Empowering individuals with Workforce Scheduling
A society’s health is often best measured by looking at how it cares for its elderly and disabled population. The Nordic countries have a long and proud tradition of meeting the needs of these groups. Attendo has been at the forefront of care in the region since the 1980s. Each day, Attendo’s 24,000 employees offer high quality care for older people and people with disabilities, as well as medical and dental care at more than 700 different facilities throughout Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. With competence, commitment and care, Attendo strives to empower each individual. The company’s promise? Providing customers the care they need, when they need it, and the way they want it.
A commitment to quality
To deliver on its promise, Attendo needs to ensure the quality and availability of employees. But scheduling the right caregivers to meet client needs is not easy in an organization with thousands of employees spread across hundreds of units. Planners need to ensure that enough time in each shift is allocated to clients. Add staff preferences and costs to the equation and the task becomes even more difficult. Not to mention the important labor laws which need to be considered in the schedule.
After a close examination of its scheduling process, Attendo concluded that the schedule should be a joint responsibility between managers and employees. This would not only increase efficiency, but also ensure that labor laws and employee preferences were respected. They found their enabling technology in ORTEC Workforce Scheduling, which is equipped with a Self-scheduling module.
Matching client and employee needs
“Employees now save their time and energy for important things by working on the solution for the whole and not just for themselves,” says Christina Varsamäki, Regional Director of Attendo.
Using ORTEC Workforce Scheduling and available modules such as Self-scheduling, Budget & Control and Employee Self-service, Attendo was able to rework its schedule to enable a total focus on clients, while empowering employees. Staff members can now plan their own schedule with management oversight. For instance, nursing home managers can reserve special dates for training and fixed shifts. Employees can then access an overview of the department schedule, in which they can plan their own shifts. Employees usually choose shifts that best combine with their days off, and can make agreements amongst themselves about who works which shift. Managers can follow up on progress and edit this master schedule in real-time.
With increased and reliable data visibility and analytics, Attendo’s team can make better decisions faster, and deliver a more cost-conscious schedule. In the old system, managers spent up to two days creating the monthly schedule. Joint planning and reporting used to require intensive manual work with inefficient, costly and unsustainable paper documentation. Now, they spend only two hours from start to finish in creating the schedule. Paper waste and operational costs have been reduced thanks to digitalization. This frees up time in employees’ agendas for other things, facilitating service improvements for customers.
Delivering better care
“Manual work has been reduced and wishes are better fulfilled”, Christina Varsamäki adds. “The bottom line, employees now save time and energy for pressing matters”.
Attendo’s clients have experienced less disruptions due to last minute schedule shifts, thanks to ORTEC Workforce Scheduling. Employee engagement has increased, as the company’s personnel has more control over their own work-life balance and care plan. Time spent on scheduling was reduced from two days to two hours. Labor laws are considered proactively, and costs can be managed in real-time.
Implementing ORTEC’s scheduling solution has also contributed to the organization’s environmental footprint, as less paper is used for administrative purposes. But perhaps the most important gain is ensuring better quality care by aligning client needs with employee needs - a push forward in achieving Attendo’s vision to empower the individual.
