38% of care providers who took part in our Care Trends Report 2024 struggle to ensure they have the required number of staff within a setting at any given time. And it’s understandable why.
Managing your roster takes careful planning, scheduling, and coordination to get the right team members to the right clients, but changes to the roster can happen at any time; childcare emergencies, transport issues or even bad weather can all throw an unexpected spanner in the works.
So of course, you need to be able to work quickly to make sure your team’s rotas are correct and your client’s never go without their care.
Time and attendance software can give you vital functionalities so you can take control of your rosters. Whether you manage a single site or have multiple care locations, Time & Attendance can help you keep on top of those complex schedules.
How Time & Attendance software helps you manage your rostering
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Enhanced Efficiency
Why should you have to spend more time than necessary creating and editing your rosters each week. And with a turnover rate of 28.3%, you can’t always be certain that you know each of your team’s availability. A comprehensive time and attendance solution can instead offer you roster automation so you can optimise your upcoming schedules and reduce those administrative burdens.
In just a few clicks, auto-rostering takes all the rules and permissions you have set and allocates the employees that meet your exact needs. It can consider things like your care worker availability, skill sets and qualifications so you can make sure you are scheduling the right team member at the right time, without you having to painstakingly sift through every care worker.
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Shift Templates
We understand that with an often changing and complex roster, mistakes can be made. But errors take time and effort to correct and may even have the potential to impact care delivery.
This is why shift planning tools such as roster templates can be a real benefit. Time and attendance software can allow you to create and apply shift templates for a variety of schedules and shift patterns. That way, instead of having to create a new complex schedule from scratch you can use a previous template, helping to maintain continuity of care and prevent disruptions to your service.
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Skills Mapping
Things like unexpected staff absences can add to the complexities that likely already exist when managing your social care roster. This is where skills mapping can be an asset to care organisations.
If a member of your team is on leave or is simply unavailable at that time, time and attendance software can show you exactly who else has the right skills or certifications needed to cover their shift. That way, you can quickly adapt the schedule and ensure your clients are still able to receive the high-quality care you work hard to provide. And you may even be able to limit how many people with certain skills can be off at a given time, so you don’t fall short.
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Shift Swapping
Team members wanting to swap shifts doesn’t have to be an extra task for you to organise. Time and attendance software can allow your staff to quickly trade shifts with another qualified employee if they have permission.
And your employees may even want to cover unexpected gaps in the schedule or pick up overtime opportunities. With cloud-based time and attendance software, they can see what availability you have to offer no matter where they log in, taking control of their schedules without the need for time consuming administrative input.
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Flexibility
No two days in social care are the same, and you likely adjust your plans frequently to keep up with the changing needs of the day. Time and attendance software should therefore offer you the flexibility you need so you can easily adapt to your service.
Our scalable Time & Attendance solution for example, allows you to automatically roster for fixed and flexible shifts, sending you updates when you’re in danger of going over your set budget. And as a cloud-based solution, you and your teams can access the software from anywhere with an internet connection, viewing schedules and accepting shifts at any time.
We understand that managing rosters can be a complex task, but we're here to help make it simple. Our user-friendly workforce management software, Time & Attendance, allows you to effortlessly configure your rotas, no matter the challenges that come your way.
To find out more about Time & Attendance in social care, register here to watch our webinar: Simplify Time & Attendance with expert tips