From corporate to NHS

[jackio2205]

Looking for tips, pros and cons of moving from a corporate environment (I currently work in HR in London) to working for the NHS, either in HR/admin or maybe even a complete change and get into nursing.

It's a broad question but just blooming fed up of corporate and want a complete change, want to be more local and to feel like I'm giving back slightly (if thats even possible) anyone got any tips? Xxx

I did this for 12 months, nope never ever again will I work for the NHS in any capacity. I had come from a commercial legal background and just found things too slow, too lackadaisical. Just couldn't get my head round colleagues who would get to say 16:30 and not pick up any work because it will keep till tomorrow, do a tea break and put their coats on to be rats out the sinking ship at 17:00 on the nose.

Saying that it was before I had kids so maybe if I had to do it again my feelings would be different. I am in no way denigrating the actual medical side of things, but the office side from the Chief Exec's office down to the humblest department typist - just the culture is so not for me. I was at a foundation trust across multiple hospital sites, one of the best performers in England as far as the medical side goes.

Appreciate your thoughts @AnnieOH1, I've previously found the change in culture from a small firm to global firm tricky because you'd just be used to doing things a certain way, but I can't say it'd put me off doing it again, but yes, something to consider for sure!

I have a friend who did similar (about 3 years ago) and had the same view as Annie - lasted about a year then returned to corporate life. Had ambitions of contributing to the greater good and making a difference.... but the reality was trying to steer an oil tanker with your hands tied behind your back. Bureaucratic, officious, backward, slow. He couldn't bear it.

I can cope with volunteering in a hospital but not working in one.

I can't get over how unhelpful staff are to each other. Employee 1 struggling to work a photocopier. Employee 2 sitting by a photocopier seeing employee 1 struggle. After some time, employee 1 asks if the copier is broken. Employee 2 confirms that it is, and has been for some time. Hadn't occurred to offer that information when employee 1 first started struggling.

I've seen this happening over and over.

Wowzer, yeah maybe i'll reconsider my thinking... just want a change and dont know where to look really. Back to the drawing board..... x

I think the responses you've received here have been surprisingly negative. Yes there can be a real culture shock, but don't underestimate the value to family life of leaving the office at a set time and being able to "leave the job at the office" to a certain extent.

I don't recognise what previous posters have experienced. Yes, it can feel like wading through mud at times but that's because you are part of an extremely large, complicated under funded institution, ironically it is also fast paced and ever changing - you will never be bored!. The vast majority of staff go above and beyond and you are exposed to such a variety of options in terms of prospects. At the end of the day I do feel like my tiny bit contributes to the greater good and I don't think I could go back to the corporate world.

I completely disagree with previous posters.

I moved to the NHS a couple of years ago having worked in corporate business all my life (late forties now). I was completely fed up the back stabbing and greed that drives most businesses.

Fast forward to now, I do a completely different job and work with an amazing team. I have never felt so well supported and appreciated. I feel safer in terms of my future heading into old age and know that I won't be replaced by a 'younger and prettier' model. Yes, it certainly isn't perfect and I do grumble about it but I wouldn't go back to corporate life now.

What are you hoping to gain by joining the dark side?

Thank you for posting and giving me another side, i was looking for all opinions so I can make an informed decision. I think I'm pretty settled on making a change from corporate, i think I need to spend more time with people from different NHS jobs to see what is for me and realistically what I can do witb qualifications and salaries x

My advice is to think very carefully.I moved from not for profit to the NHS this time last year and am regretting it big time. The culture is so old fashioned. It's very much 'command and control' (although pretends not to be). The IT infrastructure is from the dark ages, so many things seem to be done just to tick a box and everything just takes so long to get done. It's just all pretty joyless.

Having said that, there are benefits such as being able to work flexibly, decent pension scheme, etc.

I went from corporate to nhs acute trust and bloody love it. I get to work with truly inspiring people every day! I think it massively depends on the hospital's senior management. Mine is forward thinking, approachable and willing to enable managers to lead on projects and make decisions. We're allowed to try things and if they fail then it's fine because it's better to try something than do nothing.

I imagine other trusts may be harder to work for with lots of blockages. I can't be the only person who loves working in the NHS?!

OP I've been a nurse and now a health visitor. I have done corporate work for some pharmaceutical companies. I would not work for any other institution than the NHS, I know it has its negatives but I just love working for it. I love helping others and I love my job (90% of the time). I was a heart and lung transplant nurse and absolutely loved that.

It's very slow paced and processes are slow as people aren't willing to invest time or money until making them quicker. On the other hand nobody works a minute over their allotted time which is a bonus

nobody works a minute over their allotted time which is a bonus

I'll remember that next time I'm called at a weekend as the ED sister has a question for me or when I'm working until 7pm before a bank holiday/doing a double shift after walking 45minutes to work in the snow. We all go above and beyond when it's needed.

I employed a couple of people from the NHS to work in a bank and found them about as proactive as a teapot — thankfully both contractors so we just chose not to renew their contracts. A lot of management roles in the NHS don’t really count as management in industry.

Nobody works a minute over their allotted time?! Wtf?!

Not one trust I have worked in for my whole career has the HR department approached competence. It's a continual gripe from medical staff so may be if you are thinking about the NHS, not as HR.

Admin - have seen everything from totally amazing to shocking.

I moved from a corporate job to NHS (with a long period of retraining in between). I do not regret it. I care about what I do which is more important than anything else. The regular hours are good too. The pay is nothing special and it is hard to make progress quickly (in terms of promotion).

I couldn’t believe the culture shift when I moved from corporate to public. On my very first day, I looked up from my desk at 5pm and everyone had vanished. I couldn’t believe it. I was last in the office on my first day!

The lack of efficiency and no sense of looking for ways to make systems better may soon annoy you.

I work in corporate and a close friend works in nhs office doing same as me. I go put regularly with her whole office of colleagues as I’ve gotten to know them through her and had an interview there but declined the job. The reason I declined was because her colleagues just didn’t seem to have a clue what the real world was like. They spoke of taking days to do what in my corporate office would be done in an hour and also one of them would have become my assistant and we went to a meal one evening and she couldn’t tell me the basics required to fulfil being my assistant.
It put me off as they all seemed incredibly incompetent. My friend has since moved into a corporate environment and now gets what I’ve been saying. Yes private sector is difficult and stressful but if you want a career that can take you from place to place I personally feel the nhs would have to be the last point in my career or a retirement role. Yes you get more time off easier hours (well that’s what I was offered) but at the expense of a career, efficient workplace and unfortunately the culture in my local
Nhs office is turn up get paid go home. I liked my career in private sector says work hard get better at my job,
Of course there’ll be people within it that do work hard but there was a huge majority that I saw of lazy coworkers enjoying the luxuries the disorganisation allowed.

Actually when I started I did work in a week that colleagues thought would take 6months. That was a bit odd. Most of the old nhs people have now gone and we're all from corporate backgrounds so maybe that's the difference at my trust.

I moved from corporate to NHS in a ‘head of’ role. I lasted 2.5 years. Loved the first year, until I realised I couldn’t really make change and got depressed at all the waste and fiddle faddling around with commissioning and provider organisational structures.

Plus, culturally, I was speaking a different language to the rest of the Board who had mostly worked in the same town in the NHS all their lives.

My team were also utterly hopeless. I’d never have hired them. Couldn’t get rid of them either.

Actually I ended up with burnout. My role was enormous and I wasn’t allowed to either drop any of it or recruit a decent team.

I now work around the NHS rather than in it. Making much more of a difference.

Think carefully OP.

I left a corporate for the NHS and I'm really liking it so far but not been there long.

There are bad bits: the IT infrastructure is mediocre at best, but they are working on it. I miss stuff like everyone having Adobe acrobat automatically. But then, the IT infrastructure at my old firm was pretty variable. I miss having a work phone (and others having a work phone.)

I love the lack of stress. I lock my laptop in a drawer when I go home and that's that. No emails, no anything until I get in the next day.

I love that my colleagues care about me as a person and not as a worker drone.

However, I find out something ridiculous that it's mandated we do at least twice a week. I just laugh and shrug because that's all you can do. Maybe I can fix it in 10 or 20 years when I run the place, but I can't till then. I'm allowed to change everything that's within my directorate's remit that needs changing which gives me a lot of control.

My boss is extremely supportive and cares about best practice. But if they weren't, and I wasn't allowed to make changes, my job could be awful. I think it will be very very dependent on the financial status and clinical audit level. If you're in a trust that's doing badly, I think the culture could be nasty. If you're in a CCG that's badly led, again, might be unpleasant. You can check the ratings of the places you look at online.