Employee wraparound: integrated holistic management of employee workplace matters

Aims

• Increase staff satisfaction regarding the level of support provided through the entire duration/management of complex employment matters. The target is to increase this from 0% to 75%.
• Reduce the average time taken by People & Culture staff to obtain information in relation to complex employment issues from 50.5 hours (May 2019) to 10 mins (June 2020).
• Increase operational managers level of satisfaction in People & Culture’s management of complex workplace matters, from 45% (May 2019) to 80%  (June 2020).

Benefits

• Improve case management processes and functionality within the People & Culture directorate as measured in average costs and time in case handling.
• Improve compliance rate with record keeping employment matters by local management and within the People & Culture directorate.
• Reduce the number of workers compensation claims which are related to delays in addressing workplace matters.

Background

Through the nature of their work, paramedics experience physical and mental health impacts that can impact on their interpersonal relations, work performance and personal life.

A 2017 NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into bullying and harassment within emergency services, including NSW Ambulance, reported a much higher risk of being exposed to trauma. The report also noted that that exposure to psychosocial hazards in the workplace could potentially cause or exacerbate mental health illness.

The report also stated that many paramedics have little confidence in the current policies and procedures in place to manage such workplace matters. To address this issue, an integrated person-centred case management response to workplace matters was proposed.

Currently, employment support services within NSW Ambulance are delivered by specialised units within the People & Culture directorate: Human Resources (performance management), Industrial Relations, Healthy Workplace Strategies (workplace grievances), Safety and Recovery (workers compensation) and Professional Conduct and Integrity (professional standards). These units operate independently, with their own discrete case management processes and database systems. Collaboration occurs on a case-by-case basis and are reliant upon direct communication between individual case managers. This ultimately impacts on the timeliness, coordination and quality of support provided to staff and their managers, who assist in the management of the employment matters.

Through the project, NSW Ambulance will integrate and streamline processes and systems so as to improve the sharing of information, timeliness and coordination of these services.

This will mean that staff with complex issues do not have to tell their story several times to different units and should have reducing waiting time for their queries to be resolved, as the information required will be readily available.

Through better management of complex employment matters, staff will feel more supported and their health and wellbeing will be safeguarded to enable them to provide better patient care to the NSW community.

Implementation

This project involves implementing three solutions during the period July 2019 to June 2020. These solutions will be implemented simultaneously.

1. Creation of a centralised database. Steps include:
   • develop business case for executive approval
   • develop system requirements via stakeholder workshops and initiate tender process
   • engage with vendor for solution development
   • solution testing and user training
   • pilot solutions and evaluate
   • transition to ‘business as usual’.
2. One stop contact point. Steps include:
   • develop a business case for executive approval
   • prepare position descriptions and recruit personnel
   • process development for optimum benefit and efficiency
   • internal promotion of this service.
3. Case management framework. Steps include:  
   • literature review
   • case management framework development via working group
   • user training
   • pilot solutions and evaluate
   • transition to ‘business as usual’.

Status

Implementation – The project is ready for implementation or is currently being implemented, piloted or tested.

Dates

• Initiation – 25 February 2019 to 24 March 2019
• Diagnostics – 25 March 2019  to 26 May 2019
• Solutions – 27 May 2019 to 30 June 2019
• Implementation – 1 July 2019 to 14 June 2020
• Evaluation – 15 June 2020 to 30 June 2020

Implementation sites

This is an agency-wide initiative. It will be managed by the People & Culture directorate located at NSW Ambulance State Head Quarters at Rozelle.

Partnerships

The partnerships are with the business units within the People & Culture and other NSW Ambulance Directorates.

Evaluation

The plan for evaluation is outlined below.

• Collate data from client data based validating response times.
• Collate data from surveys and interviews from staff to evaluate staff and management satisfaction levels on the management of employment matters.
• Collate data on number of workplace matters referred to worker compensation.

Lessons learnt

• Develop sensitive ways of collect client input and do not rely on one method of collecting client data.
• Develop a sponsorship agreement early in the project and refer to it when required.
• Team members and project team leaders need to be flexible in balancing responsibilities of work and project demands.

Contact

Trevor Cheung
Senior Investigations Officer, Professional Conduct & Integrity
People & Culture directorate
NSW Ambulance
02 9779 3873
Trevor.Cheung@health.nsw.gov.au