People Management Guide

• All managers of people at all levels have a key responsibility for the effective management and application of the health and safety arrangements in NHSGGC (and all staff have the responsibility to comply with those arrangements).

• Senior managers rely upon all their managers and teams to implement, review and monitor health and safety performance, to maintain safe places of work and to monitor and support the wellbeing of their staff. As a manager of people I am expected to be aware of the Health & Safety policies of NHSGGC and know my role and responsibilities for the reporting and managing of health and safety incidents and risks on the Datix system.
• In my area I am aware of and work with the Health & Safety Rep (who is also the Staff-side Rep) who is equally invested in keeping the workplace safe, and I also consult with the NHSGGC Health & Safety Team and the Occupational Health Team for additional advice.
• I ensure that Statutory and Mandatory training is up to date across my team. I also listen for feedback and safety improvement suggestions from staff and I promote and contribute to improving our Health & Safety Culture in NHSGGC.
• Access the Staff Health, Safety and Wellbeing webpages

• As a manager of people I have day to day operational communications and conversations with my staff to enable effective delivery of care and service. For those who look after a clinical area and are co-located with their staff, engagement with them is face to face and in real time, but I know this can vary by the type of service, location of staff, levels of autonomy etc. For some departments where staff are dispersed I know this engagement has started taking place using MSTeams.
• My key responsibility is to ensure that the level of communication and engagement meets the requirements of my team to enable them to undertake their roles as effectively as possible, that they work well together as required and to ensure they get the support they need in the longer term. Being visible and available for my staff to support them is a key responsibility as a people manager. This means my staff are well informed and I involve them in decisions.
• I give feedback to my team members about what I think is going well or needs improvement and showing appreciation for the effort the team is putting in. This could be at team meetings, one-to-ones with staff members or as part of routine conversations.
• I work to the NHS Scotland Staff Governance Standards and I endeavour to model NHS/Local Authority values and listen to staff to understand the issues they are facing.
• I encourage my staff to speak up about anything they think is important and to help create an environment of listening, trust and care.

• I conduct an annual PDP conversation with each of my staff to discuss what is going well, what could be improved and to agree development objectives that would help them to deliver their responsibilities for care or service in the year ahead.
• The actions agreed are uploaded on the Turas system. I also conduct a mid-year review of what has been agreed and to discuss progress. My comments and those of my staff member are updated on the system.
• I ensure that adequate time is allocated for these meetings and that the conversations properly explore and agree actions and progress. Our discussions also include a career conversation where ambitions and potential of the staff member is explored and agreed.
• I have more informal one to one meetings with each member of staff throughout the year which enable me to check how things are going for the staff member, their development progress and their wellbeing.

• All staff in NHSGGC work as part of a team, large or small, and require to get all the information necessary to carry out their roles. In my team we discuss and solve current issues and make decisions and agreements involving our work. We work on how well we are performing against expectations in delivering the service and how this could be improved.
  
  I update my team regularly about what is going on in the department and to discuss and get input to any changes that will affect the team or the care or service we provide. This means opportunities both for me to share information and to ask for and listen to their feedback and ideas.
• This involves getting staff together for team meetings where these things can be addressed. I take responsibility to make time for, organise and run such meetings.
• The meetings themselves may take different forms, they could be daily operational meetings of a few minutes long to communicate what’s happening that day. They can be longer meetings perhaps arranged monthly to discuss some of the higher level issues described above.
• Team meetings for some teams are easier to organise that others. With my team I have challenges in doing this, particularly because members of the team are on different shifts at any one time. I therefore have to be creative to get all the team involved and I hold a number of split team meetings at different times.

• I make my team development a priority to ensure that the care and service keeps improving and that the department is a positive place to work where people contribute their best. Regularly reviewing how well the team works together, team communications and behaviours is key to this. This can be done informally, perhaps as part of a team meeting but is also an outcome of the iMatter process. iMatter involves every team in NHSGGC/HSCPs undertaking their own team questionnaire once per annum.
• In iMatter there are three sections of questions, one section about you and how you experience your role, one about your experience of the colleagues you work with including your manager, and one about your experience of NHSGGC as an organisation. The process generates a team report which is copied to all team members and summarises the team scores for each question and also generates an Employee Engagement Index (EEI) score for the team for that year.
• I make sure to confirm my team member details on the system when requested to do so then to brief and encourage the team to complete the questionnaire (for some staff members who don’t have online access this involves a questionnaire link being sent to their smart phone). Once the team report is generated I then organise a team meeting to discuss it and to agree one area of team success and up to three areas for improvement. I then upload what has been agreed onto the iMatter system which generates a summary (called a Storyboard) which is automatically sent to my team members for their own information. Because I encourage my team in this process and my staff commit to it they find that it is a valuable and effective way to measure and improve engagement and teamworking.
• The iMatter question scores for the team are also summarised into the report for my overall department and for my directorate, as well as the overall NHSGGC Board Report.
• The actions agreed in iMatter often involve improving communications, team meetings, ways of working, relationships and ideas to deliver better care or service. My team has also undertaken more involved team development as a result of our iMatter report and discussions. Examples of tools that can help are the Affina Team Journey tool and the Stress Survey for teams.

• As a people manager I am aware of the Human Resources related policies and guidance for our people processes in NHSGGC. I am required to apply these policies as and when necessary and be guided in areas such as Conduct, Capability, Attendance, Health, Safety & Wellbeing and Equality & Diversity. All policies and guidance can be found on HR Connect.
• Learning and development in many of these policy areas can also be undertaken on LearnPro and Turas Learn. For additional help the HR Support & Advice Unit can be contacted.

• As a manager of people I am knowledgeable of the NHSGGC Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Policy and apply the aims, principles and values to ensure that all my staff are treated fairly.
• I lead by example and ensure equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic (i.e. age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation) and those who do not. I take steps to meet the needs of any of my staff from protected characteristic groups where these are different from the needs of other staff. For example, I have met with members of my staff who have a disability and agreed the reasonable adjustments required to help them with their job. This could include seeking advice from Occupational Health, securing funding for Access to Work, or completing the Workplace Adjustment Passport.
• I’m aware that in recruitment of staff to my team, if a disabled applicant meets the minimum criteria for the job and they indicate on their application form that they wish to participate in the guaranteed interview scheme, I must shortlist them for inclusion within the selection process.
• I must ensure that training and career opportunities across my team are free from discrimination and when I assign work I do this fairly and consistently, taking into consideration the circumstances of each individual team member. I take a zero tolerance approach to any intimidation, bullying or harassment, recognising that all staff are entitled to a working environment that promotes dignity and respect for all.
• In order for NHSGGC to measure our effectiveness in equalities I know that data is drawn from the Electronic Employee Support System (eESS). I encourage everyone in my team to complete the equalities section of their own account on the system. This information is obviously provided voluntarily but is treated in strictest confidence and it enables overall data to be used for monitoring, reporting and taking board-wide actions to improve.
• Visit the Equalities in Health Team website

• As a manager of people the relationship I have with our local Staff-side Representatives is a key one. This close relationship helps us support an open, positive working environment and any issues affecting my staff that they may seek representation with can be discussed and addressed quickly. Early resolution is a key principle employed in workforce policies, for instance it enables many grievances to be resolved informally and quickly, avoiding an often lengthy and unsatisfactory formal process.
• NHSGGC has a partnership agreement developed jointly by the Board and the Trades Unions and Professional Organisations representing staff. The Agreement is designed to ensure staff are effectively involved in influencing the shape and implementation of decisions that affect their work, and offer managers the means through which staff views can be considered before taking the decisions for which they are responsible.
• Partnership is a way of agreeing together, wherever possible, changes in how we work and deliver care to the patients we serve. Managers of people should be aware and supportive of the local arrangements for the operation of effective partnership working in their directorate or HSCP. These arrangements will be determined jointly between local management and appropriate trade union/professional organisation representatives reflective of trade union membership within the division or substructure, and agreed by the Area Partnership Forum. They enable the consideration of issues affecting staff around service development, service delivery and the development and implementation of change.
• Whenever there are proposed changes to the way staff in my team work I always involve all my team members for discussion and input from the earliest stage.
• All change programmes which may have workforce redeployment implications must be supported by a management/staff-side partnership group and proposals will be subject to full engagement with the appropriate recognised Trade Union(s) / Professional Organisation(s) with a view to seeking agreement.

• As a manager, I am aware that Mental Health & Wellbeing is just as important as physical health and many factors and life events can have an impact on how employee’s feel.
• Taking a structured but supportive approach that is sensitive to the health and wellbeing issues of staff creates a working environment that staff feel more connected to and supported in. This is helpful for reducing stress which is one of the more frequent reasons given for sickness absence. Getting support at an early stage can prevent absence from work and help recovery
• I encourage and support my staff to maximise their attendance at work and supportively manage any sickness absence with them. This is a critical area for my attention because of the major strain that high absence levels can put on care, services and staff. If managed well in each team then the benefit of higher attendance levels are significant for care and services but also for staff wellbeing.
• I have made myself aware of the NHS Scotland Workforce Attendance Policy the Managers Guide, and the Attendance – Manager Toolkit. These set out and explain my responsibilities for absence reporting, recording, supportive contact, Occupational Health referral, return to work discussion, phased return, managing patterns of absence, long term absence and other additional scenarios.
• Timely and accurate recording of staff hours and attendance on the SSTS system is a manager’s responsibility and as well as tracking attendance it ensures that my staff get paid accurately and on time.
• Additional useful resources can be found by visiting Staff Mental Health & Wellbeing Support Z Card, Health and Wellbeing Directory and Staff Support and Wellbeing

• I may from time to time need to recruit to vacant posts in my team. As a hiring manager I am supported by the NHSGGC Recruitment Team and I’m familiar with the Job Train system to drive the process. By working closely with the Recruitment Team I am assured that I’m operating within current employment legislation, best practice and most importantly I’m making safe recruitment decisions and appoint the best candidate for my post. Close attention is paid in Job Train and by the Recruitment Team to ensure our recruitment processes comply with the Equality Act 2010 and meet our needs to employ a diverse workforce that upholds our NHS values and behaviours. An example is discussing reasonable adjustments that could be made for an applicant.
• To ensure that across the organisation we continually develop strong internal talent for future vacancies I play my part to ensure that a career conversation is part of the PDP discussions I have with staff. This part of the discussion should explore what career ambitions and potential my staff member may have for a promoted post (also acknowledging that many of my staff are happy and focused in their current role). If there is potential for such a move I then agree the personal development plan necessary to get the staff member ‘vacancy ready’ for the post they aspire to.
• When a member of my team leaves for another post I carry out an exit interview with them to find out what we can learn and develop from the persons reasons for leaving.
• If we have a reputation for fairness and support in the career opportunities we give to our staff, we are then an organisation that talented people are attracted to and want to stay in.

• In NHSGGC we often refer to those in senior management and senior clinical roles as the leaders in our organisation, but leadership skills are encouraged in all our staff. I am expected to demonstrate leadership with the people I manage and I pay attention to my own leadership skills development. I have found that these skills enable me to be effective in all my other people management responsibilities listed here.
• The leadership qualities and behaviours that I demonstrate with direct reports encourages them to take responsibility, work together to deliver as a team and to stay positive and resilient under pressure. My team have told me that they feel supported, informed, engaged, trusted and respected and as a result they achieve more.
• Everyone is expected to personally model the NHS Scotland Values of Care & Compassion, Dignity & Respect, Openness, Honesty & Responsibility, Quality & Teamwork (or the equivalent of these in your Local Authority) and behave with civility to all colleagues. In doing this I try to model the leadership skills to others and for those who are keen to advance their careers in NHSGGC I often act as a mentor.

Take our “People Management Self Assessment Questionnaire” and then consider:

1. Sharing your responses with the people you manage. They might have suggestions about things you are doing well or could improve with them.
2. Sharing your responses with your own manager. You can then discuss any development or support that would help you in your people management.

To receive an email copy of your results, once you have selected submit, two options appear at the top of your screen – a pdf symbol and an envelope symbol. First select the pdf and then select the envelope, a box will appear and ask for your email address – remember to tick the send pdf box.