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What is ESR?

Implementation history

Implementation History

Implementing the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR), the national, integrated workforce management system, has been a major achievement. The core implementation of ESR across all 586 NHS organisations in England and Wales was completed in March 2008, replacing 28 core payroll systems and 67 disparate legacy human resource systems. Over 1.2 million employee records are now live on the system, accounting for 7% of the working population of England and Wales. The full implementation of one of the world’s largest IT implementations in one of the most complex payroll environments was delivered on time and on budget.

The implementation project was divided into three phases:

Development Phase

This phase, which commenced in December 2001, determined the solution design requirements and the subsequent configuration and customisation of the software.

ESR is based on the standard Oracle Human Resource Management System. This was a complex phase which developed an NHS ‘layer’ of system configuration and customisation to ensure ESR is ‘fit for purpose’. Before system build, around 200 NHS Representatives worked with the Central Team, mapping business processes, translating the result into a system requirement analysis and a system design specification. NHS colleagues were involved in quality assuring the process and the outcome. Additional work was required in 2004 to make ESR Agenda for Change compliant.

Pilot Phase

14 Payroll Groups, comprising 39 organisations took part in piloting the ESR solution. The forward 3 pilot sites consisting of King's Lynn and Wisbech Hospitals NHS Trust, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust and North East Wales NHS Trust went live in October 2004. The remaining 11 pilot groups went live during 2005.

Pilot sites

The piloting phase of ESR was successful in ensuring that the ESR solution was fit for NHS purpose, together with helping to refine the implementation approach. Many lessons were learnt which improved the processes for rollout.

Rollout Phase

ESR was rolled out nationally in 12 waves of around 50 Trusts every 2 months between March 2006 and early 2008. Implementation was based on Payroll Groups and involved an 11 month engagement, commenced by the ESR Account Managers, each allocated to a Strategic Health Authority. Your Account Manager details can be found by clicking here.

The ESR implementation activities are shown in the Generic Payroll Group Plan (GPGP). The GPGP comprised an 11 month period (some data migration work was commenced prior to this if a Trust currently used a legacy payroll system that had not been migrated to ESR previously). The first three months of this activity is referred to as the 'Prerequisites' phase. ESR Account Managers were the main point of contact during this time and worked with organisations in preparation for the first of four 'Readiness Assessments'. Example criteria include establishing a local project board (governance), project team, a vision for day 1 and beyond.

On successful completion of Readiness Assessment 1, organisations passed into the 'Implementation' phase. Key activities in this period included data development (the central team developed and tested software to migrate data into ESR), together with user testing, education and 'cutover' to ESR. Implementation Consultants were the main point of contact during the Implementation phase.

The four Readiness Assessments took place at each critical stage of the project. Each one represented a quality gateway that had to be passed in order for the next stage of activities to proceed. Readiness Assessment 1 was at the end of the Prerequisites phase, with 3 Readiness Assessments during the Implementation phase.

A successful implementation of ESR required the involvement of staff from various departments locally, including HR, Payroll, Finance and IT.

To view the Implementation brochure, click here

Steady State

Now that rollout to the NHS is complete, ESR will be in steady state for the duration of the contract.

Rollout timetable

Rollout groups

Planning schedule for the rollout groups