Market View
Adaptive HR in a Dynamic World: Navigating Diversity, Jurisdiction, and the Modern Workforce
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Interview with
Obibugo Maduako-Ezeanyika
Director of People and Deputy Chief People Officer
About Obibugo Maduako-Ezeanyika
Obibugo Maduako-Ezeanyika currently serves as the Director of People - Deputy Chief People Officer in the NHS. In this senior management role, she provides strategic leadership for workforce and is responsible for leading large teams including five Associate Directors, overseeing a wide range of HR functions. Her portfolio encompasses operational HR, employee relations, learning and development, organisational development, workforce planning, equality and diversity, health and wellbeing and other human capital matters. Obibugo also leads transformational workforce projects, including more recently the elective hub programme , addressing critical operational and performance challenges across the organisation and within the Integrated Care System.
How does your organisation navigate the complexities of operating under multiple jurisdictions within the NHS environment?
Our focus is primarily on working across organisational boundaries within the NHS system, particularly maintaining high quality services across multi-site presence. This has required integrating systems and processes while sustaining positive cultures and patient experiences across each hospital site. Over the past two years, we've shifted from operating as an individual organisation to adopting a collaborative partnership approach across the system. This shift has led to exploration of how we can generate efficiencies using technology as we streamline processes.
Our recently developed corporate strategy centres around working as one wider health and social care community, emphasising partnerships with other organisations and systems while putting the patient at the centre of all we do. This approach aims to provide patients with a consistent experience across organisations. In terms of workforce management, we're leveraging technology to create efficiencies. For instance, our learning management and payroll systems play crucial roles in this regard.
However, we still need to localise in terms of organisational identity and providing a bespoke model for patient experiences. We also face the challenge of competing for employees while trying to streamline our operations. This competition creates tensions in the system requiring a prioritisation in order to manage broader system's demands so as to address talent and recruitment challenges.
In what ways does your organisation address the challenges posed by this diverse, decentralised workforce?
To address these challenges, we rely heavily on workforce planning, particularly at the local level. Operationally, much of our resource planning happens locally within different clinical divisions, specialties, and disciplines. This local governance helps us truly understand our workforce and address operational needs in terms of staffing and care delivery.
To integrate and centralise our understanding of our workforce from a strategic perspective, we're in an evolving, embryonic stage. There's still much to do in this space. However, we prioritise resources to ensure autonomy and control at the local level, as divisions better understand their specific workforce needs. We also utilise human resource business partners to facilitate and drive conversations locally, incorporating transformative Organisational Development (OD) interventions as a catalyst for change.
Technology and digitalisation plays a crucial role in this process, but it can't exist in isolation. We see it as an enabler to drive important conversations that deliver goals and results. OD is vital in this context, especially in terms of culture and local adoption and integration of technologies. This remains a significant challenge for us.
How do you anticipate the future of HR management, given the rapid changes in the work environment?
The future of HR management is exciting, particularly within the NHS. There are immense opportunities to capitalise on technology to drive digitalisation and improve our processes. Increasingly, HR is moving away from being an isolated function to becoming an integral part of business planning and operational delivery. In many organisations, including ours, the HR Director or Chief People Officer is a voting member of the Board, elevating the status of HR in strategic decision-making processes.
The recently introduced NHS long-term workforce plan is a game-changer, compelling organisations to think differently about the workforce. HR technology will enable us to have a strategic overview of our current workforce, project future needs, and plan effectively in the medium to long term. This approach aligns with our organisational goals and vision for the next 3 to 5 years and is driving investment in this space.
How do you ensure your HR platform remains flexible and adaptive to the changing needs of your business?
Although we use the term ‘HR platforms’, these adaptive tools and platform ownership for driving this agenda belong to the whole organisation as it involves our entire workforce. We rely heavily on feedback from staff regarding the use of these platforms to ensure they are updated and meet the needs of the organisation.
Maintaining these systems can be challenging, especially when dealing with data quality issues. We focus on optimisation into our systems and processes, which requires education and training of managers to ensure our workforce understand the value of this system in enabling them to carry out work.
Moreover, there's a greater recognition of the importance of evidence-based data for decision-making. If we're not maintaining and updating our data, it will not enable us to make the right decisions for effective business performance. However, we often face challenges in terms of skills deficits and investment. Prioritisation, evaluation and effective resource allocation are key to addressing these issues.
How are you addressing the need for digital enablement in your workforce?
To address the need for digital enablement, we have a significant drive towards digitally equipping our workforce. We recognise that to address existing inefficiencies and improve the quality of patient care, both in back-office operations and on the front line, we need to ensure our workforce is digitally enabled.
It's not just about implementing new systems. There's a crucial transformational element to culture change. Therefore, we need to ensure our staff are comfortable and trained to use these new tools. It is critical that the change story is framed as work rather than replacing things as they know it as this can create resistance and a barrier to ‘buy in’. The narrative needs to emphasise that technology is an enabler, strengthening how people work, what they do, and when they do it. That's the key message we need to convey to our workforce.