Avondale Care upgrades operations with Planday

What's on the menu?

When Avondale Care Scotland faced significant challenges in managing staff schedules, director Adrian Hendry recognised the need for a more efficient system.

In 2017, they discovered Planday, which transformed their operations and dramatically improved staff satisfaction and retention.

“The system just works by itself in the background. Using Planday is just so easy.”

Adrian Hendry, Director, Avondale Care Scotland

Avondale Care´s challenges

When Adrian and his team first started looking for software that could improve staff operations, they faced a few significant challenges. A paper-based system and poor communication channels meant the team was wasting an excessive amount of time, money, and resources.

They were up against:

Clunky, manual scheduling processes
Inefficient time tracking and payroll preparation.
Limited visibility into staffing levels and costs.
Difficulty managing staff availability and time-off requests.

“It was pretty chaotic using a paper system,” Adrian recalls. The biggest issue was the time senior resources (the manager, administrator, and charge nurse) typically spent in the week leading up to payday every month. “They spent days locked up in a room trying to confirm what hours people had worked in a particular month and totalling them up to send the details and anomalies to the finance department.”

“People were consistently frustrated because they couldn’t organise their private lives around their schedule.”

Another frustration was that the printed off-duty schedule always went missing. “This happened all the time,” says Adrian. “Staff members would decide to look at the off-duty and take it away. Nine times out of ten, they wouldn’t bring it back.

So, people were wasting a lot of time looking at and for the schedule to see when they were working.”

Tracking absenteeism was also causing headaches. Before the team implemented Planday, it was almost impossible to see patterns and identify when staff members were misusing their sick leave.

A fourth challenge was that the team struggled to plan their schedules in advance. “We didn’t have the rota done any great length of time ahead,” Adrian continues. “So, people were consistently frustrated because they couldn’t organise their private lives around their schedule.

It was only coming out about two weeks in advance.”

Without the team quite realising it, there were many other frustrations, too – all of which were solved the moment Avondale switched over to online staff rota software, Planday.

Efficient workforce management with Planday

From the get-go, Planday transformed Avondale Care’s workforce management system, addressing several key challenges.

Streamlined Avondale Care’s scheduling capabilities

The streamlined scheduling capabilities – part of Planday’s “Shift Planner” feature – ended the constant hunt for paper rotas.

Avondale’s employees now have the luxury of viewing their schedules months in advance via an app on their mobile phones, significantly improving their work-life balance and making it easier to request time off or swap shifts.

“Staff members now know what they’re going to be doing three months in advance,” Adrian remarks. “They know where they stand, which is hugely beneficial to them. They can see any available open shifts, and they can check their holidays. It’s all there in the palm of their hands.”

“Staff members now know what they’re going to be doing three months in advance.”

Simplified time tracking and payroll preparation

The efficiency gains in time tracking and payroll preparation also changed the business. What once took several days of manual labour at the end of each month now requires no more than 15 minutes of a manager’s time per day.

“It was just a ridiculous situation to have two to three senior staff members getting paid to sit in an office the entire day, adding up staff hours,” says Adrian. “There were also errors because they were working off memory.”

With Planday, the team’s shifts are

now approved every day, which also ensures that the payroll information is always up-to-date. The process reduces stress for the finance department and creates a clear audit trail for schedule changes and authorisations, improving accountability.

Improved visibility into staffing levels and costs

Planday also immediately started giving Avondale’s leadership team excellent visibility into their staffing levels and costs.

Management quickly learned that

they could instantly pull reports to identify and address instances of understaffing or overstaffing, ensuring optimal resource allocation. This enhanced oversight extends to contract management for managers and has even simplified the recruitment process by clearly highlighting staffing gaps.

“For example, we’re able to manage managers’ contracts and ensure they’re doing their contracted hours every week,” Adrian says. “I can look at things without speaking to someone else within the company. Without bothering anyone, I can check the staffing information in the background.”

The reporting feature also makes it easy to track revenue and costs, ultimately helping the management team to make smarter business decisions. Another benefit is that Planday seamlessly integrates with Avondale’s payroll and HR software.

Simplified communication with staff members

One of the most appreciated features has been Planday’s integrated communication system.

According to Adrian, this feature proved particularly useful during Covid-19, when new ways of communicating with individuals, groups, and departments became necessary. In 2024, the tool’s ability to track message receipt and responses ensures that critical information reaches its intended audience.

The digital platform’s clock-in/out system (the “Punch clock” feature) has also been a game-changer for attendance monitoring. It allows for quick identification of attendance issues or patterns, promoting better accountability among Avondale staff and making it easier for the management team to address any concerns promptly.

A summary of the results

It’s been a hugely beneficial partnership. Thanks to Planday, the Avondale Care team now enjoys:

Time savings

Planday reduced payroll preparation time from several days to approximately 15 minutes per day.

Cost control

The software led to better management of staff costs – the company’s most significant expense.

Improved staff satisfaction

Employees love the flexibility and transparency the system provides, leading to greater staff satisfaction and retention.

Enhanced communication

Planday’s native messaging system has streamlined message distribution, improving staff engagement.

Better control:

The management team’s improved ability to monitor and manage staff hours, sickness patterns, and attendance helps them to stay 100% in control.

Conclusion

Planday has proven to be a transformative solution for Avondale Care, addressing critical challenges in staff management and communication. “If I now had to tell the team we’re going back to paper, there’d be hell,” says Adrian when chatting about the positive impact Planday has had.

As an early adopter in the care sector, Avondale Care has set a precedent for digital workforce management, demonstrating the significant benefits of the right technological solution. To this day, Adrian highly recommends the product. “The system just works by itself in the background. Using Planday is just so easy.”