Kelly McGovern: Empowering Healthcare Staff for Lasting Change

The West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust now have the 7th shortest waiting time known nationally, the fastest discharge rate nationally and meet all three counter measures. Kelly has even managed to put in place processes that have gotten waiting times for ambulances down to zero. All of which are fantastic achievements!

"All of it is about leadership and helping the organisation and departments that you're in to feel empowered to make a change and to do something different. I think what has happened a lot over the years, is we've all got into a bit of a difficult spot, following on from COVID, and we all got into a bit of a rut. It normailised a lot of the things that are going on, and that's the whole of the community into the hospitals, and it's about releasing that." 

Kelly found that people were able to flourish when they were empowered to do what they do best, as they know best. Making sure that you support your staff, especially when they know a helpful change, can make a real difference. A lot of this is mindset, and creating a culture of employees feeling believed and empowered. 

"Me and a couple of others, we went in to the department in our uniforms, stopped all other work, and stood side-by-side with them and acknowledged with everybody, so we did a wider piece of communication, that the way we are working isn't okay and we need to change it, but I am not just going to tell you to change it. I am not going to dictate that. I'm going to come and work with you."

Kelly thought back to when she was a nurse, to have a better perspective on how she would have felt about the changes she was making. She felt that working side-by-side with the nursing team and doing jobs that may not be normal for her role would help strengthen the belief that they were all going to change and work together.

"None of us get out of bed to do a bad job, ever. We're in the NHS for a reason, we are in healthcare for a reason, and if we make it everyone's business, so everyone across the whole organisation, the front door is all of our businesses." 

Through celebrating everything - even when timings went up - everyone could feel more motivated and part of the team. Focusing on how much everyone's jobs help the greater community became key in getting some of these numbers to be much better. 

At the start, a key test on how the organisation was doing was by how many days it took to recover from a bad day. 

"It took us maybe three or four days normally to recover, and now it takes us half a day to recover, so that actually just shows how much we're changing as an organisation." 

Kelly’s tips for a happy workplace:

• Model the behaviour you'd like to see in your workplace.
• Break the rules that are presented.
• Let people have the freedom to make decisions.

Want to hear more from Kelly?

Kelly will be speaking more at the 2025 Happy Workplaces Conference on Thursday 12th June about how she created a culture of trust and empowerment with her people. She will share actionable ideas that you can takeaway and implement in your workplace.

If you can't make the conference, you can hear more in her interview on The Happy Manifesto Podcast, hosted by Henry Stewart and Maureen Egbe. Listen on The Happy Manifesto website, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Related resources

• How to Create and Maintain a Strong Culture in a Growing Team — Michelle was a guest on The Happy Manifesto Podcast in October 2023. Listen to this episode on The Happy Manifesto website, or wherever you get your podcasts.
• Pre-Approval in Practice at TLC: Talk, Listen, Change — Michelle talks about how TLC's Marketing Officer was Pre-Approved to create their new website in this two-minute video from the 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO Conference.
• Case Study — TLC: Talk, Listen, Change — All of TLC's frontline managers and aspiring leaders have attended the Happy Leadership Programme and one of the senior team has been on Happy's Level 7 programme. Find out what impact it's had in this case study.
• Creating a Culture of Leadership Development — At Next Jump, the focus has been on building a culture through which decision-making can be taught. Find out more in this video from the 2017 Beyond Budgeting Conference.
• Our Next Level 7 Programme for Senior Leaders Starts in September — Our Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship programme, the equivalent of a post-graduate degree or MBA, is focused on people and how you create trust-based organisations where people can truly fulfil their potential.

Next Conference: 2025 Happy Workplaces Conference

Our Happy Workplaces Conference is our biggest event of the year, and we'd love for you to join us on Thursday 12th June!

This year's event will be held at Happy's HQ in Aldgate, central London.

We may also offer a hybrid option for people to join us online simultaneously — do let us know if you are interested in joining online and we can add you to the waiting list.

As always, our next conference will be filled with interaction, discussion and space for reflection.

Find out more