Digital Workplaces for NHS Staff Retention | News

Workforce shortages and rising service demand have made staff attraction and retention central to NHS strategic planning. Trusts are looking beyond recruitment alone and focusing on how to create working environments that encourage people to stay, develop and contribute with confidence over time. 
 
Digital Experience and Workforce Strategy 

Although much of the NHS digital transformation effort has concentrated on patient-facing services, the digital experience of work is influencing the staff side of the NHS workforce. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan recognises culture, wellbeing and experience as part of the wider need to stabilise the workforce. Trusts with more modern digital workplaces are beginning to see practical benefits ranging from higher engagement to smoother onboarding and a more cohesive internal culture. 
 
In many clinical and non-clinical settings, digital experience is not just a convenience. It shapes whether work feels manageable, whether people feel valued in their contribution and whether they feel part of a connected organisation rather than a disconnected series of teams or directorates. These factors directly influence whether staff choose to stay and whether potential recruits view the organisation as a modern place to develop their career. 
 
The Fragmented Digital Estate 

Across many organisations, essential staff journeys such as onboarding, completing training, accessing clinical policies, receiving internal updates and recognising colleagues take place across multiple systems. Staff must stitch these processes together on their own. A unified digital workplace brings these interactions into a single platform. This creates a smoother experience that supports performance and wellbeing and helps staff feel more confident in their role. 
 
Recognition sits within this context as a cultural accelerator. Traditional recognition is often manual or occasional, whereas digital recognition makes appreciation visible, participatory and continuous. This can include peer to peer thank you messages, visible appreciation across roles and sites, and real-time notifications that allow positive acts to surface across the Trust. When staff feel appreciated rather than undervalued, the workplace becomes an environment they are more inclined to stay in and recommend to others. 
 
Workforce Impact at Barts 

The experience at Barts Health NHS Trust illustrates how this works in practice. One of the largest Trusts in England with more than 24,000 staff, Barts introduced a recognition capability through VerseOne DXP to support emotional wellbeing and enable staff across hospitals to recognise one another easily. Eight months after deployment, the Trust reported: 

• 79% of staff agreed the initiative recognised everyday acts of kindness
• 55% felt more appreciated in their role
• 70,544 messages of appreciation sent in seven months
• recognition occurring every five minutes across the day and night 

Clinical teams who previously engaged less with the intranet began participating in large numbers, demonstrating that digital recognition can penetrate professional boundaries and strengthen connection across the organisation. Participation scaled because the experience itself was intuitive and rewarding, not because it relied on incentives. 
 
A Positive Direction for Workforce Strategy 

Retention is not only about wellbeing. It influences whether Trusts can maintain knowledge, support training and protect continuity of patient service. When staff remain within the organisation for longer, handovers become smoother, onboarding becomes faster and expertise is retained. Modern digital workplaces support this by giving staff a single environment where essential tasks, cultural interactions and professional development take place together. For new recruits, this signals that the organisation is modern and supportive. For existing staff, it reinforces a sense of belonging and commitment to the Trust. 
 
Attraction and retention ultimately depend on creating a place where people feel that their time and contribution matter. Modern digital workplaces help Trusts move towards that future by enabling smoother daily interactions, stronger cultural bonds and clearer alignment to the mission of improving care. 
 
To explore how platforms such as VerseOne DXP can support attraction and retention within NHS workforce strategy, you can read the Barts Health case study, join our free webinar on Recognition or book a no obligation demo.