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business on board, we can quickly move that business into a very productive shift-based organisation with a rota system and feel comfortable that we are in control of the business from very early on,” said Nick Swash, deputy CEO of Yorkshire Care Group.
2. Minimising the risk of errors HR that is closely linked to scheduling & payroll is already a must-have feature of a next-generation solution. These should communicate seamlessly – any products built to work together from day one have to. The next step is to bring automation to the myriad of processes HR Directors oversee, particularly around absences – an area where providers struggle with the costs and risks associated with manual data reconciliation. The goal is to have end-to-end automated absence management workflows, which cover elements like Statutory Sick Pay, maternity leave, and more. This will help organisations remove all manual payroll activities related to absences, saving time and reducing the risk of errors appearing in payroll data.
It might sound like detail-work, but the reality of building new technology is that it has to have its ear to the ground when it comes to what day-to-day activities entail in care, so that it removes even small inefficiencies and releases more time that can be re-directed towards staff and the people being cared for. At the same time, compliance leaders and managers can rest assured that they have visibility and control over workforce-related areas of the organisation.
3. Employee-first technology One implementation challenge providers have experienced with legacy software is low tech adoption rates from their staff. But what oftentimes is seen as fear of change is actually a natural reaction to employee apps which were not designed to match the level of accessibility personal apps usually have. The sector needs more tech that is built with usability in mind and consumer-grade standards. Enriching the experience for carers means making their lives easier, particularly when it comes to new staff. The first impression an employee gets of their organisation and its processes, for example, can be key to their retention. “When I first heard about Sona – obviously
I’m not great at tech – I thought ‘Oh another thing to navigate!’ but to be fair, it worked out really well. Once I saw it, sometimes with a
July 2024
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
development coordinator. Ben Irwin Brown, enterprise roll-out
expert and director of implementation at Sona, put it best: Implementation is just the start of a true partnership with customers. Every touchpoint after that should present the same level of quality and attention to detail. The goal should always be to understand care providers deeply, leverage domain and product expertise, and include the elements that make their business unique to produce a solution that is not only fit for purpose but exceeds expectation at every step. “Now we just assume the system is right,
little bit of help which was easily available, I found it very, very easy … It’s saving me a few hours per week of my personal time because of how easy it is to track everything in my schedule,” said JoyLilley, complex support worker (21-year career in care).
4. A trustworthy partnership for social care providers Investing in social care means investing in teams that can support providers post-implementation with the same commitment and energy displayed in the pre-implementation phase. Offering this type of comprehensive support every step of the way comes down to attracting the top talent available, with extensive experience in rolling-out large scale solutions for complex organisations. “Because we’ve had our implementation
lead right from the beginning, she understands now what we need as a business. So, actually it’s a credit to her that she’s listened to our needs and she’s helped us since we went live to build that and get it better and better,” said Cassie Vasey, growth and
because we, as part of the implementation, we checked, we double checked, we triple checked. We’re really confident that it’s been built in a way that is accurate. Whatever we see on the screen, we trust that data is accurate. And then we can forecast, we can build our business, we can grow our business using those numbers,” said Claire Bunker, growth and development director. When Ben, Oli and I founded Sona in 2021, we wanted to solve the unique challenges of care work with technology that empowered every employee, on every level of a large organisation. Three years later, Sona is doing just that for over 100,000 people, helping them deliver over five million seamless shifts. The next- generation solution for social care is already here and – thanks to the trust of all our partners – it’s about to get even better.
Steffen (centre)
Ben Dixon (CTO, left) Oli Johnson (CFO, right)
Steffen Wulff Petersen
To find out more visit
https://www.getsona.com
Steffen is CEO and co-founder of Sona, the next-generation workforce management solution for large care providers. Together with his co-founders, Ben Dixon (CTO) and Oli Johnson (CFO), they have developed an end-to-end AI and machine learning-based solution that targets the complexities specific to social care and empowers employees on every level of the organisation.
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