NHS Borders

Dignity at Work Contact Audit Tool

For this groundbreaking initiative the Board was awarded the first-ever Partnership Information Network (PIN) Award.

It has also taught valuable lessons in maintaining momentum and staff engagement. The Dignity at Work Contact Audit Tool has made the identification of problem areas in behaviour more accurate, and with continued refinement through experience, has created a sharply targeted approach to training and development.

The NHS Borders Occupational Health team originally recognised a need for a policy to specifically cover Dignity at Work issues, since a trend of increasing personnel problems had been noted by both Occupational Health and Staff Counselling Services. So in 2001 a cross-board, cross-staff partnership group was set up to develop a Policy that would address standards of behaviour in line with the new PIN guidance.

As a first step, the Policy established what employees can expect and what is expected of them in behavioural standards. Step two was to build a confidential network of staff contacts. These staff members received in-depth training as well as other support, including quarterly assessment meetings with a Board level steering group.

To support the confidential contacts and to ensure that the service offered to staff was being used properly, it became clear that a mechanism was required to gather information. For example, feedback on where, when and what kind of problems were arising was essential to monitoring the Policy’s effectiveness.

The Dignity at Work Contact Audit Tool is now the tried and tested way in which information is collected confidentially, and has been carefully and continually modified to embrace new policies. The vital inclusion of outcomes, for example, helps HR managers keep track of the steps towards Dignity at Work issue closures. The Tool now performs an active, inclusive audit covering all possible scenarios regardless of the staff member’s position or the nature of complaint. It provides an invaluable anonymised picture that can be used to inform training programmes, target support activity and produce year on year comparative reports.

There was a major marketing push to launch the initiative, informing staff about the policy and the procedures for raising issues. The campaign’s impact was maximised using leaflets, posters, the staff newsletter and all the customary communication channels.

Over the years a number of issues have become apparent. As an example, the Dignity at Work Contact Audit Tool became hard to maintain. With less of a push on the topic after the initial PIN was released, the subject has had less visibility for staff. This may be in part due to the initial success of the initiative, with improvements being made and fewer instances being reported. It is also possible that, as NHS Borders is a small but high performing Board, the issue slipped down the agenda as focus moved to more immediate targets.

Additionally, a degree of scepticism from some managers was noted. In some cases, managers felt that the policy itself, and how it was applied, hindered their ability to manage their staff and were reluctant to engage with it. In response, it was emphasised that the policy supports effective management - essential in promoting Dignity at Work.

In order to build a dignified workplace NHS Borders strongly recommends that other Boards learn from these experiences and maintain a focus on the confidential contact network. The success of the initiative has also shown that an imperative of the contact audit is the creation of a process to measure the impact that policy and practice is having.