As the UK’s largest employer, the National Health Service is acutely aware of the critical importance of both effective communication with, and the retention of, its workforce.
To help address high turnover levels, it created ‘Stay and Thrive’; a programme designed to assist newly recruited international nurses integrate into the NHS, helping to create a compassionate and inclusive culture, and ultimately improve staff retention.
Challenge
The Stay and Thrive team approached Scriberia to communicate the outcomes, insights, and progress achieved during its inaugural year-long programme. The challenge was twofold: to prioritise areas heavily impacted by staff retention issues and also ensure that the findings reached a wider audience and had a lasting impact across the entire NHS.
The team required a solution that would address the key communication challenges: conveying complex ideas and solutions, overcoming language barriers, and engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders.
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Solution
The project kicked off with four in-person events, each with over 100 people, from more than 40 NHS organisations. At these events, attendees shared examples of community initiatives, best practice and lived experiences. Our scribes were present to vividly capture and illustrate these discussions. This approach helped engage participants, encouraging them to speak up and have their voice heard and contribution recognised in real-time.
We produced four session output illustrations and two animations, highlighting real-life stories that celebrate diversity while safeguarding anonymity. Additionally, we created a 'summary vision map' complete with a QR code to direct individuals to additional content.
We carefully aligned the artwork with the NHS's existing colour palette and illustration style, consistent with the People Promise – an organisation-wide commitment to enhance the NHS work experience. This ensured consistency with existing NHS assets for broader distribution and impact.
Watch a "Stay & Thrive" animation...
Results
These assets have become a cornerstone of the Stay and Thrive communication strategy, shared across multiple channels including Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo and their intranet as well as in person at conferences, presentations and learning events. They have helped to quickly and succinctly communicate the outcomes of the project, which would otherwise be lost in text and medical journals and reduced the barrier to entry for non-native English speakers.
“The visuals provide a fantastic way to quickly summarise the key elements of the project, especially for those who wouldn’t usually read academic journals so that they can go away and take action.”
Stay and Thrive Team
The Stay and Thrive Team reports: “The visuals provide a fantastic way to quickly summarise the key elements of the project, especially for those who wouldn’t usually read academic journals so that they can go away and take action.”
The project has also been shared with all 7 NHS regions, growing the visibility of the campaign and its core message to build membership.
“As someone new to the ops team, seeing the live story from the initial events and being able to understand the impact of conversations that I wasn't privy to in the moment, has enabled me to really understand the journey that the team has been on. I can quickly see and understand where I fit in and how best to communicate the project to new members,” the report adds.
And here art Scriberia, we're very pleased to say the work received an Award of Excellence from the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) as well as a Platinum award in this year’s Dot Comm awards.
