Alder Hey and Strasys named as finalists in the HPMA Excellence in People awards for digital and workforce analytics
A partnership between Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Strasys has led to being a finalist in the “Bevan Brittan award for digital and workforce analytics” at the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) Excellence in People Awards in Belfast on 3 October 2024.
The HPMA awards celebrate the important work of the people profession across the UK. They showcase examples of what organisations do to improve patient care and continue the mission of improving health through people.
In many organisations, especially large healthcare institutions like the NHS, the workforce is extraordinarily diverse. Strasys worked with Alder Hey to uncover the individuality of each employee – considering their unique cultural backgrounds, motivations and behaviours – helping them develop more precise interventions to bring about real, meaningful change that motivates and enables staff to deliver better patient outcomes.
The award recognised the power of data-led workforce planning through a unique workforce segmentation approach. This has resulted in a 1% reduction in sickness rates and a 5% improvement in retention within a calendar year.





Melissa Swindell, Chief People Officer, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust explained “I’m thrilled to have been recognised by the HPMA for our work. We have improved in all our people promises in the staff survey this year. Working in partnership with Strasys has been a privilege and it’s challenged me to think about our people differently. It is making a real difference to our staff.”
For over a decade, Strasys has been partnering with healthcare organisations in the UK and abroad, supporting them in redesigning healthcare systems, enhancing frontline services and improving outcomes for patients.
Naeem Younis, Founder and CEO, Strasys says “Personally, this has been one of the most rewarding projects. Seeing the tangible benefits and the positive impact on staff has been wonderful. This initiative demonstrated how we can use existing resources and data to make massive improvements for staff, patients and the organisation. By thinking differently and shifting the focus from policy and regulation to understanding the human stories of staff behind the numbers, we can unlock the significant trapped value in healthcare.”
The use of data and the segmentation analytics in workforce planning is transforming how organisations approach productivity and performance. As exemplified by Alder Hey a focus on the human stories and thinking differently about the current workforce challenge can deliver significant improvement in retention, reduction in sickness rates, and financial savings.
Notes to Editors
About Strasys
Strasys is a leading analytics and innovation agency founded in 2015. It partners with healthcare organisations, systems, and governments across the UK and internationally to build healthier and thriving communities.
Strasys puts forward a different way of thinking to unlock and design a different future through a unique combination of advanced analytics, AI, scientific rigour and personal empowerment.
With a richness of skills and expertise spanning over three decades, Strasys moves health and care system thinking away from compliance and process management to customer experience management and become learning organisations.
Its mission is to enable leaders to innovate and make informed decisions, placing the right people in the right places to do the right jobs with the right resources, services, and capabilities, resulting in a healthier future for all.
For more information, visit https://www.strasys.uk/
About Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust provides care for over 330,000 children and young people every year. Alder Hey delivers clinical excellence for all children, for routine illnesses as well as very complex and rare conditions.
One of four stand-alone children’s hospitals in the UK, it is a national centre for neuro and craniofacial surgery, a regional centre for burns injuries and a Centre of Excellence for children with cancer, heart, spinal and brain disease. Alder Hey as an NIHR funded Clinical Research Facility (CRF) that specialises in the design, and delivery, of early phase drug trials in children with a wide range of conditions.
The Trust is one of only four epilepsy surgical centres in the UK and one of only two accredited major trauma centres in the North West. Alder Hey is also a respiratory Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) surge centre and is the referral centre for the treatment of congenital heart defects in North West England, North Wales and Isle of Man. It became the first UK Centre of Excellence for Childhood Lupus in 2010.
Alder Hey is the first accredited Investing in Children hospital in the UK. It has a dedicated patient experience programme which includes the award winning Alder Hey Arts involving music therapy, dance programmes, storytelling and animation projects. It is also one of a few hospitals to have a Children and Young Person’s Forum.
Alder Hey opened a new hospital ‘Alder Hey in the Park’ in 2015. Europe’s first hospital in a park, the new facility provides a purpose-built, unique and world class healing environment for children and young people.
Alder Hey is supported by The Alder Hey Children’s Charity which aims to raise vital funds for lifesaving equipment, research projects and patient experience initiatives.
For more information, visit www.alderhey.nhs.uk and www.alderheycharity.org