National HR Employee Helpdesk

Activity Report Q1 2016

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Contents Executive Summary 2 Analysis of Activity Levels on the Helpdesk Quarter 1 2016 3

1. Mode of Contact 2. Source of Contact 3. Queries Raised

3.1 HR Queries 3.2 Recruitment Queries 3.3 Payroll & Pension Queries

Goals for Quarter 2 2016 11 Recommendations 12 Conclusion 12

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Executive Summary

The National HR Employee Helpdesk was established in accordance with Priority 8 of the recently published Health Services People Strategy 2015-2018. Priority 8 commits to “develop a strong customer service focus within HR to respond in a consistent and efficient manner to the needs of service managers and staff”.

The National HR Employee Helpdesk aims to provide individual employee support in partnership with local HR Offices and the Employee Relations Advisory Services (ERAS) and to serve as an additional conduit for keeping employees informed, involved and included.

The Helpdesk is in the early stages of development. There are significant opportunities to grow the portfolio of services available to employees throughout the HSE and to tailor services so that they maximise potential benefits from using social & digital media to communicate with all staff.

In developing a professional HR Service that is technically competent and responsive to the needs of the organisation, the Employee Helpdesks initial focus will be to serve as a primary HR point of contact for any employee regarding benefits, terms & conditions of employment and grievance and disciplinary processes.

The objectives of the Helpdesk are to:

respond to employee enquiries through e-mail or phone

support employees to understand HR policies and processes and in doing so build positive relationships throughout the HSE.

record all enquiries and resolutions in a customer relationship management system.

analyse trends and report results to support decision making and develop business acumen

share and improve processes within the HR Help Desk to make the HR Help Desk experience truly beneficial for employees.

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Analysis of Activity Levels on the Helpdesk Quarter 1 2016

1. Mode of Contact with the Helpdesk Inbound contact to the Helpdesk can be made by phone and email. In the first quarter of 2016, 76% of contacts made to the Helpdesk were through the low call number 1850 444 925, with the remaining 24% through email. The phone line is manned from 8am to 5pm daily through lunchtime. Outward contact is being made in order to publicise the service and keep staff informed of policy changes within the HR forum. This is done through a Facebook page and incremental direct telephone contact made with services throughout the country. Presently the Facebook page has a growing number of followers. Information and posters promoting the Helpdesk services have been shared with the majority of primary care units and hospitals nationally. This will be extended to all CHOs, Corporate Services and Section 38 Providers during Quarter 2.

2. Source of Contacts While employees are not required to disclose their personal or work location details to staff on the Helpdesk, from the information gathered the breakdown of contacts made to the Helpdesk by service is as follows:

In Q2 additional categories will be reported on to provide an analysis of contacts from Mental Health, Primary Care and Social Care Services.

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3. Query Type The types of queries received can be categorised under 4 broad headings;

1. General HR Queries 2. Recruitment Queries 3. Pay & Pension Queries 4. Other

The chart below shows the breakdown of contacts received in each of these categories.

Further analysis of these 4 categories highlight the main issues that are emerging for employees. 3.1 General HR Queries (55% of all contacts) HR Queries accounted for 55% of the overall volume of contact to the Helpdesk. These queries consisted of the following elements:

3.1.1 Absences – sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave, parental leave etc. Queries relate by and large to either (i) policies or (ii) entitlements

3.1.2 Grievances – Dignity at work, employee support scheme, occupational health 3.1.3 Other – general terms and conditions including working hours, minimum notice,

training, performance management etc.

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In all instances, employees are referred to the HSE website for additional information or, in respect of the various types of absenteeism, the Service has developed an employee friendly explanatory leaflet which contains contact details for local HR Managers as some employees are not familiar with their local HR contact. 3.1.1 Leave Queries regarding absences from work accounted for 71% of the General HR queries. Further analysis was carried out to ascertain the types of absence contributing to the most queries raised, as shown in the graph below.

The most frequent leave queries relate to Sick Leave (35%) and Annual Leave (16%). Queries are as expected: (a) How much sick leave do I have left?; (b) I have surgery/procedure planned for next June, will I be eligible for pay?; and (c) If I have exceeded benefit, what next? Annual Leave queries (16%) related to either annual leave entitlements or HRA and increment balancing measures that involved the forfeit of annual leave. In addition, during

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March 2016 a number of contacts were received in relation to the carry over of annual leave. *The Helpdesk has found that the Public Service Management (Sick Leave) Regulations 2014 is an ongoing topic raised by both employees and managers seeking clarification on the terms and application of the scheme.

3.1.2 Grievance Queries Employees also contacted the Helpdesk to seek support with personal and work related issues. These can be divided into the following categories:

Information sought on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedure

Dignity at Work

Employee Support Scheme

Injury Grant / Assault on Duty

Occupational Health Services

The Helpdesk managed a number of contacts from employees regarding issues relating to Dignity at Work (58%). In this context, the Helpdesk provides relevant information on the Dignity at Work policy and the options that are available to employees including mediation and support contact persons. In all such cases copies of the policy or details of links to information on HSE website are provided. 3.1.3 General HR Queries General HR queries comprised the following:

Contracted Working Hours

Flexible Working / Shorter Working Year

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Employment Contracts

Personal Details – change of address, marital status etc

Job Evaluation / Resignation (Minimum notice)

Training opportunities & Performance Management

3.2 Recruitment Queries (15% of all contacts) Queries in relation to recruitment accounted for 15% of all contacts during Q1. These queries were raised by both employees and applicants for positions particularly in relation to internal transfer opportunities (i.e. details of how the transfer scheme operates and the process to “get on the transfer list”where there is one). It is interesting to note that feedback indicates that employees are prepared to apply for posts through competition with NRS and use this as a conduit to transfer as they view this as an easier solution for them both in terms of being released from duty in order to transfer or getting line manager approval in the first instance. The volume of recruitment contacts made can be broken down as follows:

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Transfer opportunities account for 44% of all recruitment queries. This may warrant further investigation to determine if a revised, simplified transfer policy is required. Approximately 24% of calls related to vacancies and competitions and the majority of these were in relation to the HSE website and ongoing difficulties accessing details / job descriptions / application forms. 3.3 Payroll & Pension Queries (23% of all contacts) Payroll and pension queries made up 23% of the overall activity on the Helpdesk. The graph below details the breakdown of these queries with pension related queries emerging as a prominent topic for employees.

Pension queries comprised 35% of queries raised within this category. Difficulties accessing a responsive and personalised service represents a frequent concern for those accessing information in relation to their personal pension status. Employees do not understand and are concerned with the delays experienced in the payment of Lump Sums and Pension which can be a number of months in some instances. A number of employees have expressed an interest in the one on one meetings in the 6 months prior to retirement to discuss their pension status. While correspondence issued does indicate that a meeting can be arranged if required, it is generally felt that it is at a very late stage in the process. Online payslip clarification accounted for 8% of calls within this category, mainly in relation to employees experienceing difficulty accessing the online payslip system on the HSE website. The landing page appears to cause some confusion for employees as they understand (incorrectly) that they must select the county that they are workin in – this is not

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the case. Access is available for either SAP payroll or non SAP Payroll sites regardless of the county you select. Also employees report that the user guide is cumbersome at 15 pages. 3.4 Other Queries 7% of contacts made to the Helpdesk were queries unrelated to HR and Helpdesk Staff directed these queries appropriately.

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Goals for Quarter 2 2016 on the Helpdesk Given that the Helpdesk activity levels are steadily increasing since its inception in late 2015, it is antipated that the volume of contacts made with the Helpdesk will continue to grow during quarter 2. While the service has been developing, improvements in the delivery of this service have been identified and will be addressed in order to ensure an efficient and beneficial service for all HSE employees. The following areas are targeted for improvement over the next 3 – 6 months;

ICT Infrastuture The customer relationship management system currently in operation has been very useful in its purpose for the introductory phase of the Helpdesk service. Over this introductory phase, areas for improvement have been identified by staff using the system. Identified improvements such as additional categories/sub-categories for the recroding and reporting of information will be implemented during Quarter 2. This will enable more accurate reporting of activity as well as provining an opportunity to demonstarte the quantitative benefits of the service to HSE employees. It will enhance the ability of the Service to identify emerging trends among employees so that these are considered in the future business of delivering a quality health service.

Staff Knowledge The staff on the Helpdesk are very knowledgable and have a high level of HR expertise and strive to work towards ensuring this knowledge is maintained and enhanced by continuing with the following;

Holding discussion groups on new HR publications (circulars, strategies etc)

Inviting experts in areas such as payroll, pensions, recruitment for education sessions with Helpdesk staff

Weekly review and audit group is established to discuss employee queries raised to ensure they have been addressed in a consistent manner giving cognisance to the statutory framework in which the HSE works

Marketing The Helpdesk is open to all HSE employees and it is crucial that all HSE employees are aware of the service. In Quarter 1, Helpdesk staff contacted Primary Care Units in all 26 counties in Ireland. Efforts will continue to publicise the service into Quarter 2 as Helpdesk staff will endeavour to make further contacts with services as follows:

CHO areas including Mental Health, Social Care, and Health & Well Being

Corporate Service including HBS, Communications

Hospital Groups

Digital Presence The Helpdesk is cognisant of the importance of a digital media presence in order to target and engage all HSE employees . While currently active on Facebook, the 2nd and 3rd Quarter of 2016 will see the Helpdesk develop a Twitter presence. Working collaboratively with our Communications partners, it is hoped that the Helpdesk will become a prominent feature and access point for HSE employees through the effective use of these social media.

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Recommendations: Based on feedback from colleagues contacting the Help Desk, the following recommendations would immediately enhance the HR commitment to excellence in service provision:

Update the online payslip landing page to present an option to either log on or register using e mail address or employee number and password.

Examine the on line user guide to condense into more user friendly document

Consider the introduction of a personal consultancy service for colleagues reaching compulsory retirement age within the approaching 12 to 18 months period to discuss benefit/ how it is calculated/ paid and what if any arrears of contributions are due and how this will be administered.

Aim to deliver a pension service where benefits are paid out within 4 weeks or retirement.

Develop, implement and publish a revised staff transfer policy. Conclusion Following its successful introduction, the Helpdesk will continue to grow and develop as set out in the Health Services People Strategy 2015-2017. The service will deliver on the objective to provide individual employee support, working with local HR offices and the Corporate Employee Relation Service to develop a professional HR Service that is technically competent and responsive to the needs of the organisation. The implementation of the Health Services People Strategy 2015-2017 remains the central reference point for all developments within the Helpdesk service.