Our NPC Team – Meet our People Manager (Retention), Morgan Mowbray

HR teams are crucial to any business to drive employee engagement, increase job satisfaction, help create a positive and strong culture and recruit and retain the best people. At NPC, we have recently appointed our People Manager (Retention), Morgan Mowbray.

Morgan began her journey with us in January 2023 as our HR Advisor Specialist and has since progressed into a brand-new role helping us to support and retain our brilliant staff and increase employee engagement across NPC. Morgan sat down with us to discuss her new role and why she loves supporting the staff of NPC.

I grew up in Wallsend, being born there and going to school there. After studying my A-Levels I decided to apply for a Human Resources Degree Apprenticeship with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Although many of my friends were going to university after school, I decided to go down the apprenticeship route as I wanted access to more practical experience, alongside studying.  

There is a common misconception that to be able to get a job in certain roles you must study at university first and this is not the case at all. Apprenticeships can open so many doors within your career, I know people within the trust who started on an Apprenticeship Scheme and have since progressed into Senior Management positions.  

I started my HR Apprenticeship with the trust in September 2017 and started working within the Recruitment Team, until I moved into the Operational HR Team in 2018. Working within this team was where my passion for HR began and I was able to gain a permanent position working as an Assistant HR Advisor in January 2020, and then HR Advisor in November 2020.

I first started with NPC in January 2023 as an HR Advisor Specialist. This was an exciting opportunity for me as I could increase my knowledge in another area of the organisation and also experience working within primary care which was brand new to me. During this time, we welcomed new practices, and our workforce grew to over 500.

In 2024, Northumbria Healthcare and NPC were successful in becoming exemplary organisations for the NHS England retention programme, The People Promise. As part of this development, a secondment opportunity came up for a People Manager (Retention) and I quickly jumped at the chance to apply. I was thankfully successful and commenced in the role in June 2024.

The People’s Promise is made up of seven different themes and our main focus areas are; ‘we are rewarded and recognised’, ‘we are always learning’ and ‘we work flexibly’ and I look at how we can deliver these areas to benefit our staff. Employee retention is a key pillar in the NHS long-term workforce plan and this role is focused on embedding all elements of the NHS People Promise within the organisation.

As part of this role, I have spent time in the different neighbourhoods of NPC, holding engagement sessions with staff to understand what staff would like to see to improve their experience at work and am working to implement their ideas. I love that I get the opportunity to involve staff members from all different departments in my role. I can work with staff members to create a working environment that suits their individual needs and seeing people happy makes the work I do worth it.

I also work closely with the senior management team to identify actions that we can implement throughout the organisation to fill any gaps in the delivery of the People Promise areas. Although a lot of my time is spent getting out and about and meeting staff, there are also elements of monitoring and reporting on the progress of the overall People Promise plan, which we monitor through staff surveys.

In August we introduced our ‘Better Together’ sessions for staff which focused on creating a conversation around retention, reward and recognition and flexible working. These sessions provided an opportunity to hear ideas from staff that would improve their experience at work.

We are also encouraging ‘Wellbeing conversations’ throughout the organisation which allow our staff to chat with their line manager or a trusted colleague about their experiences at work and any aspect of their wellbeing. To promote this, we have developed e-learning modules for managers to help them approach these conversations in the correct way.

What makes NPC a great place to work is the culture. Being a smaller organisation, everyone seems to know each other, and staff are always willing to help in whatever way they can no matter what the request is. This really reflects the great work they put in to make the patient experience the best it can be. You experience a real sense of belonging when working within NPC.

Outside of work, I love travelling and took a 3-month career break back in September 2023 to explore the East Coast of Australia. This experience allowed me to meet new people, build confidence, and visit some beautiful places along the way.

Although I’ve only been working in my new role as People Manager (Retention) for a short time, I’m excited to use my skills to help NPC achieve its employee retention goals in the long term. I feel like my skill set has grown massively since joining NPC back in January 2023 but there is still so much to learn. Our employee count at NPC is growing massively and I’m looking forward to working with our current and new staff members to help make NPC a brilliant place to work.