The August 2016 issue of Pay and Benefits puts the spotlight on Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) and their partnership with CiC.
Sara Brown, Deputy Chief Officer for Workforce Development at the Hospital, explains how working with seriously ill children can take its toll on employees. Findings from a National Staff Survey at BHC showed a rising number of employees experiencing stress from work. While employees were admitting to suffering from stress, actual sickness absence rates at the Hospital continued to be low suggesting that stressed employees might not have actively been seeking help.
“We have had an external counselling service in place for staff. But we found it just wasn’t responsive enough, and didn’t provide the flexibility needed to inspire total confidence and trust,” said Brown.
In 2014, the Hospital chose to work with CiC in order to deliver a more complete counselling service.
“CiC’ s bid demonstrated their understanding of our needs and their experience. The discussions prior to implementation were helpful, the team listened to our needs and have met them without fail to date, providing flexibility and working in true partnership with us to ensure our staff are getting an excellent and responsive service.”
Brown points to the importance of working with a partner on services that aren’t off-the- shelf but can respond to organisational needs.
“CiC was the most cost-effective, but that wasn’t the primary consideration. Most important was the level of responsiveness and flexibility we’ve seen from CiC – we need to be certain our employees get the right response when they need it. We’ve found the same attitude in our requests for updates and reporting. They have come in to deliver briefings when we have asked and have been responsive to our needs.”