Now that the Spring weather has (more or less) arrived, it is time to think about how to manage your staff holidays. From the two May bank holidays to longer summer vacations, when the sun comes out to play, so more people want to go out and enjoy it. A key aspect of running a successful and safe care home or facility is ensuring that you have enough staff on duty and that they feel supported, valued and looked after. Switching to digital care management to arrange staff rotas, plan for bank holidays and co-ordinate annual leave requests and approvals is a great way to do this.
Fair’s fair
The watchword here is keeping the staff rota ‘fair.’ Making sure that people don’t always get saddled with the same ‘anti-social’ shifts, and that staff can feel confident to ask for the days and times they prefer (even if these cannot be guaranteed every single time). Happier staff tend to be more motivated to work hard and stay in their roles for longer. At the same time, the rota must reflect the needs of the residents, managers and other team members. It should play to the strengths of individual staff members or groups. It is important to explain clearly to staff why they are needed at certain times (or not), and the reasons why you may or may not be able to accommodate their preferred working patterns.
Bank holiday balancing act
May has two bank holidays, which presents additional staffing admin for managers seeking to ensure all shifts are covered. Using a digital care management tool like Care Vision allows users to see at a glance which staff have been allocated to which shift, even checking to see who had to work on previous bank holidays. This makes it far easier to draw up fair rotas and share the less desirable shifts around. People can also check the rotas well in advance, so they know if they are required to work on a forthcoming bank holiday or not and so make provisions. This helps reduce last-minute changes or complaints and cuts down on the admin around having to swap people around in haste if they have not had enough notice to make plans.
Automated admin
Another way to make the whole staff rota and annual leave planning easier is by automating as much of the process as possible. Not simply using digital tools to populate the rota and share it to the team, but also when planning and gathering availability. Using a shared app such as Care Vision allows staff to send in preferred shift dates, annual leave requests and medical appointment details, 24/7, when they are free or ready to do so. They don’t have to wait until they see a manager in person, by which time shift change or annual leave requests can often become more pressing to arrange. Rota details can also be shared more easily when automated with other who might need to see them, such as external medical professionals, auditing teams and residents’ family members.
Roll with it
Rolling rotas can be helpful in many situations, such as working out who gets the early or late shifts, or who gets certain days off. Once the shift cycle has been planned and agreed, it simply repeats over the course of however many weeks it is designed for. This can be shared digitally and referred to 24/7 so people know exactly what is expected of them. The idea can also be used for allocating bank holiday leave to people, even across several years. This can really help people see what they need to do, and understand howe the system works. It helps with transparency and fairness, removing accusations or bias or favouritism among staff.
Shift swapping and staff co-operation
Finally, it is important to allow your staff the freedom to swap shifts with each other, provided that the skill sets are similar so that all essential tasks can be covered. Again, this adds fairness to the system and enables people to take charge of their own shift planning as far as is practically possible. It could be that some staff members prefer to work bank holidays in return for greater flexibility with days off at other times of the year. Using a digital system allows people to check their allocated shifts quickly and see who is scheduled to work at other times, who might be willing to swap. All swaps should be agreed by the management, but this, too, can be facilitated easily through digital care management software.
