NHS England: Staff recognition framework (12 October 2023)

Summary

Recognition is about thanking people for their contribution at work. It is embedded in the organisational values of the NHS. By improving recognition we can deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s ambition to attract and retain the workforce we need to deliver improved patient care.

One of the seven elements of the NHS People Promise is, ‘we are recognised and rewarded’. It defines recognition as:

“A simple thank you for our day-to-day work, formal recognition for our dedication…”

It is important that we recognise our staff because evidence shows that pay alone will not influence staff wellbeing, engagement, and retention in the long-term – praise and social approval have also proved to be critical factors.

The NHS and wider health and care sector has faced unprecedented workforce shortages and pressures in recent years. Yet, the most recent NHS staff survey illustrates that approximately half of staff do not feel recognised at work.

NHS England has drawn on research and evidence and has worked with NHS organisations to develop this framework. It provides simple, easy-to-follow guidance and ideas for organisations to inform their own strategies and approaches.

Content

Developing a recognition strategy

The seven principles below provide guidance for creating an employee recognition strategy that connects your people to your organisation’s purpose and to one another.

1. Align your recognition strategy to your organisation’s purpose and values

Tell the story of how you connect the recognition of your staff to your organisational purpose to deliver excellent care for patients/service users. Show specifically how your people’s dedication and contribution at work makes a difference to your organisation, patients/service users and the wider health and care system.

2. Recognise people for a multitude of accomplishments

Recognise people for their personal career achievements, team successes, effort and work milestones. Everyone, from the new nurse who has recently completed their preceptorship through to the nurse that has just hit a forty-year milestone, must be appreciated to enable them to feel valued.

3. Incorporate both manager and peer-to-peer recognition

Recognition can be meaningful for people when it comes from both their manager and their peers. Enable leaders and managers to create their own recognition approaches that are aligned to their own team’s objectives. Encourage people to recognise one another following their own positive experiences and interactions as part of strengthening working relationships and creating a culture of recognition.

4. Give everyone a chance to recognise and be recognised

Provide different tools to enable people to recognise one another. Different working arrangements should also be considered. For instance, an intranet system might work well for home-based staff, but not all employees will have access to the internet or the opportunity to check their phone during work hours.

5. Ensure any awards are appropriate

There is no one-size-fits-all award type. When designing formal awards, ensure that the specific award and experience are sensitive to the broader context. For example, consider for an awards ceremony, consider how this might be perceived by your staff and the wider public and the best use of staff time and taxpayer funds.

6. Involve your staff at every stage

What works in one organisation might not work in another. So, involve your staff in the concept, design, delivery and evaluation of any recognition strategy. This allows your strategy to be staff-led and sensitive to local need.

7. Evaluate and refresh your approach regularly

What worked last year might not work this year. Review your strategy regularly (at least annually) to ensure it is adaptive to changes in the need of staff and the broader context. Re-evaluate any tools or interventions to ensure people are still utilising them and finding them valuable.