What the NHS 2024 Survey tells us about the power of empowerment
This year’s NHS Staff Survey results fall during another period of major change. The headline statistics paint a worrying picture of burnout and dissatisfaction. We’re always keen to delve into the detail and look beyond the headline figures. While it’s interesting to see the response rates and general trends in how staff are feeling, what’s really important to us is the connections between their responses, and, crucially, what simple, practical action healthcare organisations can take to improve things.
While reviewing the data, we were struck by how strongly the theme of autonomy came across. By overlaying the data from areas where staff reported feelings of autonomy and empowerment with other responses, it was clear that this feeling was associated with many positive and important outcomes.
What do the statistics tell us about autonomy?
- Burnout: Staff who feel they can make suggestions and help drive improvements (Q3d + Q3f) and those with more autonomy (PP3_1) are significantly less likely to report burnout. Autonomy, in particular, has a very strong negative correlation with burnout — meaning the more control staff have over their work, the lower their reported burnout levels.
- Intention to leave: Staff who scored higher on autonomy-related questions (QPP3_1) are more likely to stay in their roles, showing a strong association between perceived influence and lower intent to leave.
- Motivation & Advocacy: Both the ability to make suggestions and improvements (Q3d + Q3f) and autonomy (PP3_1) are linked to greater motivation (E_1) and advocacy (E_3). The more autonomy staff have, the more likely they are to feel motivated and recommend the organisation as a place to work. These relationships were statistically significant across the board.
Feeling valued: There is a strong correlation between positive answers to autonomy-related questions and feeling valued. - Patient safety: Units where staff have more autonomy and where suggestions for improvement are encouraged report significantly better perceptions of patient safety (Q18). The ability to make suggestions had a particularly strong correlation – indicating that when staff are empowered to speak up and help improve care, patient safety culture may be stronger.
How can the NHS boost empowerment?
Despite evidence showing that autonomy and empowerment are associated with better wellbeing, retention, and advocacy, there is still a long way to go in truly empowering NHS employees – only 55.18% of staff feel able to implement ideas in their area, a decrease from 55.87% the previous year.
How can we empower the other nearly half of NHS workers to recognise that they often have the best ideas for improvement in their areas, particularly those working on the frontline?
Part of the problem is the lack of a real-time way to collect feedback and ideas. Tools like the NHS Staff Survey are a snapshot in time, focused on gathering feedback and less on collecting ideas.
Tools like the ImproveWell’s Idea Hub can systematically gather frontline solutions in real time, making it easy for staff to share their ideas, and easy for managers to spot themes and choose the ideas to implement that will have the biggest impact. Listening, implementing ideas and creating a feedback loop that celebrates the successes of these ideas is crucial to NHS frontline staff feeling empowered and in control.
Only 55% of staff feel able to make improvements happen in their area of work – if we start to shift the dial on this statistic, through autonomy and empowerment, we are likely to see positive impacts on other areas adding up to a healthier and happier NHS workforce.
Access the NHS Staff Survey 2024 results
