Staff & Recruitment

Please download a copy of the appropriate induction checklist for your role and work through this with your Line Manager.

To deliver effective and high quality health services, to act to improve the health of our population and to do everything we can to address the wider social detriments of health which cause health inequalities.  
 
Below are some of the frequently asked “big facts” about NHSGGC 

• We are the largest Health Board in the UK covering a geographical area stretching from East Dunbartonshire to Inverclyde 
• We deliver services in 25 hospitals, 10 specialist units, 60 health centres and clinics  
• We cover a core population of approx 1.2million and provide specialist services to more than half the country’s population 

• We have a total annual budget of £2.6 billion 
• We employ 44,000 staff 
• We are investing more than £1billion to build four new hospitals. 

This induction portal is an essential part of your journey as a new colleague, ensuring that you are well informed and provided with the necessary information you need to carry out your role within NHSGGC. 

As you progress through the portal, you will be guided through your induction journey by your line manager. 

Developed nationally in partnership with NHS Scotland employers, trade unions and the Scottish Government, these policies and associated supporting documents set the standard for employment practice for all NHS Scotland Boards to follow.  

The Once for Scotland Workforce policies are person-centred and will be applied using the NHS Scotland values:  

• care and compassion 
• dignity and respect 
• openness, honesty and responsibility 
• quality and teamwork.  

The first phase of implementation includes the following policies:  

• Attendance 
• Bullying and Harassment 
• Capability 
• Conduct 
• Grievance 

• Workforce Policies Investigation Process

The policies promote the use of early resolution, all parties establishing and encouraging open and honest communication and adopting a supportive approach by proactively communicating with and offering support to employees who are involved in any process as part of a workforce policy. 

Staff are paid on a monthly basis. Your salary will be paid into your bank account on the last Thursday of every month. Your pay slip can be accessed on SSTS. You choose option for “ePayroll” and can view your pay history and previous documents.  Should you have any queries regarding your pay, you must in the first instance, seek advice from your Line Manager, before contacting the Payroll Department.  

Any overtime worked should be submitted to your Line Manager on a weekly basis. Overtime is paid one month behind e.g. if you work overtime in April, this will be paid in your salary at the end of May. Any queries regarding overtime must be highlighted to your Line Manager as soon as possible. 

Holidays run from 01 April until 31 March the following year. Full-time staff will receive holidays as follows:  

• 0-5 years service 27 days annual leave per year  
• 5-10 years service 29 days annual leave per year  
• 10 or more years service 33 days annual leave per year  

Any requests for annual leave must be filled out on your annual leave card and authorised by your Line Manager with adequate notice given to allow cover to be organised. Part-time staff will have their annual leave and Public Holiday entitlement calculated pro-rata and provided in hours due. 

As an employee you can view and maintain core information held by your organisation, update your personal details (such as address, marital status, registration), view job related information, and add professional memberships and qualifications. You should do this on eESS.

All staff are entitled to join a Trade Union and there are a number of these across the organisation. Should you wish to join a Trade Union, please ask your Line Manager for contact details of Trade Union representatives.  

Trade Union Meetings – Whilst every effort is made to allow staff to attend Trade Union meetings held during working hours, it should be noted that essential cover must be provided. Permission to attend Trade Union meetings during working hours must be granted by your Line Manager. 

Staff have access to a wide range of benefits including travel; cycle to work scheme, annual bus ticket loans, and shuttle buses between sites.  

Staff also have access to credit union and discounted gym membership.   

Other deals can be accessed here Exclusive deals for NHS staff at NHS Staff Benefits – NHS Staff Benefits  

The Employee:  

• has a contractual obligation under their contract of employment to attend work;  
• must comply at all times with the documented sickness absence reporting procedures;  

• on returning to work after an absence, is required to attend a Return to Work Discussion with their Line Manager;  
• will be requested to attend a management meeting to discuss sickness absence and must, if unable to attend for an acceptable reason, inform their Line Manager prior to the date/time of that meeting and if acceptable a further meeting may be convened at an alternative location/date;  
• When on sick leave is required to maintain a level of contact/communication with their manager, appropriate to their medical condition. All employees are responsible for making every effort to communicate with their Line Manager whilst on sick leave. If you are going to be absent from work for any reason, you must ensure that you follow the correct reporting procedures as follows: employees who are unable to attend work, must tell their Line Manager at the earliest opportunity before their starting time and no later than within one hour after their scheduled starting time. Where the Line Manager is out of the office, notification to a suitable alternative manager is required in accordance with local procedures;  
• It is the employee’s responsibility to make contact personally with their Line Manager. Only in exceptional circumstances, where the employee is unable to phone personally, a relative or friend may phone on their behalf, but the responsibility remains with the employee;  
• Where the Line Manager is not available, it is essential that contact is made with an alternative senior staff member who will be responsible for taking the information and passing it to the Line Manager. Messages should not be left on voice mail, with the hospital switchboard or with other wards or departments. Mobile phone text messages are also not acceptable and will result in the employee having an unauthorised absence.  

Failure to make contact in time may lead to:  

• the absence being treated as unauthorised;  
•  an appropriate deduction being made from the employee’s pay;  
• Action under the Disciplinary Policy.  

It is important that the employee communicates all relevant details when making contact, including: 

• the reason for absence;  
• an indication of when the employee expects to be fit to return to work;  
• Details of any appointments with the employee’s GP.  

Sickness Certification  

• If you are absent from work you must submit the appropriate medical certificates for your absence.  

• 1-3 days No certification required  
• 4-7 days Self certificate required  
• Over 7 days Medical certificate from GP required  
• It is the employee’s responsibility to keep their Line Manager informed of progress and, in particular, should the employee be unable to return when anticipated. If the employee is absent immediately before leave days or days off, they must tell their Line Manager when they will be fit to come back to work. If the employee is going to be absent for an extended period of time, any subsequent certificates should be submitted as quickly as possible, ensuring all days in the absence period are covered. Failure to submit a certificate may result in pay being withheld.  

Return to Work  

After any period of absence an employee’s return to work will be acknowledged through a documented Return to Work Discussion. In many cases, this may involve little more than a courteous enquiry as to whether the employee is now well. In other cases, e.g. where a pattern of short term absence is developing, or following a period of longer term absence the meeting will explore this more fully:  

• the reasons for absence;  
• the employee’s fitness for work;  
• If the cause of the absence may recur and whether a referral to Occupational Health/GP report is necessary.  

At this meeting the employee will be given the opportunity to raise any issues they have about their absence and to get help from the organisation. More than 4 episodes of sickness in a rolling year or more than 8 days of short term absence in a rolling year can lead to disciplinary action. 

The NHSGGC Complaints procedure seeks to ensure, in accordance with NHS guidelines, that complaints are handled thoroughly without delay, with the aim of satisfying the complainant whilst being fair and open with all those involved. 

• Current NHSGGC Complaints Policy and Procedure

Training is available to staff who may be involved via Learnpro module NES: Complaints and Feedback 2017. 

Login to Learnpro the module can be found under CPD section (You will require your Learnpro username and password) 

This programme has 5 modules:

• The value of feedback  
• Encouraging Effective feedback and using it  
• NHS Complaints & Feedback Process  
• The value of an apology  
• Difficult behaviour 

Please complete the Datix reporter training on Learnpro to ensure correct completion of Datix form.

If you need to contact the Datix administrator, send email to datix.administrator@ggc.scot.nhs.uk 

iMatter is the NHS Scotland Staff Experience continuous improvement tool which is designed to help individuals, teams and Health Boards understand and improve staff experience. This is a term used to describe the extent to which employees feel motivated, supported and cared for at work.   

Understanding staff experience at work is the first step to putting in place measures that will help to maintain and improve it. This will benefit you as an employee, and the patients/service users that you support and their families.  

The process is based on a staff engagement questionnaire which all staff are asked to respond to, which then generates a Team Report containing the results. The Line Manager discusses the report with the team and agree what the teams’ main strength is, along with up to 3 improvement actions, which are specific for the team in the months ahead. This improvement plan is captured on a team ‘Storyboard’ which the team then uses to monitor progress prior to the next iMatter run. The process is then completed annually.  

iMatter Stories Page iMatter Manager Manual 

iMatter Manager Manual 

National Staff Governance   

• National iMatter Page
• National SG Page
• iMatter Stories Page

All employees will have access to Employee Self Service and will be responsible for keeping their own personal details up to date.   Below is a list of actions employees can view/action: 

Employee Self Service 

• View personal details – Name, address, date of birth etc 

• Change address – Always use “Type” Primary Home Country address 

• Change contact information – Emergency Contact details/Next of Kin details 

• Update Professional Qualification/Registration/Membership details – Certificates, Highers, Degrees etc 

• Line Manager will approve once evidence is presented – Other Non NHS Employment (Secondary Employment, including Self Employed) 

• Includes self employed, ad hoc work and contracted work 

Applying for Adoption, Maternity or Paternity Leave

• Applying for Adoption Leave  – Matching certificate must be retained by line manager  

• Applying for Maternity Leave – MATB1 certificate must be retained by line manager 

• Applying for Paternity Leave  – Copy of MATB1 must be retained by line manager 

 Full access to all Employee Self Service Standard Operating Procedures and eLearning video’s is available via eESS. 

The CHI number is the main patient identifier used to process or access patient information from PMS (Trakcare). 

The CHI (Community Health Index) is a database linking all of the Health Boards across Scotland electronically via the CHI 24 system.  

Patients registered on this system are allocated a CHI number which acts as their UPI (Unique Patient Identifier) for their journey through the NHS, from ‘the cradle to the grave’. 

 CHI numbers consist of 10 digits; the first 6 being the patient’s date of birth in DDMMYY format – i.e. 160181. The last 4 digits are allocated randomly by the CHI system that generates the CHI Number; however the 9th digit is indicative of gender – even numbers for female, odd numbers for male. 

The purpose of the CHI number is to provide a universal, multi-system and cross-discipline ID number for patients, so that regardless of where they are being treated within Scotland, and for whatever complaint, the patient’s CHI number will be a constant. This, in turn, will enable a complete clinical picture of the patient to be compiled. 

Some of the benefits of CHI are:  

• reduce risk of errors in identifying patients;   

• reduce risk of errors in delivering care to patients, due to inaccurate or missing clinical information;  
• help protect the patient’s privacy and confidentiality;    
• reduce risk of patient information being shared inappropriately;  
• construct a single, complete, accurate and up-to-date clinical picture of a patient’s health care;   
• Reduce the need to ask patients the same questions many times during their journey through the NHS. 

OneSign (also known as Single Sign-On/SSO) is the user-switching and password management tool available at all acute hospital sites across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. 

OneSign eliminates the need to repeatedly type usernames and passwords and streamlines clinical workflows and enables NHSGGC staff to quickly and securely access IT applications. 

OneSign brings a range of services to users including:  

• Application Password Management  
• Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) 
• Fast user-switching and fast logon  

Digital technology is now at the centre of our professional lives through TrakCare, Clinical Portal, Emisweb, PACS, Winscribe and Microsoft applications (e.g. office 365 and teams) and in our personal lives through social media, online shopping and digital banking. Each day sees continuous or intermittent use of end-point technology – i.e. workstations, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. From the end-point you access applications which may be directly managed by NHSGGC, hosted for NHSGGC on the internet, or your personal applications.  

eHealth works with many technology partners who provide updates that counter the threats that occur every minute of every day. Resisting such attacks requires a combination of technology and good human cyber-behaviour.  

eHealth uses the Fairwarning monitoring system to detect & highlight potentially unauthorised or suspicious activity on systems that hold patient information (more information on this here).  

eHealth promotes good cyber-behaviour and Cybersafe (search on StaffNet for Be Cyber Safe) will provide:  

A list of all Information Governance policies (View the Acceptable Use Policy to which every user should be aware of and comply with) 

• Cybersecurity best practice for the individual; provided by public sector bodies like the Scottish government, police Scotland, technology vendors and by our own staff  
• Newsletters which will highlight major themes and outline what you can do to help stay safe 

The majority of what you need to do in your professional life applies also to your personal life. How you need to do it may be different. 

Microsoft Teams 

• Teams guided learning modules

Microsoft 365 Outlook  

• Outlook

Microsoft Planner

• Planner

Microsoft OneNote

• OneNote

Microsoft OneDrive

• OneDrive

Microsoft To Do

• To Do

 Course overview 

Supporting staff is a key part of the manager’s job and this module offers guidance and support on issues relating to promoting employee health and attendance. 

This module has a particular focus on supporting staff with mental health and/ or stress issues including use of the Stress Risk Assessment tool. 

Learning Outcomes 

By the end of the session you will: 

• Understand the purpose of the NHSGGC Staff Health Strategy and of legislation relating to mental health in the workplace 

• Be ready to assess the risks caused by personal stress or work related stress (Stress Risk Assessment Tool) 
• Understand the importance of monitoring and review after the risk assessment is completed 
• Be aware of the range of resources available to support you and your staff 

Book using eESS login.

You should now work through the Learning Passport associated with your role. This should be completed within 3 months (full time staff) or 6 months (part time staff).

The Advance Nurse Practitioner (ANP) team in East Dunbartonshire HSCP, is a small of team of 6, supporting GP clinics as well as carrying out home visits, all across the Partnership. During our most recent iMatter action planning discussion, we reflected on the agile nature of our roles, and the need for lots of equipment to be transported when out and about at home visits.

We didn’t have a space to call our own for storing equipment, or dedicated desk space, as we’re fully agile. This means that equipment is often stored in our cars as we go back and forth to homes and clinics, which is not ideal for staff as we’re already taking other things, such as our laptops, out and about, so it’s a lot to consider for each trip.

So, we had a discussion with the Facilities Manager at Kirkintilloch Health & Care Centre to see what we could do to improve our experience.

Amazingly, we’ve secured a large double cupboard at the Centre, which is solely for our team, and we can easily access it to pick up just the bits and pieces we need, and store the rest. This is only a small thing but has gone a long way to making the team feel that they are valued, visible and that their needs are being met by the HSCP.

We’re now working with colleagues to look at ways we can use the space at Milngavie Health Clinic too, ensuring that our team can continue to have the same successful, positive experience, across all our sites.

Across the Clyde sector, we have seen real benefits of using feedback from iMatter to improve our staff’s experience. The big improvements in iMatter outcomes throughout 2022 demonstrate this, with an increased response to the questionnaire, an improved Employee Engagement score and a 7% increase in action planning.

We achieved this in a range of different ways. We took action before and during the questionnaire stage, to discuss iMatter at key management and partnership meetings, embedding it in business as usual. IMatter is always a key part of our thinking around how we engage with our workforce and use their experiences to improve services and make Clyde Sector a better workplace.

Alongside this, we shared ‘top tips’ during the team confirmation stage to ensure managers felt supported with each step, and staff were aware of the range of ways they could respond, to maximise participation. Maintaining a good working relationship with the iMatter team in HR meant we could quickly identify and resolve any action needed to support teams.

Once we received our results, we quickly shared the information with staff, managers and partnership colleagues, and ensured two-way communication was at the heart of improvement.

We now hold weekly partnership calls in Clyde sector to discuss emerging and live issues to identify solutions together. We’ve also introduced HR ‘Walk rounds’ across all three sites, meaning there are regular opportunities to meet with staff, be visible and discuss any concerns. Similarly, the Senior Charge Nurse (SCN) engagement sessions with senior management give staff the opportunity to discuss ways of improving services, staff morale, health and wellbeing. These allow us to hear directly from staff about how we shape support and drive improvement on an ongoing basis.

In addition to this, Partnership colleagues and HR now have access to daily safety briefings for all sites to keep everyone informed on hospital pressures and staffing. This means that appropriate action and support is given efficiently and based on feedback.

Taking this approach has achieved some really positive outcomes this year, leading to positive action, and we look to replicate and build on this into 2023, to realise continuous improvement for our staff.

Our team always finds the feedback from iMatter a really useful tool to create discussions about how we do more for our staff and also for our clients. This year, the report has allowed us to identify service improvements that we think will deliver excellent performance.

Initially during COVID we were keen to explore the experience of clients using the counselling service, particularly as we moved from face to face to telephone appointments. We did this through a short survey, which we circulated to clients. The feedback was positive, and gave us reassurance that we were still providing a supportive and person-centre service during COVID.

As we moved into 2022 and back to more face to face consultations, our team suggested we expand the survey to allow us to explore ways in which we could celebrate great work, review the service we provide and identify any opportunities for improvement.

This has been going really well, and at our team meetings we always allocate time to look at the feedback together. The comments from the responses we get helps us to build a picture of progress and improvement themes. The information we gather also supports our accreditation with Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) standards, the benchmark for occupational health services.

One particular benefit of this approach has been helping us to celebrate the successes of the team through the positive experiences of our clients. When we see really great comments in relation to the service provided by an individual staff member, this is highlighted at the team meetings, as well as at TURAS review discussions.

In the team, we’ve used the iMatter process to help keep us on track when it comes to our commitment to positive staff engagement, celebrating success and working as a team. We know that doing this has really helped us to continue to deliver a great service for the people using our service.

Like all services across NHS, the COVID pandemic raised a number of significant challenge for us in Estates and Facilities. One of those challenges was that guidance, including changes to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Safety instructions, was changing on a regular basis. For us, there was no reliable way to ensure that this information was appropriately circulated across all of our staff because of limited IT access for many staff in our service and the limitations on in-person meetings.

This meant that we were struggling to ensure that the staff on the floor were getting key information timeously, including COVID safety information and resources to support and improve staff wellbeing.

As a consequence, the Senior Management Team and partnership colleagues worked together to identify the best ways to get this essential information to staff reliably. This took the form of a Team Brief, which was initially issued on a weekly basis, and which we now issue on a monthly basis. We developed this based on the positive feedback and the recognition of an ongoing need for supportive engagement and communication with staff.

The detailed Brief is shared verbally with all staff, along with being circulated electronically and displayed on staff noticeboards. This very simple approach has been welcomed by staff, and has been adopted by others throughout the organisation too.

William Hunter, Deputy Director (Facilities & Corporate), says “there has been a positive response to this brief. In very difficult circumstances, we have been able to increase direct communication with our staff, including the provision of key work, wellbeing and safety related information, which I know that staff have found very reassuring and supportive.”

We can see from our 2022 iMatter results that one of the areas which saw the biggest improvement from 2021, was in relation to well-being support from line managers. In addition, improvements were seen around the themes of role clarity, effective team working and seeing the value and contribution made by the roles that staff hold.

This improved engagement and communication with staff, really focussing on well-being and experiences at work, has made a positive impact amongst teams, which we’ll continue to build on and celebrate.

Our 2022 iMatter report showed some really encouraging results, and we were particularly delighted to see positive outcomes relating to engagement, well-being support and leadership. We always aim to apply a person-centred, continuous improvement approach, which focuses on our staff’s experience, as we know this has a positive impact on the work we do.

That person centred approach could clearly be seen through our recent implementation of hybrid working. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) introduced a Blended Working Guide early in 2022, to support staff to work flexibly and to provide a healthy work and life balance.

The Clinical Governance Support Unit (CGSU) implemented this approach across all teams during Spring/Summer 2022. To do this, working together with staff, we developed a project plan with six key steps for implementation:

Planning – Engagement – Assessment – Pre-implementation – Implementation – Evaluation

A key part of our plan was working with staff to develop an Etiquette Guide. This provided some key principles and supporting guidance and aimed to give consistency to staff in terms of how hybrid working would actually work in our team.

Almost as soon as we had implemented the approach, we held a short workshop at the CGSU Team Session, to gather feedback from staff on their initial experience of hybrid working. Feedback showed us that staff liked the flexibility to choose when it’s appropriate to work from home and when to be working on site. The staff told us they continue to see the benefit of meeting together in person where it’s appropriate. We were really pleased to hear that they found the room booking system really clear and easy to access, allowing them to arrange all the practical requirements when coming into the office.

To keep the focus on staff having a positive experience, we also sought improvement themes from staff, and have taken these forward quickly. An ongoing evaluation is planned on a quarterly basis to continue engagement with staff and determine if the actions are resulting in real improvements, and to consider if there are any new actions we need to take forward.

Hear from Gail Caldwell, Director of Pharmacy for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, talking about the Pharmacy Strategy, which focusses on a culture of empowerment and enablement for all their staff.

Click below to hear more: