A new digital tool has been launched to monitor wellbeing levels of NHS staff faced with the challenges of Covid-19.
Trickle, which has been used by government agencies as a management tool to better engage staff, has enhanced its platform to help healthcare leaders take a daily ‘temperature check’ of the wellbeing of frontline medics.
The “How was your day?” app – an adaptation of the main product – is a result of a collaborative project part-funded by Scotland’s Chief Scientist Office; it is being run during its pilot phase in conjunction with NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside, the University of Aberdeen and the University of St Andrews.
Founded in 2018 by Paul Reid, who previously founded geospatial solutions specialist Sigma Seven which was subsequently acquired by FTSE 100 business outsourcing group Capita plc in 2015, Trickle has quadrupled its headcount to 16 over the last twelve months and now has a sales team in place to target the corporate and public sectors across the rest of the UK. Recent customer wins include transport operator FirstGroup plc. Other client wins during 2020 include West Dunbartonshire Council, Aberdeenshire Council, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and Food Standards Scotland.
Trickle CEO and Founder, Paul Reid, said: “The new tool is designed to help the NHS understand the daily conditions and stressors that staff are working through. There is a graph that can plot – on a day-to-day basis – if the situation is improving or not; there are reporting elements which allow staff to feedback any concerns that staff might have, how they are feeling, and whether there are adequate PPE supplies, for example.”
He added: “Trickle came through the Scottish Government’s CivTech digital accelerator programme, so we’ve been closely aligned with the public sector in Scotland since our early days. While the last year has seen us expand our activities with the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, particularly in light of challenges around the coronavirus pandemic, we’re also rapidly growing the corporate sector side of the business and are increasingly engaging with organisations across the UK.”
Dr Simon Edgar, Director for Medical Education at NHS Lothian, said “The most joyful and engaged healthcare staff feel both physically and psychologically safe, appreciate the meaning and purpose of their work and perceive their work life to be fair and equitable. This fantastic enhancement to the Trickle platform will give us real time data and a direct connection to the voice of our doctors in training to help us create positive change together.”
Trickle’s new hires in 2020 covered its new customer wellbeing team, marketing, sales and tech roles, while Reid plans more recruits this year when Trickle plans to embark on its next external investment round. A number of angel investors who had previously backed Sigma Seven, supported Trickle in its most recent round, a £1 million seed funding round led by Techstart Ventures.
Paul Reid added: “This year’s focus is on sales growth and scaling up the business, underpinned by the further development of our product to ensure it’s even better at supporting our clients around positive workplace engagement and wellbeing. 2020 saw monumental and unanticipated changes to the work dynamic and so it’s never been more important for organisations to focus on meaningful employee engagement, wellbeing, and mental health as they strive to become more people-centric. What we know is that the right kind of digital tools can help to address these pressing areas, resulting in greater happiness, productivity and staff retention.” In November, Trickle was selected as a Regional Winner (Scotland) in Tech Nation’s Rising Stars 3.0 competition, a nationwide competition that seeks to find the most innovative and exciting digital tech startups in the UK.