Improving staff enjoyment at work in a community mental health team: a quality improvement project

Staffing has been a significant problem for our community rehabilitation team in the past with high vacancy rates, sickness and turnover, impacting negatively on patient care at times. Our project aim was to improve staff enjoyment at work, in the hope that this might also improve staff retention.

We measured enjoyment levels by distributing an anonymous questionnaire weekly at team meetings, scoring enjoyment levels on a scale 1-10 and collecting qualitative feedback. We also calculated monthly staffing levels. The team developed a driver diagram and interventions were introduced from this including reflective practice sessions, monthly teaching sessions, staff social events and a cross-cover/duty policy with guidance on flexible working.

After the interventions were implemented, the median staff enjoyment score increased slightly from 6.75/10 to 7/10 and the median staffing levels increased from 61% to 89% over a period of 18 months. We found that staffing levels and enjoyment levels correlated with each other. From analysis of the qualitative feedback over the duration of the project, the number of negative comments received did reduce. It should be noted that the number of comments around the intensity of workload remained the same when comparing the baseline period to the final weeks of the project.

There was little change in staff enjoyment levels at work. This may be reflective of the general state of the National Health Service with poor levels of morale nationally but may also be linked to ongoing concerns in the qualitative feedback from the team about high workloads. Despite this, we made positive changes and the project helped bring the team together. The project further emphasises the link between staffing levels and enjoyment levels. Overall, our project helped to increase staffing levels and highlight the importance of well-being in the workplace.