Projects

IES worked with HR Network member Cancer Research UK to develop an explicit people strategy for the organisation. Cancer Research UK performed comparatively strongly during the recession, and Executive Director of Human Resources Elizabeth Sideris made significant improvements in the quality and services delivered by the HR function. However, the organisation developed an ambitious five-year plan involving significant stretch goals and major organisational changes, such as the movement of all its scientific staff into a new organisation, CMRI. This emphasised the need for the charity to be more explicit over its approach to managing people to support these strategic goals, boost levels of employee engagement, and improve its employment brand. IES worked with Elizabeth’s HR leadership team through a series of structured meetings to develop the key themes and components of the strategy, and then onto an implementation and involvement plan.

IES partnered with Kent Business School, Warwick Business School and the University of Tilburg to carry out a systematic evidence synthesis of staff engagement in the NHS, on behalf of NIHR. The research project addressed the question: what evidence is there concerning the most appropriate models for engaging staff, and how can this be applied within the NHS? The overarching aim was to provide NHS managers with the knowledge and tools to improve staff engagement, and thus impact positively on staff morale, performance levels, and the quality of health service delivery and the patient experience. To achieve this aim, the evidence synthesis had two core objectives: first, to review and evaluate theory and practice relating to models of engagement and second, to produce a set of evidence-based outputs to help and guide NHS managers in fostering high levels of engagement. The research team carried out a systematic evidence synthesis and wrote a report that examined the best quality evidence available on staff engagement as it was relevant to the NHS. The team also produced practical guides, podcasts and toolkit materials for NHS managers based on the evidence, and held a workshop, conference and webinar.

UCEA and Universities HR commissioned IES to develop an evidence-based toolkit for HEIs on employee engagement. The aim of the project was to provide a practical framework for use by those in leadership roles in HEIs in building employee engagement within their institutions. Key objectives were to: explore the key role of managers and leaders; look at how successful organisations, including outside HE, engage their employees; analyse and define key activities that contribute to engagement, and focus on the specific issues and challenges in HE, with examples of innovative and effective practice. To inform the toolkit, we updated our existing (2009) literature review and conduct one-to-one interviews with senior leaders in HEIs and stakeholder organisations. The toolkit was piloted in up to three HEIs and there was also a stakeholder event to (i) test the toolkit’s usability and content prior to publication (ii) introduce the toolkit to a range of leaders and practitioners.

For the Architects’ Registration Board (ARB), we carried out two pieces of work: pay and reward benchmarking, and a staff survey with associated focus groups. The ARB’s activities are specialised, so it is not directly comparable to most private, public or third sector organisations. IES worked closely with the ARB to ensure that our services were customised to its unique needs. As this was the second time we had carried out work of this nature for the ARB, we were able to make trend comparisons over time.

IES was asked to run an online employee survey on behalf of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (the OIA). The OIA ws a small (but growing) organisation of around 40 employees, and this was the first employee survey. The OIA particularly wished to understand employee engagement.

The Housing Ombudsman Service wished to engage its employees with the organisation in order to further unlock discretionary behaviour and sustainable performance improvement. To monitor the progress in raising the levels of engagement they used the IES online engagement indicator. The survey also used the validated IES drivers of engagement to inform the organisation of the factors that were key to engaging employees these include job satisfaction, feeling valued and involved, personal development, communication and line management.

The NHS Institute for Improvement and Innovation commissioned IES to carry out market research to support the development of a National Ideas Platform. This online platform would allow staff in the NHS (and possibly more widely) to share ideas, have them assessed by users and, where appropriate, considered more formally by NHS agencies, and would also be used by the NHS Institute to issue calls for ideas relating to specific topics, to generate propositions for action and, more generally, to provide an environment in which people can share and discuss innovative ways of working. This work explored potential barriers to use and ways to encourage engagement with the platform. The project consisted of a literature review, stakeholder interviews and focus groups with NHS staff.

On behalf of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), IES conducted an online survey of people who have qualified from one of the UK’s seven veterinary schools over the past five years. There was anecdotal evidence that newly-qualified vets are finding it hard to secure and retain suitable employment, and the RCVS wished to establish if this is indeed the case – and if it was, whether these difficulties were across the board or concentrated in particular geographical areas or types of veterinary practice (small animals, farm, equine or mixed). Just under 3,500 recent qualifiers received an invitation to participate, and the achieved response rate was 43 per cent.

IES was asked by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to identify the messages that resonate with the deeply-held values of different segments of the NHS workforce. This was to help them understand how to frame the quality and cost messages in a way that would mobilise people to take action. An Appreciative Inquiry approach to this research was used, supported by a literature review on what is already known about the values of these groups.

IES carried out qualitative research for Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to explore the results of its first ‘People Survey’, in particular to gain a better understanding of staff engagement and its drivers, and to draw up an action plan to raise engagement levels. This research involved focus groups with staff, telephone interviews with members of the senior management team, and an intranet survey.