Retention Project: Using stay conversations to aid retention
Proud to Care Devon, in partnership with Devon ICS, is running a retention project. Here’s how you can get involved!
Why is retention important?
Recruiting staff in the current labour market is challenging, with both time and money invested in trying to find the right candidates. Focusing on retention is not only beneficial for team morale but can also help in reducing costs associated with recruitment.
What are stay conversations?
They are one-to-one, confidential, informal conversations between a manager and a team member. They can take place every six months and can last around 15 – 50 minutes.
They explore the individual’s current experience of work, through their eyes, and allow an opportunity to put measures in place to improve their experience and therefore encourage them to stay.
What will the project involve?
Small teams from your organisation to pilot the stay conversation and then provide feedback.
The project will be over a six-month period, with feedback tracked on a regular basis. What information is tracked will vary, depending on what data you already have available – no additional data collection or time is required collecting additional data.
Feedback from the pilot’s participants is requested at three and six months, via a short online form.
What are the benefits?
The benefits can include:
- improving retention can help with recruitment – become an Employer of Choice where the culture is recognised out in the community, from word of mouth of employees
- a decrease in financial costs associated with recruitment, along with the time spent inducting
- the upskilling of staff so that they can provide outstanding care to those you support, as there is an established link between staff experience and quality of patient care
- seeing and resolving potential problems early on
- improved staff experience and increased levels of staff engagement and morale
How do I find out more?
There are already some great initiatives taking place across to try and retain staff! This resource is designed to be flexible and could be incorporated into what is already taking place to further enhance retention, rather than replace anything you are currently doing.
Your feedback and ideas will help inform and guide the project forward. Gaining a better understanding of whether this resource is beneficial in a social care setting.
If retention is a new area for you, then this pilot may provide an insight with training and support available to help implement it so that it works for you and your service.
For further information, contact Annie Broadbent at annie.broadbent1@nhs.net or proudtocare@devon.gov.uk.
