That’s an interesting point given that British Summertime officially starts this Sunday at 2am with the clock jumping forward by one hour.
So if you pay night staff by the hour will you be paying one hour less for anyone working the night shift starting this Saturday? And correspondingly of course do you pay an extra hour when the clocks go back in October and British Summertime comes to an end?
Some organisations appear to rely on the supposition that an employee working on the night shift when Summertime begins will also be working on the night shift when Summertime ends and therefore a natural order and balance to these things exists. But that is rather wishful thinking to my mind. Across those two days within any year an employee could be on a different shift, be off sick, have left or be on holiday. And if they’re on holiday and you pay that by the hour then what calculation do you use then to ensure the correct remuneration?
Surprisingly I find some organisations blissfully unaware of the point I am making; and when I bring it to their attention there seems to be an immediate fallback position of the ‘natural balance’ rule I mentioned earlier!
Aware of this conundrum or not, it really doesn’t matter if you are an easyLog customer using our staff scheduling software as you can resolve the issue either way. A simple tick box parameter allows you to specify if you wish to pay to the exact hours worked or to the normal scheduled shift. And that will take care of any holiday hours calculations and payments as well.
If you are a current customer that would like some help with implementing this feature please call our Support Desk on 0845 225 3011. If you don’t currently use our scheduling software but this article has got you interested in exploring what other clever and efficient things it could do for your organisation then call us on 01892 834406 and speak with one of our team.
DCM graph showing assessments over a period of time
easyLog’s market leading care-Log+ care home and supported living management software now includes the University of Bradford’s Dementia Care Mapping as one of its standard assessment tools. And, implemented on tablet PCs, it becomes a very powerful, convenient and easy to use platform for recording the results of Dementia Care Mapping observations.
Dementia Mapping seeks to record what everyday life is like for a person with dementia. It was developed by the University of Bradford’s School of Dementia Studies in the early 1990s. easyLog’s implementation of Bradford Dementia Mapping software on tablet PCs means that carers (or Mappers as they are known during observation sessions) have a simple and portable touch-screen platform on which to record their observations.
Our Dementia Care Mapping software presents the carer with a list of service users from which they select the residents they are about to observe and the length of time of the assessment. The tablet PC then displays a timeline for each service user broken down by defined period – for example five or ten minute blocks. Dementia Mapping then occurs by the carer selecting a Behaviour Category and the ME (Mood/Engagement value) score occurring at that moment. Several observations can be recorded at any point as different behaviours occur with the option to also add relevant comments.
The Dementia Care Mapping observations are automatically collated and presented in both numerical and graphical form across a range of dates or for a specific day. The Dementia Care Mapping software graphs can be displayed in line graph and bar chart format with optional selection of specific Behaviour Categories and ME values.
Dementia care is an increasing element of many of easyLog clients’ care services. And, according to statistics published in The Lancet in December 2014 (Global Burden of Disease Study 2013), the need for dementia care is only set to rise. The report is an in-depth look at changing patterns of 240 separate causes of death worldwide in 188 countries during the 23 years between 1990 and 2013 and highlights dementia as now being the third largest cause of death (source: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61682-2/abstract).
aR-Log calls up a client’s care record on a night check
easyLog has always recognised that night checks in the residential care setting are very important to prove that care is provided to the same high standard throughout the whole day. That’s why we introduced our simple a-Log solution some ten years ago to give a user friendly, built-for-purpose solution to confirm that night time room checks had actually taken place.
Ten years on and the care sector has changed dramatically – as has technology and easyLog. We have now released our aR-Log solution for night time checking – it’s suitable for monitoring community care visits as well – based on our NFC-Log handheld. This unit is about the size of a smartphone and has a similar screen. It connects by wi-fi to the software or by SIM if you are using the system in the community.
The NFC-Log handheld uses NFC proximity technology to identify the location and, like our a-Log handheld, records the time and date automatically when touched against an appropriate location tag. But our aR-Log solution can also do a lot more. Carers can be prompted to complete a simple on-screen document, which is user definable – did they turn the resident? Check the incontinence pad? Provide assistance? All of this can be completed in seconds using the touch screen. It can be a generic document, individual to a group, or specific to each service user – however you like to work.
From the recordings made, any issues noted that need follow-up by further action are automatically flagged in the software and by optional e-mail, bringing peace of mind and proving that your carers are providing the care you know they do 24/7.
You will find further information about our aR-Log night checks solution, along with sample screen images, in the care home management section of our website.
Soon managers will be able to monitor attendance, authorise hours and calculate pay for their mobile or office-based staff on the move and without any need for a PC whatsoever.
Our development team is currently building a web browser and Android version of our popular e-Log attendance management software with Html5, CSS3 and PhoneGap development tools. This will allow our clocking management solutions to be operated on the cloud, anywhere and anytime – and with any kind of device.
Watch this blog for news of trial downloads in the near future.
Currently easyLog offers a range of staff clocking options using NFC-enabled Android tablets and phones.
Anyone working in the care sector knows how vitally important a comprehensive and clear care plan is to the ongoing quality of care and well-being of the service user. A care plan is a document that must be understandable to the service user and their relatives as well as to the care team responsible for the delivery of its content. What’s more, under scrutiny from CQC, it is an auditable document on which an inspector will base his or her assessment of the quality of care provided and outcomes achieved.
Key to creating effective care plans is ensuring that they give relevant clinical detail together with the practical lifestyle and personal information required by the care staff – the definition of a good person centred care plan. So, when care providers consider computerising their care plans, do they seriously consider how service users’ care plans may change over time – or indeed changes in the type of care service that their organisation may in future provide?
Watch our video to see different care plan styles
Flexibility is crucial to achieve this. Our care-Log+ care home management software has always been designed around this principle but in the area of care plans – and in the hands of our users – it continues to deliver multiple styles of care plan across ever evolving types of care delivery. Take a look at our care record mangement overview video to see some of the variety of care plan styles that our care home clients use.
The Bradford Factor is a simple formula to help manage short term sick absences and determine when these have become excessive. Named after the University of Bradford Management School, where much of the original absenteeism research was conducted, the calculation was initially associated more with the public sector and very large corporations.
The Bradford Factor (B) formula is:
number of occasions sick (S) x number of occasions sick (S) x total number of days absent (D)
Using this formula an employee taking several single days of absence will generate a larger points score than a member of staff who has one extended period of illness within the same timescale. Although the calculation should always be viewed on a case-by-case basis, the implication is that the higher the points score the more prone the worker may be to casual absence.
In today’s changed economic climate, frequent short-term sick absences have become a significant cause for concern across all sizes of business – and use of the Bradford Factor has spread accordingly.
In response to this easyLog has implemented a Bradford Factor report into its market-leading e-Log+S staff scheduling software. The report can be run for any range of staff across any period of time and be introduced into a regular personnel review meeting or run on an ad hoc basis when concerns may arise about a specific employee’s attendance record.
The Bradford Factor is just one element in a range of employee reporting tools included as standard within the e-Log+ staff scheduling software – functionality designed to present managers with the information they need to run their workforce most efficiently. You can find out more about using the Bradford Factor and easyLog’s staff scheduling software to monitor patterns of employee absenteeism by watching our latest video – Absenteeism management from your staff rota.
As you may know we recently gave our specialist product for domiciliary care and supported living providers, Home Care Studio, an overhaul – and now we have completed a revamp of our web pages for community-based care customers to match.
We have divided the section into two parts for simplicity, covering the Home Care Studio software and visit recording hardware options.
The Home Care Studio pages detail the six main features of the system: client records and care plans, rostering, payroll and invoicing, staff records and training, the easyLog care-Logger app and risk assessments. Each description includes sample screen images that can be expanded to full size with a click of a mouse so you can see how it all looks for yourself.
The visit recording pages cover three options popular with our domiciliary care and supported living customers: mobile phone and tablet-based devices, SIM-based devices and our range of specialist terminals for mobile workers.
You can find out more about our software and hardware products for community-based care providers by checking out our web pages or discussing the options with one of our team.
Last month we announced the launch of our new software that distributes hand templates to scanners in different locations – and already our first client has gone live with the application.
Bristol-based Alexandra Homes is using our hand-scanners to keep a record of staff comings and goings at all three of its premises. The software upgrade means that employees’ hand templates can be instantly distributed to all three care homes, so employees can clock in or out at any site without having to create a new template – something that will be particularly useful for newcomers and staff working across the different homes.
For more information about biometric clocking devices, read our blog on choosing the most suitable device or visit our new clocking options pages. Alternatively, contact us to discuss the most appropriate system for your workforce.
Community care and supported living providers should take note that we have given our specialist home care software a makeover so it’s now even more effective if you have smaller numbers of service users. We have also given it a new name – Home Care Studio
The areas we have upgraded are:
Rotas – we have made it easier to find staff to fulfil contracts by providing multiple rota views to meet a range of circumstances
Risk assessment screens – these now feature improved scorecards so you can add more details
Care screens – we have included social care and person-centred care planning to give a better all round picture of the service user as an individual
Reporting – this now offers the option of printing out care documents in part or full for greater flexibility
Ease of use – we have improved functionality for handheld devices, such as smartphones and tablets, so it’s easier to make initial assessments, log service user information, clock in and out and check rota information on the move
If you want to know more about how Home Care Studio can help you save time and provide higher standards of care, visit our supported living web pages or contact us.
Not so long ago, for millions of workers clocking on (and off) meant inserting a piece of card into a mechanical timepiece – a system that was devised in the 19th century. In recent decades, technology has transformed the world of recording staff attendance, providing affordable options to suit all kinds of employers and workers – and the revolution is far from over.
Just as in other areas of our lives, mobile phones and tablet computers are playing an increasingly important role in attendance recording, while related technology, such as SIM-cards and near-field communication (NFC), is making traditional electronic terminals more versatile and cost-effective than ever. Even biometric devices, such as hand-scanners, have moved from the realms of science fiction to the everyday.
As a result of these developments, we have been rethinking our range of clocking devices and the way we present them on our website.
We have created a whole new section dedicated to clocking options, which breaks each type of terminal or device into these five categories:
Mobile phones and tablets – possibly the future of attendance recording, these devices are based on everyday Android mobile phones and tablets, making them a cost-effective, simple and extremely versatile option.
Hand-scanners and other biometric – high-tech but affordable kit that provides evidence of identity as well as time and date.
Fixed card and fob terminals – robust exteriors and lots of media options make these devices suitable for a wide variety of users and locations, including outside.
Fixed SIM-card based terminals – simple and inexpensive, these devices are ideal for employers who want clocking data to be transferred automatically from remote sites.
Specialist mobile worker devices – a range of low-cost devices, from i-Button activated wands and fixed terminals to an Android handheld with NFC.
easyLog has introduced some significant functionality into its market-leading staff scheduling software module. Clients now have the option to enter daily predicted sales targets and then see an automatic projection of their anticipated profitability from the total number of hours on the rota and the employment wage costs for each day.
Although this feature would be welcomed by any type of business, it is especially helpful to easyLog’s growing number of clients in the retail and service sectors where daily wage costs are the biggest overhead and therefore the largest influence on bottom line profitability. The facility is incredibly easy to use. You simply enters your projected net sales and the software then displays the staff schedule hours total, the daily wage spend (based on the hours worked per person at their individual hourly rate held in the system) and daily wage spend as a percentage of projected sales. This latter statistic is often used to determine the manager’s budget for staff on any given day and is therefore especially useful.
An early and enthusiastic adopter
One early and enthusiastic adopter and user of this functionality is Jake Harris, owner of the busy Mokoko Coffee (formerly Jacob’s Coffee House) close to the main tourist attractions in Bath. “We operate on a daily budget, so we look at each day and work out when it’s going to get busy, when it’ll get quiet, when the peaks and lulls are likely to be, and how much money we are going to take,” Jake explains. “We needed the scheduling tool to be able to tell us what we would expect to spend on wages so we could make the necessary adjustments, such as shaving half an hour here, trimming an hour a day there.” Read our Mokoko Coffee case study here.
We have had several approaches from our care provider clients regarding the impact of the Care Act 2014 and what effect it will have on the functionality of our care-Log+ software application. In short the question our clients are asking is: Will care-Log+ cope with any new changes?
This has obviously led us to review the Care Act so that we can understand what it means for our care-Log+ clients. Overall, the Care Act represents a very large and significant change. It consolidates more than a dozen pieces of social care legislation into a single law and represents the most significant reform of adult social care in over 60 years. Most of the provisions in the Act will come into effect in April 2015, with some of the funding reform changes taking effect in April 2016.
Local authority focus
Most of the changes are targeted at the local authority as the commissioner of social care – although this, in turn, may have an impact on your business. For example, the introduction of “market shaping” – whereby the local authority has a duty to help shape the local care and support market so that it offers a range of choices and sustainability for the future – may be significant to your operation. So having a positive and pro-active relationship with your local authority will ensure that you receive advance warning of the type of care facilities that the commissioners wish to see in your area.
Clearly other elements of the Care Act may also be relevant to your business – such as the “prevention and well-being provisions” – and lead to a further push towards domiciliary-based care. However, the Act emphasises throughout that it views the provision of care as person-centred and outcomes focused and therefore mirrors the key design principles and functionality already contained in care-Log+.
care-Log+ functionality and the Act
Some of the changes to be introduced by the Care Act are covered by functionality already found in care-Log+. A new “safeguarding assessment” section was brought into the last release of 2014. Although this functionality already existed, you can now view this type of assessment in a separate function if required. Similarly, although the “duty of candour” is a new requirement, it is our belief that any of our clients who are routinely collecting care data through their daily notes evaluations will be able to respond to any incident from a position of having full evidence of their care provision.
In summary, easyLog believes that the functionality currently provided in its care-Log+ system provides a robust and fully adequate response to the Care Act.
If you use hand-scanners you will already know they provide a simple and cost effective way of monitoring staff attendance at multiple sites – and now we have made them even more efficient by introducing new software that distributes hand templates to numerous scanners.
This means that you will only need to scan each employee’s hand once and the template record will be instantly available to all required devices.
Hand-scanners provide a reliable method of recording workers’ attendance in a wide range of situations, including dirty environments. To find out more about our new software or the benefits of hand-scanners, please call one of our team.
If you are thinking about upgrading your existing handheld devices, or are planning to start using smartphones and tablets for the first time, there’s no need to worry about running your easyLog rota management and staff scheduling software on your new hardware. All our apps have now been tested and are working on Android 5.0 Lollipop.
And remember, if you need any help and advice on choosing equipment, just give us a call. We’ll be happy to help.
A flexible workforce is good for your staffing budget – but it can be a major headache when it comes to managing the rota and calculating pay.
If you have staff working full-time, part-time, extra shifts or a few hours here and there, read our case study to find out how one employer is using our software to take the guesswork out of managing his highly flexible workforce.
“We operate on a daily budget, so we look at each day and work out when it’s going to get busy, when it’ll get quiet, and how much money we are going to take,” he says.
“If we know we’re going to have a busy day we can afford to have more people in and on a quieter day, fewer people. So it’s not just about filling spaces or job functions but also about hitting the budget.”
Our case study features a retail catering business but we can create similar systems for all kinds of employers and industries, from hotels and restaurants to the healthcare sector and college campuses.
In direct response to user suggestions easyLog has released the Carer App for its popular care-Log+ software application.
The Carer App provides an alternative view of the care-Log+ software on a single screen, stripped of all the navigation menu and administration functionality found in the full software package. The Carer App is integrated to the main database and therefore presents the same records as can be viewed in the full care-Log+ software. It is designed to be used by all care staff, with or without previous experience of using software, to provide easy-to-use access to viewing and recording resident records.
The key software design principles for the Carer App are simplicity and clarity. On the single screen the carer selects from a dropdown list of residents. An image is then displayed to confirm the correct person has been chosen together with key information on their main health conditions, age, room, date of admission and so on.
The lower half of the screen is split across multiple tabs that quickly access the main functions and information that a carer requires: full resident and room data, GP details, relative contact information, shift notes, body map, care plans, health and risk assessments and life/social background notes.
The top half of the screen displays the key medical indicators, such as weight, temperature, pulse and blood pressure, together with current medication details.
Customers that have seen the app so far have been very pleased and excited by this advance in presenting computerised resident information in such a clear, simple and easy to use way.
For further information on the Carer App, together with prices, please contact us on 01892 834406.
A new service user activities calendar function has been added to our care-Log+ care record management application. This development means that a calendar style report can be viewed and/or printed that will provide details per resident of any planned activities in any week together with associated medical or care notes if required. The new facilities will be of particular interest to our clients that provide care in the learning difficulties sector where service users are frequently involved in activities in the community. The activities calendar means that care staff will always be aware of each day’s events and see them in conjunction with any relevant medical notes as they supervise each day’s activities.
The clever design of the new feature simply extends the existing care tasks functionality within the software.
A care task is a ‘diary action’ for any resident that allows the care manager to enter future events, such as a hospital appointment, and also medical information that can be presented each day, for example a note to provide more assistance to a resident with their eating for a period, so that carers are aware of any particular specific or on-going need.
Likewise when used as an activity record, a care task can be a one-off event (such as a trip to the cinema) or can be a repeated event (like a weekly visit to a day centre on a Thursday morning).
Care tasks are presented both within the software application and also on tablet PCs on which the care-Log software can be implemented.
The activities calendar can be displayed with just activities or medical information or both and for an individual or range of residents to make this a very powerful and flexible addition to the care-Log+ software module.
In a first for easyLog, we will soon be releasing a new generation of devices based on near field communications (NFC) technology, which will allow tablets and smartphones to be used as clocking-in terminals – and much more.
“This is a great step forward because it means we can supply an all-purpose reader built into an everyday device – a computer or phone – rather than one designed specifically for clocking in,” says easyLog’s Graham Rolando.
“It makes the technology more convenient and flexible and, at the same time, more cost-effective for our clients, which is something we think they will welcome.”
The easy-to-use and fully automated system operates on Android tablets and smartphones, turning them into fixed location clocking terminals or handheld devices carried by individual employees. It works in conjunction with special NFC-enabled tags, which come in a number of formats, including cards, key fobs and stickies.
The pack includes a master tag and user tags. Waving either type of tag near the device, or vice-versa, automatically invokes the software. A user tag will bring up a screen prompting for clock in or out. When an option has been selected, the device sends the record to the host computer. The master tag allows system administrators to configure the device and program user tags.
There are two handheld modes and one terminal mode:
Software on smartphone with tag in fixed location (handheld mode 1) – suitable for domiciliary care or the cleaning industry
Software on portable tablet with tag in fixed location (handheld mode 2) – suitable for night checks in care homes
Software on fixed tablet with tags held by individual employees (terminal mode) – conventional staff clock-in
This product is available for order now. Tags can be configured with i-Button codes for seamless transition from the i-Button system.
Three further products based on this software will be available later this year:
NFC Employee Station – wave tag over device to see employee messages, rota and pay information (extension of terminal mode above)
NFC Care Room Checks – care records currently available via Care Logger automatically accessed in new front-end when tablet is presented to resident room tag
NFC Domiciliary Records – employees wave phone near service-user tag to display care requirements, visit information, care plans and risk assessments relating to the service user (extension of handheld mode 1 above)
For further information on any of our NFC products, please contact us.
Most easyLog clients will know that we operate a wishlist system, enabling you to feed back suggestions for new product features and improvements in existing ones. As a result of this, we have just completed a radical overhaul of our popular care-Log+ care record management and admin software.
After listening to your comments, new care-Log+ now includes:
More intuitive links to other areas in all sections
Automatic line graphs of assessments so progress can be seen at a glance
Revised Care Plan and Shift Handover reports and Care Report Pack, providing greater functionality and a clearer layout
Additional reports for health readings and resident lists
Additions and improvements in the training section
A Photo Memories tab in the Social Care/Life Story section
An optional audit trail, which automatically logs all actions within the system
Visual records of problems added to body map feature
Extra functionality in the care section
Extra functionality in the assessments section
Easier access to assessment and care sections from resident records
The upgrade is free to all existing care-Log+ customers on support contracts. Please contact us to arrange your upgrade or to find out more about the new features.
Our Windows staff rota app has been officially launched and is now available from Microsoft’s online Windows Store. The app is called Staff Rota-8 and is published by easyLog Ltd. Go to the store to download the app (to login, insert the username ‘user’ and leave the password space blank).
Touchscreen technology has already revolutionised mobile phones and will soon be coming to a desktop or laptop computer near you – which is why easyLog is shortly releasing a rota management app specifically designed for Windows 8 touchscreens.
The Windows 8 app has been created with speed and ease of use in mind. There are minimal menus and pop-ups and no setting-up screens are required, because the rota is based on existing e-Log+S core user functionality defined on the main system. So, whoever is setting the rota just selects the relevant job function and shift, then taps on where they want it to go.
As well as tablet PCs, the app can be run on a traditional PC – desktop or laptop – with a touchscreen monitor. Although the computer must have the Windows 8 operating system installed, the monitor does not need to be W8 compatible – a Windows 7-combatible monitor is equally suitable.
“We wanted to take advantage of the user-friendliness of touchscreen technology to make rota creation even easier for everyone – and the new Windows 8 environment has enabled us to do that,” explains easyLog marketing manager Nicola Clark.
“We realise that few of our clients are using tablets and other touchscreen devices right now. But it is the technology of the future and we strongly believe it will transform the way people use computers in their working lives in a very short time.”
easyLog’s W8 rota app at a glance
Designed to Windows 8 development guidelines
Can be used with touchscreen or mouse on W8 operating system
Ideal for Windows 7 compatible touchscreen monitors as well as tablet PCs
Minimal menus and pop-ups
Easy to operate for users of all levels
Works in conjunction with e-Log+S staff scheduling software
Fast connection to server by broadband to avoid Terminal Services and Citrix type environments
Windows 8 is out on Friday 26 October and it is quite a gamble for Microsoft, because it also appears to be launching a fundamental change to the look and feel of its desktop software for the first time since Windows 95.
Over recent years we have seen the growth in tablet and smartphone software, led predominantly by Apple and subsequently developed by Google, both to great effect. Many people feel we are now at a seminal moment in personal computer development, when tablets, laptops and eventually desktop computers will merge into one.
Microsoft has now taken the plunge with this theory and launched Windows 8, which is effectively two user interfaces in one. We have the conventional Windows 7 along with the new tablet-style swipe-and-touch Windows App Store environment. Microsoft no doubt views the second of these as the long term future, when one day it will be able to remove the desktop as we know it.
Personally, I think the concept is correct, however MS may have a few problems along the way. For initial Windows 8 users who will probably see this operating system from the desktop environment, there are many problems:
No Start bar – the Start bar is now effectively the App Store desktop, which would lend itself much more to touch-screen than mouse use
Many more clicks required to perform certain functions as a result of the “dual user interface” approach
Dropping programs on to the desktop is much more convoluted than with previous versions of Windows
The “dual user interface” approach will leave users confused as to where to go and how to get there – things just aren’t intuitive
However, the positives are there as well but they might take longer for people to appreciate:
Many years down the line, this approach should make Windows much more user-friendly for less technically-orientated people – something software designers regularly fail to take into account
The concept that laptop and tablet and, eventually, desktop PC must soon merge is surely correct and Microsoft is on the case
The new App Store environment does look good and is user-friendly
I guess the most likely scenario in the short term is that we are at another Windows Vista moment. Although I’m sure the reliability of Windows 8 will be a great improvement on the original Vista, I’m equally certain that W8 will not impress Windows 7 desktop PC users and there may be problems getting users to move across, resulting in the launch of a tweaked version – Windows 9? – in a year or so.
Also for this to be a success, Microsoft must get a better hold on the tablet market. Apple has incredible brand loyalty, and so you feel that Microsoft must look to make ground on Google and its Android OS. Android tablets sit at the lower end of the market, so the pricing of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet is going to be extremely important to its success. If the price is too high, ultimately it won’t matter how good Win8 is because it won’t find a place in the broadest market. Read more about Surface here.
For those organisations, especially in the public sector, that operate a TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) system for their employees, help is now at hand to monitor and report on this efficiently within easyLog’s staff scheduling software.
A TOIL system allows employees, in agreement with their line manager, the option to take additional (non-holiday) time off instead of being paid at a higher overtime rate. Like a bank account with a running balance, an employee therefore earns TOIL hours and then has them debited as they take time off in the future. Usually TOIL hours must be taken within an agreed period or the TOIL credits are lost.
easyLog’s implementation of TOIL within its scheduling software allows the manager to see instantly the TOIL hours on the rota. The periods of TOIL both given and taken can be viewed together with the original shifts that were additionally worked to earn TOIL and the shifts that will not now be worked due to TOIL being taken. Each employee has a TOIL account that can be viewed across any date range and shows the current balance of TOIL at any time together with any notes that the manager made at the point of agreeing, giving or removing TOIL periods.
The TOIL facility is available to any client currently on software support and will be provided within their next automatic upgrade.
Any organisation that is not a current user of our staff scheduling application but would like to discuss or see a demonstration of the software’s TOIL functionality can contact our offices on 01892 834406 or e-mail info@easylog.co.uk.
For a growing number of people, going to work doesn’t mean travelling to the same place at the same time every day. These days even smaller employers usually offer flexible hours and homeworking, while bigger companies are increasingly moving parts of their business to specialist remote offices. In fact, global market analysts IDC predict that by 2013 there will be 129.5 million mobile workers inWestern Europe– that’s more than the number of traditional workers.
According to IDC, mobile workers can be broadly defined as office-based, non-office-based and home-based. But in real life it’s a bit more complicated. We have discovered from working with our wide client base that mobile workers come in many and varied forms – and they are becoming more diverse all the time.
This makes choosing an appropriate mobile worker tracking and attendance recording solution difficult to say the least. So we have put together this four-point plan to make the process easier.
1. One size does not fit all
Do an instant audit of your mobile workers and break down their activities. Categorise them according to the extent of their mobility – for example, do they:
Always work from home?
Check in to an office daily or just from time to time?
Work at a range of company or client sites?
Also take a note of the numbers in each category and how often each employee visits a location. This should give you a picture of the diversity of your workforce and the kind of attendance system, or systems, you’ll want. For instance, you’ll probably need to consider whether staff arrive at a work location individually or in groups; if they are occasional, part-time workers or regular, full-time staff; if you need instant notification of their arrival or can receive the clocking record later; and whether you might need more than one monitoring system for different employees.
2: Make your investment count
Of course, there are cost-implications to take into account, too. For example, if you have staff who work for just a few hours a week at a particular location, you are unlikely to want to invest in a state-of-the-art visit tracking system based on smartphones or a biometric hand-scanner.
But just how do you work out which attendance monitoring hardware offers the best value for money? We always find it helps to decide where your main cost lies. If your workers are attending multiple sites on a regular basis, for example, it’s likely to be with the employees. But if you have a variety of staff making irregular visits to a single location, you should probably focus your investment on the site.
3: Keep an eye on the bigger picture
So you’ve found what looks to be your ideal attendance monitoring solution and it’s the right price – but are you sure it really meets your needs? What looks good on paper can sometimes be a let down in the field. For instance, can the system cope with more than one employee starting work at the same time? And what about ongoing costs? Have you got your clients’ permission to install terminals at their sites? And is the necessary infrastructure in place? It’s easy to overlook details like this when you have so much ground to cover.
The best approach is to look at what’s required from every point of view – your employees’, your clients’ and your own – before you make a decision. You may end up compromising on some details, but the system you choose has to work for everyone involved if it’s to be a success.
4: Big is not necessarily better
You may start off wanting an all-singing, all-dancing fully-integrated staff scheduling system with full payroll analysis and client invoicing functions, but experience shows that such complex, all-encompassing solutions are likely to prove a disappointment. Staff often have too little time or inclination to learn to use them properly and managers struggle to implement such a major project.
The issue of implementation is one that you need to keep in mind throughout the selection process. Sometimes starting smaller and developing your system as your needs change can be the most effective way forward. It’s easier to manage and, in an increasingly joined-up world, the best way to take advantage of future technology.
easyLog has come up with a clever way of using mobile technology to register staff attendance – without a mobile phone.
Our new ar-Log handheld tracker is a convenient, reliable and easy to use method of recording the visits of workers who attend multiple locations in the course of their employment.
When arriving or leaving a location, the employee simply switches on the handheld and then touches it against a coin-sized button containing a unique ID. This creates a clocking, which the device immediately tries to download. If it cannot get a good enough signal, the reading is stored, along with the date and time, until a signal is obtained and a download can take place.
How it works
The handheld device, which is about the size of a TV remote control, contains a mobile phone SIM card and uses the GPRS network to send packets of data to a web service located either on a customer server or an easyLog-hosted server. This data then appears as an employee clocking on the customer’s easyLog software, showing the relevant name, location, date and time.
Any data-enabled SIM card can be used in the device. easyLog can provide suitable SIM cards on contract or the customer can use SIMs purchased through their own mobile phone contract. The handheld uses rechargeable batteries and a charger is provided with each unit.
Phone us now on 01892 834406 or request a callback