Mister Rogers has a lot to do with long-term care and senior living. Now hold off on your cardigan and trolley jokes for just a moment, and let me explain.
Mister Rogers is all about his neighborhood, introducing viewers to new and interesting people with each episode (ok, so some of those interesting people were actually puppets, but ignore that for just a sec). His focus on connecting people with their neighbors is the connection I’d like to explore.While each person has his or her own interests and responsibilities in the neighborhood, there’s a common connection – a nearby location. The people in the neighborhood choose to be there for a reason, whether it’s for their jobs, or their families, or just because this neighborhood has a good vibe.
We can learn a lot from our neighbors in long-term care and senior living. Think of your neighbors as nurses, assistants, and other caregivers, working in similar, nearby locations. In the latest release of OnShift staff scheduling software, we have put a particular emphasis on “the neighborhood” and the people working in facilities or communities near one another.
There’s no question that senior care facilities struggle with high employee turnover. And, it can be very difficult to find the right staff members to fill open shifts on the schedule. This problem gets even more complex when someone calls off sick or doesn’t show up to work. That’s where OnShift’s neighborhood connection comes in.
We are happy to introduce a new set of capabilities in OnShift staff scheduling software called Staff Extend. With Staff Extend, providers can fill shifts by accessing and sharing employees from neighboring locations, such as a sister community or facility. OnShift automatically identifies qualified and available staff from internal staff and neighboring locations, red flags conflicting schedule assignments and overtime risks, and communicates openings with potential replacements via text message, email, and automated phone call.
Think about the benefits that can be achieved once you gain access to a broader pool of qualified and available employees:
- Shifts get filled faster and more regularly
- You avoid working short
- You prevent overtime and avoid agency use by leveraging nearby employees instead
- Satisfaction rises because employees gain more flexibility in their schedules and can pick up extra shifts when they prefer.
The new OnShift release also introduces enhancements to OnShift’s dashboard and reporting portfolio, including the ability to benchmark your staffing progress and results against those of your peers. While Mister Rogers would never condone kids to compare themselves against one another, it’s actually quite beneficial in the business realm. OnShift’s peer analytics give you greater insight into how you are performing, and they help keep things in perspective based on the performance of similar organizations. Remember, it’s all about the neighborhood, albeit in this case a virtual neighborhood. Managers will find the reporting analysis quite useful to stay on top of their organizational staffing performance.
Hopefully it has you humming with excitement, and reinforces your belief that yes, indeed, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
