NHS Blood and Transplant empowers employees with a unified service experience

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is an essential part of the National Health

Service (NHS), providing the blood donation service for England and the organ

donation service for the UK. The organisation manages the donation, storage,

and transplantation of blood, organs, tissue, bone marrow, and stem cells, and

researches new treatments and processes.

NHSBT employs 5,500 people across the UK who work in a wide variety of

roles in different settings. These include staff:

• At blood donation centres and mobile blood collection units

• That liaise with donor families and organ recipients in hospitals

• Researchers in NHSBT laboratories

• Members who carry out operational functions such as HR, finance, and

facilities management

With a purpose to save and improve lives, supporting the NHSBT workforce

is critical to its successful operation. Wendy Dewey, IT Service Manager, NHS

Blood and Transplant, explains: “It’s incredibly important that our workforce is

empowered to focus its time on the activities that support patients, donors,

and their families. Delivering the services they need to excel in their roles is

essential to our success.”

NHSBT was using the ServiceNow Platform to deliver a number of services to help

employees, such as the IT service desk and HR support, but Wendy knew

they were only scratching the surface of what was possible.

“ServiceNow was working for each department, but we had a piecemeal

way of using the platform,” explains Wendy. “There were multiple entry points

for employees depending on whether they wanted to contact the IT service

desk, HR department, or finance, for example. We saw a big opportunity to

bring all our services into a single portal on the platform.”

NHSBT unifies the employee service experience with a

self-service portal built on ServiceNow

NHSBT launched its new services portal, unifying the employee service

experience into a single online destination for any member of staff to get the

help or information they needed.

Through a web browser, either on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device, employees

can launch the portal to instantly access a range of organisation-wide services,

wherever they are.

For example, they can check holiday allowance with the HR team, query

a figure on their pay slip, or raise a support request for new IT equipment.

Workflows and automated processes route the queries to the best team for

resolution or provide the right information, with no human intervention required.

“The Now Platform initiated a significant change in the way people interact

with services and receive the support they need to carry out their role,” says

Wendy. “We’ve made it easy for employees to engage with the services they

need to do their job, with a seamless, user-focused experience.”

The strategy has brought consistency to service delivery across the organisation.

All 5,500 employees use the same portal and follow the same process—and that

means they receive the same, quality employee experience.

Our workforce is very diverse and dispersed, with employees performing very

different functions,” says Wendy. “Our unified service portal ensures every

employee can access the same information and help, regardless of where

they are, what their role is, and what device they are using.”

Creating a sophisticated service environment was also a key objective for

Wendy and her team, as she explains: “Patient and donor safety and care is

always first and foremost, but that doesn’t mean we should compromise on the

quality of services delivered to our employees. Our workforce is NHSBT’s biggest

asset. With ServiceNow, we made it easy for our employees to work within the

organisation that employs them and empowered them to contribute.”

The organisation carries out three or four key releases every year, with every

one designed to eliminate more manual processes, speed up the service

process for employees, and enhance the experience.

A steering group owns the way forward, made up of decision makers across

the organisation to form a multi-discipline team that is empowered to “create

the art of the possible."

“The steering group has started conversations and a collaborative approach

to working towards a common goal,” says Wendy. “It’s been a springboard to

really accelerate our strategy for unified service delivery. People are seeing

the benefits and putting forward business cases as a direct result of their

own experience.”