Belfast Health & Social Care Trust

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust deliver integrated health and social care to approximately 340,000 citizens across Belfast, and provide the
majority of regional specialist services to all of Northern Ireland.

With a workforce of over 20,000 full time and part time staff, Belfast Trust also comprises the major teaching and training hospitals in Northern Ireland.

As they rolled out RLDatix Loop across their organisation in early 2023, we spoke with Donna Marie O’Kane, e-Roster Manager to discover more about how they did it, and the benefits they have seen:

• 12 locations
• 7,500 rostered staff
• 20,000+ workforce

What we were doing

"We were previously using EmployeeOnline. However, we found staff weren’t using the URL at home and during busy shifts, they didn’t have time to find or access a computer on site. Our available Bank shifts were not getting picked up easily. This was just creating more work for the bank team to fill these shifts. Because of this, we wanted to offer our staff an easier way to access their roster, as well as being able to book the bank shifts. That’s why we decided to introduce Loop, so people would have access via app”.

Our rollout: We went on tour

"Essentially, we went on tour and did site visits to all our locations. We had a budget from their senior team to promote Loop, including printing things like roller banners and posters to help spread the message. Ahead of our launch, we communicated it via various channels we had across the health board. We got support from our corporate comms team to promote rollout and site visits. Ours communications worked well, as staff turned up with the app already downloaded.”

"We really focused on the personal touch to our rollout by getting out there and seeing people. We also engaged managers to help promote to their teams. They were a great ambassador for us”.

Donna Marie O’Kane, e-Roster Manager

The results

"The sentiment from staff was good. The UI was new, yet familiar to staff members, so didn’t feel scary or something completely new. The Newsfeed makes it easier for staff to access communications, with corporate, rostering and nurse bank all posting comms on a weekly basis. We saw an increase in Bank shifts over the months after rolling Loop out. We were pleased with how it all went. We achieved this with our roster team of 2 full time and 2 part time staff. Our advice to other organisations rolling Loop out is to make it personal. By making visits and putting faces to names, it helped us really engage with teams. We are currently making our own ‘how to’ videos that are more personal to our audience”.

What our people had to say

The Trust asked their staff what they thought of Loop, and here is what they had to say*

• Very easy to use, informative and readily available access
• Very useful, handy to check roster
• Very convenient
• Good application to know my duty schedule
• Easy to use, very helpful
• Very user friendly

*Taken from in-app survey 440 Participants – 02/05/23 – 05/05/23

What’s next for us

"This was phase 1 of our rollout. We focused on just getting people using Loop for their rosters, a lot used to use EmployeeOnline so this was just a better way to access this. Phase 2, as our audience grows, we’ll be highlighting the automated groups to our Ward Managers to help promote communications across teams. Without having to get personal numbers and set up other group chats, we hope this will make it easier for teammates to connect”.