CQC Results Drive Hospital's Engagement Transformation with Ombea

Introducing The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

With a staff of around 3,000, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust serves around 278,000 residents in the Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire counties about 100 miles north of London. 

The Problem

A CQC report indicated low employee satisfaction at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital a few years ago. NHS survey results showed that employees felt their managers do not listen to them. This resulted in the hospital organising a dedicated team to specifically address the issue of employee engagement.

The Staff Engagement team organised a series of focus groups and traditionalbut they  still lacked three things:

1. A quantifiable way to measure employee satisfaction.
2. A department-level detection mechanism to anticipate negative employee feedback.
3. A way to capture employee responses anonymously.

Ombea Solution

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital deployed ten Ombea ExpressPods. Two of the ExpressPods are dedicated to common areas such as the canteen and the staff lounge. The other eight are moved around to measure specific feedback from all departments, posing questions like, “Do you feel your manager has been supportive today?” 

For targeted feedback, ExpressPods are placed in staff areas for 6 weeks to measure a baseline. Depending on the feedback measured, they will either take specific improvement action, or move to another department. If they make improvements, they’ll return to the department with an ExpressPod 3 months later to evaluate the impact.

The Result

Nip issues in the bud.

The Ombea Insights index gives the Staff Engagement team a quantifiable measure of employee satisfaction. If the index is low, they take appropriate measures to discover the root cause and intervene before the issue becomes too big.

More feedback.

The Queen Elizabeth hospital receives an average of 300 - 400 responses a week from their ExpressPods. This is higher than with their previous surveys and, being continuous, is a more effective measure of change.

An idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Using the Insights Index, the Staff Engagement team can determine a baseline level for each department. After specific action has been taken to increase satisfaction, they can once again measure the Insights Index and precisely determine the impact. This objective evidence directly feeds discussions on internal process improvements, as well as with discussions with upper management.