The Challenge
Battling the inefficiencies of outdated scheduling.
Guardian Angels Senior Services offers a range of senior living options, including long-term, assisted and independent living facilities spread out with more than a dozen communities. This faith-based Minnesota nonprofit organization serves more than 3,000 individuals and their families.
Each facility has many moving parts, including nursing, housekeeping, dietary and administrative departments. Yet, despite a large staff of hundreds of employees, managers were scheduling staff on paper, creating inefficiencies across the organization.
“Managers were still posting their paper schedules on the bulletin board. People were forgetting when they were supposed to work, and making any changes to the schedule was difficult,” said Troy Marschel, Controller at Guardian Angels.
The challenges didn’t stop there. The senior service provider was also experiencing attendance and overtime issues, but managers and other organization leaders were unable to evaluate the true extent of the problem. And increasingly, accountability was a growing pain point. “It was hard to pin people down to make sure they were on time for their shift or to ensure they showed up at all,” Marschel added.
The Solution
Cloud-based scheduling technology integrates with payroll to offer visibility and insights.
About six years ago, the organization deployed Inovalon’s Schedule Management™ in their nursing program to optimize scheduling and track absenteeism and overtime. Immediately, the organization began to see improvement.
The value compounded about three years later when Guardian Angels deployed a new payroll software, and Inovalon stepped in to build out an integration between the new payroll solution and Inovalon Schedule Management. Now, when an employee is added to payroll, a profile is automatically created in the Inovalon application, which then feeds data back to the payroll system. The integration enables the organization to match time punches against schedules and provides the visibility to clearly pinpoint issues with tardiness and overtime.
The results have been so strong that Guardian Angels also deployed it beyond the nursing staff, and now all departments across all facilities use it. “The deployment went so smoothly,” Marschel noted. “The Inovalon team was so knowledgeable, and they worked well with the payroll solution team and did a really nice job of making sure the systems could work together. Plus, everything was done remotely and didn’t take up many resources on our end.”
“We’re open 24/7, but most of our managers work Monday through Friday. With the mobile app, they can keep tabs on things during the weekends and can easily approve schedule swaps and fill open shifts.”
Troy MarschelController, Guardian Angels Senior Services
Results
Inefficiencies and overtime are down. Accountability is up.
“Hands down, the biggest gain was insight into our overtime,” Marschel explained. “Before the integration, we had no idea whether a person was truly working their scheduled shift. It was eye opening to department managers, who were unaware people were clocking in early and clocking out late nearly every shift. When you pay overtime for every minute over eight hours, the costs add up. It prompted managers to be on top of it, and we’ve definitely seen overtime costs come down.”
Flexibility because of the mobile application. The mobile app allows managers to quickly and easily approve schedule swaps and fill open shifts from anywhere. That is saving them time and offering them peace of mind that the shifts are always covered.
Forecasting. Guardian Angels regularly operates with nurse shortages, so they rely on agencies to fill those spots. The software helps them predict potential shortages and plan for them weeks out.
Accountability. Guardian Angels now has the insight —and clear data— to address tardiness and absenteeism issues, and they’ve seen both drop as a result.
Full Customization. When it came to onboarding all departments, the organization’s biggest challenge was with the dietary department scheduling because employees needed to be scheduled for multiple roles. They were able to customize the scheduling to meet the department’s unique needs. It has dramatically boosted efficiency, and now all the dietary departments love it.
“Ultimately, Inovalon’s scheduling application has more than exceeded ourexpectations. It is easy to set up, use and manage. We love it. We’ve had it for six years, and we’ll stay another 50 if we can.”
Troy MarschelController, Guardian Angels Senior Services
“The mobile app makes it crystal clear who is working and when. Employees have their schedules, accessible right from their phones, so they are more likely to show up on time. Plus, you have the data you need to directly address punctuality and when employees consistently punch out late.”
Troy MarschelController, Guardian Angels Senior Services
Experience Inovalon’s Schedule Management for Yourself
If you want to reduce your overtime costs and drive efficiencies across your entire organization, Schedule Management can help you too.
