Staff morale at the time was at an all-time low, 30%, and the overall employee engagement score was just 54%.
Fast-forward to today and 91% of staff are now proud to work for the RCN, the world's largest professional union of nurses and healthcare support workers. The engagement score has risen to 85%. If that isn't proof enough of the transformation that has occurred, the RCN is the only trade union and professional association featuring on the annual Sunday Times Best Companies to work for ranking, at its first time of entering.
The remarkable transformation is testament to the strong relationships developed between and by chief executive Peter Carter and director of human resources David Cooper, who both joined the association in 2007. Cooper was given a seat on the executive board - the position previously reporting into the executive director of finance.
The poor staff survey results of that year provided a clear business case for organisational change. Only 28% of respondents said they were satisfied with the opportunities to get another job at the RCN. On top of this, nearly 60% of all the RCN's sickness absence was long-term, against a CIPD UK benchmark of 17%.
HR started the process of restoring leadership and management skills in the organisation, driving fit-for-purpose learning and development throughout the association. Among the approaches adopted were: the training of staff through coaching to act as career advisers who can support staff to realise their career goals; the introduction of a business support conference with inspirational speakers and aimed at support/administrative employees; and the introduction of core competencies and competency-based person specifications. While this is still bedding in, there has so far been a 7% increase in staff satisfaction with opportunities to get another job.
The combination of a redesigned private health insurance scheme (saving £150,000), an employee assistance programme and a new sickness absence policy has resulted in a rise of 17% of employees with perfect attendance.
RCN chief executive Peter Carter says: "With a dynamic and visionary director at the helm, the HR team has worked tirelessly to create a sustainable high-performance workplace. With the team being driven by a long-term vision, it now leads - rather than supports - effective change."
The strategy is paying off. Not only is employee engagement 24% above the not-for-profit benchmark, but 84% of employees would recommend the RCN as a good place to work (up 11%) and long-term sickness levels have been reduced by 25%.
On top of this, membership numbers are now at their highest ever level, almost double the target between 2009-2010 and generating a 4.2% boost in income in the past two years.
Judges were impressed by the commercial focus and turnaround in a failing organisation: the Royal College of Nursing is a worthy winner of this year's HR Excellence Gold Award.