost effective filming schedule, which was sensitive to patients' needs. Each of the participants was provided with a brief before filming so they knew exactly what to expect when facing the camera.
The involvement of staff in different departments in the CD generated a lot of interest within the hospital and was good for internal morale. Carol capitalised on this by running a breakfast launch to demonstrate the CD to colleagues throughout the trust, where it got a great response. "According to a Mori study 46% of people get their information about the NHS from its staff, so it is important that the Trust's employees find out about new initiatives and feel positive about the organisation."
Great results Carol knows that the investment of time and money has really benefited Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust. "For a start we have an extensive information pack, which is more economic to produce than print. As a result of distributing the CD we have been getting a significantly higher percentage of completed application forms, and department managers are reporting that the calibre of candidates has noticeably improved, so we have met our original objectives."
"Compared to display advertising the CD is much more cost effective - we distributed 6,500 copies on the front cover of Nursing Times, which got a good response and improved the perception of the Trust throughout the profession."
"I now have a great tool which can be used in a range of communications projects. DVA designed the CD so it can be extended and amended easily and we are already planning the next phase."
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