Effectively managing your care schedule is one thing: it’s another thing being able to analyse the information so you can better manage your resourcing budget without compromising care delivery.
Making the most of your time and attendance data allows you to streamline your scheduling processes, improve operational efficiency, enhance employee satisfaction, and ultimately deliver better quality care to your clients.
In this article, we’re looking at the ways you can use your time and attendance data to optimise your workforce.
5 ways you can get the most out of your time and attendance data
1. Planning ahead
In our Care Trends Report 2024, 32% of care providers told us they face challenges planning for their future rostering needs. And it’s understandable why, since you can’t always predict what the schedule is going to look like in the coming weeks or months, with things like unexpected staff absence or high turnover rates impacting your long term strategy.
But with time and attendance software, you can easily schedule your staff to mirror forecasted client need, meaning you can get the recruitment ball rolling now and be prepared for upcoming surges in demand. You may even be able to see who in your team has completed their training and can be put on the roster as soon as they become available.
This puts you in a position where you can actively plan for your workforce needs ahead of time and identify where that resource will be most effective, instead of turning to expensive agencies to fill unprecedented need.
2. Optimising staff schedules
The social care sector can be incredibly demanding, both on resource and your team’s wellbeing. Yet, being able to effectively balance your care workers’ workload can be a key driver for supporting your team and preventing burnout.
And as a care provider with multiple locations, it can also be incredibly difficult to have complete oversight of each of your team members availability. Plus, almost of quarter (24%) of care providers told us they can’t optimise the total travel / care time required for care workers to effectively deal with client need.
By viewing your time and attendance data, you can see exactly who you have available and assign your staff to shifts according to their qualifications, preferences and contracted hours, whether they’re temporary or permanent. You may even be able to spot trends around sickness or absences, to better understand which areas of your service may need some extra support.
3. Boosting cost efficiency
Like many industries, time is money in social care. So, when visits are taking longer than you would expect, team members are consistently being delayed or care workers are frequently doing overtime, how do you normally go about solving those issues and managing the subsequent costs?
With time and attendance data, you can work out job costings or how long certain employees are spending on each task. That way, you can identify where your resources could be used more effectively or streamline operations, helping improve the overall delivery of care.
You can even roster staff according to predefined budgets. This means that if a roster change risks you going over budget, the system will let you know first, allowing you to control costs without compromising on care quality.
4. Enhancing service delivery
Of course, data allows you to base your decisions on evidence rather than assumptions or anecdotal information. By monitoring your time and attendance data, your service can ensure proper staffing levels at all times, minimising gaps in coverage and addressing any attendance issues promptly.
You can even map your team members skills. And because of this, your care coordinators can easily see who the best fit for a client’s specific needs would be, rostering them in first time to ensure care continuity.
Plus, data insights provide opportunities for social care providers to learn from past experiences, identify areas for improvement to ensure high quality care continues being delivered going forward.
5. Meeting regulatory compliance
As you know, all businesses must ensure their employees are paid fairly, work the correct number of hours, and are taking their breaks and annual leave. Yet, managing your care workers’ hours can be a complicated and time-consuming task, with 19% of care providers telling us the recording of breaks, internal / external activities and shifts is challenging.
Time and attendance data analysis can help ensure that organisations adhere to these guidelines, reducing risks and enhancing overall governance. Automated rostering, for example, helps you make sure the right staff are on hand to meet your clients’ needs, whilst maintaining compliance with employee legislation and health and safety requirements so you don’t get caught out by non-compliance.
Time & Attendance software for social care providers
Time and attendance software removes those manual rostering burdens, seamlessly giving you data insights you simply wouldn’t have with paper-based scheduling and planning.
With our workforce management software, Time & Attendance, you can efficiently create your rotas, update shifts and track absences, all whilst gaining real-time data and productivity insights.
Find out more about Time & Attendance in social care in our webinar: Simplify Time & Attendance with expert tips