HSE People and Culture Committee Meeting Minutes 5 February 2021

Members Present

Dr Yvonne Traynor (Chairperson), Aogan Ó Fearghail, Bernie O’Reilly

Apologies

Dr Sarah McLoughlin, Dr Phillip Crowley (ND QID)

In attendance

HSE Executive Members: Anne Marie Hoey (ND Human Resources), Edna Hoare (Modernisation & Efficiency), Mark Brennock (ND Communications), Emma Finn (Head of Internal Communications), Niamh Drew, Hannah Barnes

The Chair commenced the meeting. No conflicts of interest were declared. The minutes of the People and Culture Committee meetings from the 2nd October 2020, 4th December 2020, and 20th January 2021 were approved.

The meeting began with an introduction from the newly appointed Interim ND Communications, Mark Brennock, who took up his position at the start of the New Year. This was followed by a presentation from the Head of Internal Communications, which provided Committee members with an update on internal communication’s activities and projects over the last number of months. The Committee was briefed on a range of new products produced by the division, including the redesigned staff website, the implementation of the revised Staff Newsletter, and the circulation of person-centred staff stories. The Committee were advised on the use of Health Service Staff stories to further promote the COVID 19 Vaccine through peer to peer influence. These stories have been received well by both staff and the public and have seen high levels of engagement. The Committee were briefed on the wide-reaching impact the staff stories had, having been picked up by local and national media and through the high numbers of engagement on social media platforms. It was noted that the production of these pieces involves a collaborative approach involving campaign managers, national communication teams, and the local communication teams in hospital groups and CHOs.

The Head of Internal Communications also briefed the Committee on the updated Staff Website which saw over 100 pieces of content redesigned and migrated across pay, leave, training, and IT supports.

The redesigned website has also facilitated the capturing of feedback from staff using the site which has proven to be valuable to the Communications Division. Noting that the most viewed pages on the staff website included Online Payslips, Payscales, and HR Forms, the Committee commended that the platform was providing easier access for staff to essential staff services and highlighted the potential for further staff self-service applications to be explored. The Committee noted that the new website has the potential to be a platform which greatly promotes trust and confidence while also being an opportunity to mould or shape culture within the organisation. The Committee highlighted the importance of strengthening feelings of belonging to the organisation within the staff cohort. Following questions from the Committee the Head of Internal Communications confirmed that further work would take place to ensure that feedback from the website is provided to the different services throughout the HSE.

The focus of the ND Human Resources’ Committee update was on Leadership and Culture. It was highlighted that Service re-design and the capacity of the health service to be a ‘change able organisation’, with the ability to increase ‘change readiness’ at individual, team and organisational levels is a goal of the People’s Need Defining Change approach. The ND Human Resources highlighted that the key approach has been to support staff through change by ensuring managers are change able. This support has been offered via Change Coaching and Change Clinics.

The Committee were briefed on the high levels of staff absences due to COVID. The ND Human resources said that leadership, locally and nationally have been challenged with providing services whilst managing the staff resources available – during one week in January, 6,700 staff were on COVID related absences. It was noted that with a median time of these COVID related absences range from 12 to 14 days. The Challenges identified by team and service leaders relate to evidence of continuing staff redeployments; shortages directly linked to COVID-19 absence; competing service priorities between COVID related care and service continuity; increased demand i.e. in acute hospitals; re-designation of wards to COVID care; and increased waiting lists. The Committee queried the effect of increased numbers of vaccinated staff on the rates of absences within the organisation and were informed that the biggest effect is to be expected when staff members begin to receive their second dose of the vaccine.

The Committee were updated on this year’s Excellence Awards which were launched on the 10th of December. The ND Human Resources informed the Committee that a new COVID Response Category has been added to the awards.

The Committee were briefed on the use of HSELanD over 2020. The platform saw a massive increase in usage rates over the course of 2020, with 1,102,390 total programme completions, and the launch of 65 new eLearning Programmes and 2 new hubs. Of the 1,102,390 programme completions, c. 358,000 of these were from the top six Covid-19 programmes such as Breaking the Chain of Infection; Hand Hygiene for Clinical/Non-Clinical Staff; Introduction to Infection Prevention and Control; and Putting on/taking off PPE in Acute/Community settings. The ND Human resources told the Committee that recent new programme launches include a COVID-19 Vaccine Webinar Series and ten further webinars for trained and competent vaccinators (National Immunisation Office).

The Committee noted the Hr Dashboard which had been circulated in advance of the meeting.

The Committee agreed to hold a longer full day Committee meeting in April to ensure the items on the Committee’s workplan are discussed.

Meeting concluded at 13:20.