Working in the care sector can be extremely demanding with long hours, complex job requirements and sometimes multiple sites to visit in a day. Providing excellent staff management is of paramount importance to care homes. Care home owners have the responsibility to rotate staff regularly, ensuring they receive the right amount of time off duty as well as making sure the right skills are available within the team on duty at all times.
Many care homes are still reliant on manual and time-consuming schedule management solutions such as pen and paper or excel spreadsheets for staff management. This can lead to shift management being confusing for staff, with time and hard-earned money being lost as shift changes are not correctly changed or recorded. It can also lead to hours of unnecessary time being spent on admin by the care home management. However, the introduction of cloud-based technology means we are now in an established digital age, where processes can be transitioned to more reliable and efficient online systems. Cloud technology is revolutionising shift work in organisations across all industries, from hospitality, leisure through to the care sector.
Planday is changing the way the care industry operates through the use of user friendly cloud-based software. It is an online and mobile based shift management tool that places more control in the hands of employees, and can significantly contribute towards better staff retention and higher levels of staff satisfaction. Planday allows staff to swap shifts as they need to and according 
to what skills are needed where, and automatically syncs changes directly back into the central online records. Planday customers save on average seven hours of admin time per week and an eighth of the time they had spent previously on scheduling, freeing up time and budget for essential care staff.
A group of four care homes across Scotland, Avondale Care, implemented Planday technology last year and have already noticed the benefits it’s made to their small, but growing company.
The Director of Avondale Care, Adrian Hendry commented, “We are a forward-thinking company, always looking for the next innovation to help the care industry. From a managerial perspective, Planday provides more transparency as everything can be done electronically and quickly. Any contract or policy changes that need to be made, can be implemented simply through the system and everyone has sight of it. This in turn helps us with employee satisfaction, as all parties are aware of any changes to either day-to-day shifts, or larger scale business changes.”
