ESR self service

Introduction to ESR

The Electronic Staff Record is part of the Workforce Services Directorate within the NHS Business Services Authority. ESR is led by the NHS ESR Central Team which works in partnership with IBM to oversee the operational delivery of the ESR solution.

ESR exclusively offers the provision of an integrated hire to retire workforce management solution for the NHS in England and Wales.

The solution is developed by the NHS for the NHS. With organisations having access to regional account managers and functional experts, they are supported to progressively implement all aspects of the solution, using best practice processes. The effective use of ESR is intended to drive efficiency and productivity improvements across the NHS. Specifically, rationalisation of corporate service functions, such as recruitment, HR, and payroll can be achieved by embracing the opportunities that a national integrated solution such as ESR brings.

Since full roll out in April 2008, the ESR solution has successfully and consistently managed to enable the NHS to deliver annual benefits in excess of those identified in the approved business cases. Annual baseline benefits from the 2005 business case were confirmed by the OGC as being exceeded by over 30% and actual annual benefits from the latest business case are forecast to exceed the baseline figures by 50%. The latest forecast ESR annual benefits are £181m cash releasing benefits and £251m non-cash release benefits.

The investment into the infrastructure and capability of the ESR solution gives all NHS users, not just professional users, the ability to interact with ESR at any time, from any device, at any location.

With increasing pressure on NHS budgets the ESR solution is supporting organisations to reduce costs, improve workforce planning and management and empower NHS managers and employees to take ownership of their data.