Thanks to continuous medical advancements, more people are living longer. As beneficial as this is, it has placed the long-term care (LTC) industry under significantly more strain, especially when you include the number of households caring for a family member who has physical or cognitive limitations.
With the LTC industry facing such challenges, the need for innovative solutions has increased. Today, more healthcare facilities are gradually implementing smart technologies to help with providing the required personal care, with shift-filling software as the best example.
This post will take a closer look at the role this innovative technology can play and how shift managers and care supervisors of healthcare facilities, as well as LTC home operators, can use it to reduce their labour costs.
Reduce LTC Labour Costs with the Right Shift-Filling App
One of the most significant costs of most long-term care facilities is direct labour costs for personal support workers (PSWs). These labour costs also include other expenses associated with retaining and hiring such staff.
For other industries, labour costs generally remain steady throughout the year, only decreasing or increasing with raises, new hires, and turnovers. However, since the LTC industry has a blended mobile workforce consisting of full-time and part-time care workers, its labour costs tend to be more volatile.
The good news is that now, thanks to smart technology options such as shift management software, LTC administrators can manage and even reduce these PSW labour costs.
How Can Shift-Filling Software Help
Those working in a senior living or long-term care facility know how challenging it can sometimes be. Though providing our ageing populations with care is rewarding, caregivers often become overwhelmed and face much stress and frustrations.
Fortunately, with a ltc staffing solution, you can now resolve the unique challenges of the healthcare industry. One such challenge is that of filling shifts in an always-changing, high-stakes, and fast-paced environment.
The technology provides you with a shift-filling solution that allows you to connect all your staff at once through multiple notification options. You can request and cover shift requests in no time. By using shift management software, you can automate scheduling. Doing so can help you fill shifts more efficiently, relieve employee stress, boost productivity, and ultimately lower labour costs.
The following are some of the ways using a shift-filling app can help.
Saving Time
When the average resident-to-staff ratio, say, is 8:1 during the day and 32:1 at night, time is a valuable resource. Should you experience unexpected schedule changes, you will need to adapt quickly. Across the board, using shift-filling software can save you a total of 459,900 hours on scheduling every year.
With shift-planning software, you can react to unexpected schedule changes more quickly. All you will need to do is post an available shift. The app will automatically notify all available employees via phone call, text, or email, and they can respond to it.
Boosting Morale
Using a nursing home scheduling app will make it more convenient for your employees. They can see their schedule at any time, independently handle shift-filling, and get prompt notifications regarding shift changes.
Having improved, timely communication and streamlined processes can go a long way toward boosting employee morale.
What Shift-Filling Software Promises to Do for Your Labour Costs
While saving time and boosting morale is essential, implementing innovative technology can also help you reduce labour costs. The following are some of the ways that staff management software can reduce labour costs.
Optimising Employee Scheduling
One of the best ways to lower your labour costs is to reduce or eliminate unnecessary overtime brought about by the lack of adequate data or visibility. This significantly impacts your ability to make decisions regarding team capacity and to shift schedules.
By optimising scheduling, schedulers and shift managers can access the information they need to make the best and most efficient use of your employees’ availability. Furthermore, it helps employees by providing them with advance notices on shift changes, which reduces unpredictability and the burnout caused by frequent unplanned overtime.
Reducing Unnecessary Overtime
Efficient scheduling can help shift managers identify an underutilised workforce. The shift-filling software can help them see underlying issues and take steps to address them, allowing them to remove certain obstacles, thus increasing employee utilisation.
With such technology, you can avoid using overtime when you could instead have another employee work the shift as part of their standard working hours.
Reducing Turnover
Speaking of frequent unplanned overtime, an overworked employee is an unhappy employee. Fortunately, a shift-filling app can help you ensure that your employees get appropriate rest between shifts and that their start and end times get recorded accurately and with minimal effort.
When your employees are more satisfied, they are less likely to leave. This means that your facility will spend less money interviewing, hiring, and training new staff to address turnover.
Automating Repetitive Tasks
Using smart technology can also help you automate tasks like job completion details and the logging and sharing of arrival time information. The less time employees spend completing such operational and administrative tasks, the more productive they are. This should drive down unnecessary costs.
Predicting Shift Needs
A predictive scheduler collects ongoing data that will allow it to spot certain trends. The software analyses past scheduling patterns and anticipates your staffing needs, helping you plan for seasonal slumps and crunch times.
It can also help you identify scheduling inefficiencies and see where you are experiencing gaps or overscheduling. On top of that, it can also predict your shift needs.
Lower Your Facility’s Labour Costs by Using Shift Management Software
Labour often accounts for over half of hospital costs. With turnovers at an all-time high and few nurses entering the workforce, resolving scheduling issues can be the key to optimising caregiving. A shift-filling app can help.
The technology can allow you to efficiently allocate your human resources, enabling you to meet your needs without resorting to more costly alternatives such as temp hires and overtime. The app integrates data on current patient needs, past shifts, and the expertise of your existing staff. This information offers you crucial decision-making support and creates schedules that allow you to quickly adapt to whatever changes might happen.
Turn to shift-filling software and start making more efficient staffing decisions, significantly reduce your LTC labour costs, and even improve your patient outcomes.
