Trust celebrates hat-trick of national digital award wins
Colleagues at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) are celebrating after scooping a third national digital innovation award this year for transforming how quickly new staff are recruited.
A team of human resources and IT professionals won the Digital Solutions Empowering the Workforce category in the RLDatix Awards, fighting off tough competition from across the country. It follows wins at both the Automation Anywhere Imagine Awards and the Our Health Heroes Awards.
The latest award is for leading the way and using process automation (RPA) to create a ‘bot’, which reduces the time it takes to hire employees and improve the onboarding experience for new colleagues.
Since the introduction of the bot, affectionately named Ravi, which has automated processes and reduced the admin burden on colleagues in recruitment, KCHFT has released 24,177 hours of time back to the team – the equivalent of more than 12 full time posts and £325,000.
The team has also been able to remove vacant posts, which has saved a further £135,000 and has reduced recruitment times by two weeks. The project has been so impactful that the team has been asked to share their expertise at national NHS events and conferences, including a briefing at the House of Lords.
These improvements have freed up the recruitment team to focus on what matters most – supporting services, improving the experience for new starters and delivering targeted recruitment for hard-to-fill roles.
Director of People Operations Sarah Hayden said: "I am thrilled for the team that they have won this award, the third this year. It is a testament to their hard work and how successful technology can be in supporting teams every day. As always, a huge thank you to the teams involved in these automations.
“The introduction of Ravi has transformed how we work, improved our performance and the experience of our colleagues. My team members’ time is now spent adding more value to the organisation in roles that are rewarding and satisfying, and the reduced recruitment times are making sure we can deliver better patient care by filling essential vacancies quicker.”
The RLDatix Awards recognise and credit those who drive improvement, champion patient safety and go above and beyond to enhance the quality of care for all. This year, there were more than 100 entries, across 65 organisations, with 12 winners announced.
Pictured are KCHFT’s Darren Spinks, Sarah Hayden, Joe Tinkler and Diane Alexander collecting their previous Our Health Heroes Award from Erika Bannerman (far left) Managing Director NHS Shared Business Services and Dr Dawn Harper (far right) from Channel 4’s ‘Embarrassing Bodies’.
