Background NHS Tayside (NHST) has to solve a fundamental and long-term problem created by its need to attract, engage and retain high quality clinical and non-clinical staff to deliver its care objectives. To do so, NHST has to develop a distinctive identity from other Boards in Scotland to become known as an ‘employer of choice’. Simultaneously, however, it is required to be the same as other Boards by following NHS Scotland’s ‘Once for Scotland’ approach as an employer. This authenticity conundrum poses a fundamental question for NHST: what is the right balance between being simultaneously different and the same as other health boards? One solution to this question is to engage in employer branding as a key reputation management strategy. Employer branding is a process that refers to an organization’s motivation and ability to: “...become known by key internal and external stakeholders for providing a high-quality employment experience and organizational identity that employees and other stakeholders value, can identify with and are willing and confident to promote to others.” (Martin, et al., 2012). The Pilot Project For employer branding to be recognised as authentic by existing and potential staff, the process needs to resonate closely with existing employees’ images of NHST as an employer – past, present and future. Thus, the starting point for any proposed employer branding project is to ascertain the sense making of different grades/ types of clinical and non-clinical staff at different career stages. To do so, we are carrying out a pilot study by interviewing a representative sample of NHST staff to learn about: (a) how they see NHST as an employer,both past and present, (b) how they make sense of what significant ‘outsiders’ think about NHST as an employer, and (c) how they would like to see NHST develop as an employer in the near future - what does good look like? This research will be used by NHST to develop a strategy to help it become an employer of choice in healthcare in Scotland, and be used as basis for more extensive research on the topic
