Is it time to re-energise, recharge and reconsider your relationship with your job?
by Andy Kirby
Chapter One: Some very strange advice
One of the oddest pieces of advice I ever heard from a colleague was also the most effective. It went a little something like this. This colleague, who was also something of a mentor to me, asked me if I’d ever had a work affair. My jaw dropped. My cheeks turned a darker shade of red. I didn’t know where to look. ‘Well?’ I was asked. So of course I stammered out my denial.
‘Nothing?’
I shook my head so hard I’m sure I could hear something rattling around up there inside my skull. This felt wrong. Intrusive. My heart was beating fast but for all the wrong reasons.
It was as though my colleague was reading my mind or could hear the pumping of my heart. ‘What sets your pulse racing then?’
A shrug was about all I could offer by way of a response.
My colleague took pity on me then and explained. They didn’t mean a literal ‘work affair’. The affair was a metaphor. I was being advised to find that thing at work I could have for me. The thing that – yes – set my pulse racing.
The way my colleague told it, while I was ‘married’ to my day job, and I loved my day job, I needed to find my tall,handsome/ beautiful stranger. A stranger who would energise me. Recharge me. Leave me breathless. Leave me sated.
Once I’d overcome my embarrassment I started to channel my inner (metaphorical) Barbara Cartland. I set about looking for that something extra. And, Dear Diary, at first I looked for love in all the wrong places. But eventually I found it. I recognised it immediately for what it was because it was risky. It would require a lot of effort. It would require a lot of juggling in order for me to do it – but because I sorely yearned to do it, I would do what was necessary. I would pull off that
delicate balancing act because, Diary, it would be worth it.
Chapter Two: The affair
My beautiful stranger came in the form of an email. The email contained a tantalising offer. Would I succumb? My every instinct told me it was wrong… but how could something which felt so right be wrong?
In confidence I spoke to my line manager. Told her of my fears, but also of my desires. She told me it was a massive risk. I should go away and think long and hard whether I had the time and energy for what was being suggested.
So I did. And, Diary, in the end I took the plunge. I responded to the email and said, blushingly, yes I was interested and I was flattered to be asked and sure I’d come for a meet. And I did. And the rest is history. And I haven’t regretted my work affair for a minute.
The email was asking for colleagues to interview for the role of deputy profession lead for the communications directorate at NHS Digital. It came from the communications profession lead. The role would include working with him on the team’s continuous professional development offering, conducting training needs analysis and skills audit, supporting the annual review process, assisting on some resourcing and staffing stuff, working up a new process for induction, and continuing the ShadowMe programme.
The email even came with caveats: “please do discuss with your line manager before putting yourself forward. We do need to be realistic about the time and your work commitments.” And: “personal resilience” was listed as one of the key things the profession lead would be looking for. But as soon as I read about this work I knew I had to express an interest. It had ignited a passion.
The reason why? Without wanting to sound too new age-y I’d been on a continuous professional development journey since joining NHS Digital. Indeed one of the main reasons why I wanted to work here in the first place was because of the many opportunities to learn which it provided, both in terms of formal training, but also informally, from any of the many specialists we have here. I used to make it my mission to learn something new every day – at NHS Digital, I’ve never scratched around trying to find that thing.
I wanted others to be able to experience the same journey I’d had, and to benefit from it as I have.
So I expressed an interest. I interviewed. And got the gig. The real bonus was I wouldn’t be doing it on my own. When he offered me the job, the profession lead asked me if I would mind sharing the role. Course I didn’t, especially when I found out who the other person was: a fantastic colleague from the media team. I just knew we’d complement each other; become a dynamic duo.
We started by working on our approach, which in a nutshell was to use the results of our annual communications skills audit to identify gaps in practical and personal skills which we would address over the year through a tailored programme which would meet individual and team-wide needs.
In terms of team-wide practical skills we’d be delivering a programme of targeted training sessions (known as learning labs) featuring internal and external speakers, presentations from some of our programmes, and talks from communicators working in other sectors.
In terms of personal communications skills, we identified mentors and coaches where needed, and we also sourced training from a wide variety of sources (CIPR/ PCRA/ GCS and other providers). Managers would be able to make use of this information in annual review discussions, and to inform personal development programmes for the following year.
Chapter three: What a difference a year makes
A year down the line, this is our learning and development offering:
Skills audit – identifies individual and collective skills gaps within the comms team which can be addressed through tailored individual training programmes and through group training (learning labs).
Through APDR (assignment, performance and development review) conversations with line managers identify training courses which can contribute to continuous professional development
Learning labs – a series of fun, interactive and thought-provoking talks from internal and external speakers on a variety of comms-related disciplines and on the work of NHS Digital programmes.
Comms team awaydays – bi-annually, featuring a range of internal and external speakers. Find out about the direction of travel of the comms team as a whole, as well as learning core comms skills.
ShadowMe programme – this programme matches up members of the comms team with their counterparts in the wider public sector and in the third sector. It aims to support shared learning, ideas and dialogue between communicators, forging links that will last beyond the exchange.
Chapter Four: Results
And here are some high-level outcomes:
Every quarter we ask the entire team to complete a comms attitude survey. The first wave of the survey took place in July and August 2019. In it, 43% of the team ‘strongly agreed’ that they were able to access the right learning and development, and a further 36% ‘agreed’. That’s a 79% positive response, which tracks significantly higher than the industry standard (for comparison, the CSPS (Civil Service People Survey) in 2018 had an equivalent question and only 64% of respondents answered positively). In waves two and three, we maintained this – 78% of colleagues agreed that they had a good (and in some cases excellent) level of access to learning and development across both occasions.
That wasn’t the only positive headline around our continuous professional development offering. Late in 2019 we ran an integrated promotional campaign including video, social media, PR to promote the launch of our ShadowMe programme. We saw a fantastic 130 applications in the first week after launch and by the time we closed our books we’d received 251 applications. We then matched members of the team with applicants based on set criteria.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 hit shortly after we made the matches, but despite that I am still hearing stories of successful exchanges. I had a very rewarding visit to a comms colleague, Ella Thompson at Macmillan Cancer Support in London just before lockdown. The visit gave us the opportunity to share learnings and build a relationship. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to reciprocate – Ella’s visits to see NHS Digital in Leeds were arranged for April – but although we haven’t been able to continue with the physical ShadowMe visits, we have continued to enjoy regular virtual sessions. We also unfortunately had to postpone our group learning days, which were for any applicants who weren’t matched. We’re committed to doing these as soon as we’re able.
A less tangible outcome would be the very low staff turnover rate. It’s less tangible because a lot more goes in to people staying in their jobs than simply having good access to learning and development (there’s good leadership, purposefulness, the spirit within the team to name but a few). And yet, that level of turnover is very low – nobody has left a large team of around 50 comms professionals in the past twelve months – and that’s in the year following a significant restructure.
I’d say it all points to the fact we’re all a little bit in love with the learning here.
Chapter Five: An affair? Really?
What’s the one thing people always say about those who have had affairs, who’ve led double lives? It’s this: “How did they find the time?” My work affair has certainly required me to put the time in, to keep the desire burning and to balance all this with the day job. Yet it was something I was so passionate about doing - something I needed to do - so I managed it. I rarely procrastinated in my day job so I could make sure I had time for ‘my affair’. It would also be fair to say that it improved my relationship with my day job; I better appreciated its steadiness and quirks and was happy to accept that it may not routinely get my pulse racing. I now had something that did.
It’s worth pointing out, for absolute clarity, I’m not advocating affairs. Nor am I making moral judgements on those who have found themselves there. The odd affair analogy I got from my colleague stuck with me probably more than any other advice I’ve been given. And so it was, I think, worth passing on.
Maybe you don’t think you need a work affair, that you’re already getting absolutely everything you need from your work relationship. But, if you want that one thing at work that sets your pulse racing - be it professional development, the chance to get creative or the opportunity to help someone develop – then why not go looking for it? Go and find the stranger who can energise you.
Andrew Kirby is deputy communications lead at NHS Digital. You can say hello on Twitter at @andrew_kirby1
