According to the Office for National Statistics, those working in caring or other service occupations had the highest rate of sickness (4.3%) out of all major occupations in 2022. And with 1.52 million people working in the adult social care sector in England in 2022/23, a 4.3% rate of sickness equates to around 65,000 employees absent due to illness.
This, on top of the ongoing retention struggles and usual annual leave allowances, can have a significant impact on your scheduling.
We recognise how challenging it can be making sure you have the right skilled care worker covering in the right place at the right time, managing complex payroll calculations and rejigging the roster around staff absences (whether planned or otherwise). These being just some of the things you’re likely dealing with on a regular basis.
So, instead of muddling through manual processes, perhaps you’re looking for a way to streamline your key workforce processes and take control of your absence management.
Time and attendance software can give you the control you need, offering vital timekeeping functionalities so your teams can go back to focusing on those immediate priorities, rather than putting out fires in the schedule.
How Time & Attendance software helps you manage your absences
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Skills Mapping
In a sector like social care, it’s not always the case that you can simply roster in another employee to cover a shift. Your care workers may have specific qualifications or training that can’t easily be replaced by another member of your team. And you may not want or have the resources to call in an agency worker as a quick fix. This is why skills mapping can be an incredibly handy tool for your organisation.
Skills mapping allows you to set your own parameters so when, for example, a care worker calls in sick, is on leave or can’t make it their next client, you can seamlessly find and allocate another member of staff that has the right certification or skills that are necessary for the client’s individual needs.
For more information about rostering, take a look at our blog: Time & Attendance in social care: How to take control of your roster
And Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, stipulates that providers have a duty to ensure that fit and proper persons are employed to ensure they can provide care and treatment appropriate to their role and to enable them to provide the regulated activity.
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Shift Swapping
For one reason or another, a care worker may not be able to fulfil their shift or make it to their client visit. But of course, that individual can’t go without their care. So instead of setting back the rest of the schedule, the shift could be swapped to another equally qualified care worker who is available.
Your team members may even be able to trade shifts between themselves (with approval) without the need for time consuming administrative input to take account of the change. That way, you can ensure continuity of care while care coordinators can focus on their other priorities.
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Self-Service
Whether you have a single care setting or multiple locations, you need to be able to keep tabs on who is where, when and for how long. But with so many team members - all likely having different shift plans - it can take some considerable time and effort managing a schedule, especially since absences can occur at any time.
So rather than your admin teams taking responsibility for every single part of the process, give your workers some autonomy. Your employees can access cloud-based time and attendance software at any time, being empowered to take charge of their schedules, log sickness and manage annual leave as and when they need to.
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Payroll Accuracy
Updating payroll will always be a product of managing absences and shift changes. Having multiple rates, changing shift patterns and working out overtime are all complexities that social care providers like yours face when calculating payroll. And when you’re manually managing your organisations absences (and therefore the payroll amendments), errors can occur.
In our recent Care Trends Survey 2023, almost a quarter (24%) of care organisations reported that they had experienced errors with their payroll processes.
Time and attendance software can integrate with your payroll system and automate your payroll processes, helping to minimise the chance of human error occurring as any changes to the schedule will automatically update that individuals pay where necessary. And this accurate time tracking and recording of absences therefore helps to reduce the risk of over or underpaying your care teams.
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Data Analytics
Time and attendance software can allow you to access and analyse your care workers attendance patterns and absences.
And with this real-time reporting and data insight, you are in a better position to make more informed decisions for things like how to allocate your resources, where you could improve your staffing levels or who may be in need of some extra support.
Managing rosters, absence and payroll may be complex, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. With our Time & Attendance software solution, you can efficiently configure your rotas, update shifts and track absences, all the while gaining real-time data and productivity insights.
Find out more in our Time & Attendance brochure, and see why around 100 other social care providers have chosen Advanced as their time and attendance ally.
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