Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust — retention case studies

This study details their strategy for tackling their big retention challenge — an ageing workforce with high numbers of staff simultaneously approaching retirement age.

The study focuses on:

• appropriately recognising their ageing workforce in their retention strategy
• the importance of flexible working and how it can make staff feel more understood
• making retirement-age staff feel more valued and needed, inspiring them to stay on
• supporting longer working life by using the NHS Pension Scheme flexibilities
• providing ‘encore career’ opportunities, which offer development possibilities to staff later in their career

This study promotes the importance of branding and accurate data in developing an engaging retention plan.

The study focuses on:

• the importance of communicating the trust’s values to all staff, whether through developing existing managers or a ‘first 90 days’ scheme for new starters
• building trust within teams, at every level
• ‘narrowing the front door to close the back door’ — training managers to recognise ‘stayers’ at interview, i.e. members of staff that align with trust values and are likely to stay
• appropriately communicating the retention strategy and discrete targets via the use of ‘nursing retention dashboards’ distributed to wards