After an easy implementation, the staff were quickly onboard with the new processes. Grosvenor House soon saw its staffing costs rapidly decrease, they saw a major reduction in staff administration time making regulatory visits far easier to manage and a bottom-line improvement in overtime and agency expenditure.
Saving money was the initial goal, however, it was the staffing pressures of the pandemic that has illustrated the ways in which CoolCare has helped the management better care for their staff. CoolCare has been essential in the drive for greater staff retention and the desire to form ‘the right teams’.
We looked at Grosvenor’s biggest cost which was staff and realised we had little control. We were therefore seeing recurrent problems that always presented themselves at the end of the month.
Chris Bainborough, Director
improves staff morale.
Having come from a fully paper-based system and having never used software for care home management previously, Chris was keen to reap the benefits of a digital system, he knew that a system would bring more transparency and control over staffing.
He had anticipated some resistance from the team when introducing CoolCare4 and was pleasantly surprised when the team embraced the change. As Chris explained, “We thought the team might be apprehensive of the move to digital. We took the time to explain the reason we were introducing it and how it would benefit them all. By having a digital system, we’d be able to see who was letting the team down and nip it in the bud so that there was greater fairness and stability in the team. They understood that and quickly started using the electronic clocking-in. The administration and management team have found the software very easy to use”.
Grosvenor uses the live data in CoolCare’s digital timesheets, dashboards and Bradford Factor reporting to discuss any issues, such as lateness or absence, with staff in a timely manner. This has helped them to highlight patterns to supervise/appraise their staff in a way which leads to positive behaviour change.
Overall, staff morale has greatly improved as a result. Chris added, “Many staff aren’t aware of the impact these small issues are having and how it impacts on other team members. By being able to address it quickly and correct it, the whole team works better together. Ultimately, we are able to set expectations and coach our team better.”
One example of building a better team was when CoolCare flagged up one team member as being habitually late by 10 minutes for the start of their shift. A meeting was called and CoolCare was positioned as an impartial monitor, “CoolCare has flagged you as being late on a number of occasions” The ‘blaming the system’ actually gave the manager a face-saver to enquire further into the reasons for the lateness, upon further discussion it was agreed that the staff member should have a later start and finish time, This considered approach to lateness removed internal staff tension, strengthened the team and ensured the staff member in question felt included and supported.
reduced absenteeism = happier teams.
In 2019 Grosvenor House’s biggest challenge related to absenteeism, especially on a weekend. This led to high agency costs, not to mention significant management time for the home’s Nurse Manager. With the ability of staff to pick up shifts through the staff portal and SMS text staff of open shift opportunities she no longer spends hours calling around staff and has been able to pass responsibility for supervising staff on T&A issues to the administrator. Having all the information to hand makes it an easy, data-driven conversation, rather than something requiring senior team member support.
Absenteeism is now virtually non-existent and the home is making huge savings on agency costs. The added benefit of reduced absenteeism is that the care teams are more focused, stronger and more resilient to change and managing stress is now greatly reduced.
Having modern digital holiday and shift requests makes Grosvenor House an even better place to work, and the home has seen an influx of new blood (student nurses) to the team.
Chris commented that through the savings it had helped lead to, CoolCare4 had “paid for itself within a couple of months. Without CoolCare4, we’d have just never got around to sorting the high absenteeism and the problems would have persisted, now we have breathing space to help and support team members who need it and we can build and retain strong teams.”
Without CoolCare4, we’d have just never got around to sorting the high absenteeism and the problems would have persisted, now we have breathing space to help and support team members who need it and we can build and retain strong teams.
Chris Bainborough, Director
easier regulatory visits.
Grosvenor House makes full use of CoolCare’s dashboards, which monitor compliance with mandatory training; frequency of supervisions and appraisals; and accuracy of DBS records. As a result, Chris has confidence that his home is working compliantly. He told us, “With the old-fashioned system, you spent so much time faffing with data during a CQC or contracts inspection that you never felt you were doing the home justice. Now you just show how you manage it through the software and can present results properly in very little time. That means you can spend more time showing CQC the things you want them to see – it makes inspections so much easier!”
concluding view.
Speaking to Chris, it is clear that he feels the value that CoolCare4 brings to his home in many ways. When choosing CoolCare4, he looked at other systems before deciding on CoolCare. Overall, CoolCare4 offered the best value for money, would quickly deliver the results he desired and would be easy for his staff to use. The implementation was straightforward. The team immediately started using the clocking-in system and the benefits to the home were quickly realised.
But the real benefits Chris sees for the home is in the way CoolCare has helped them build and retain as strong a team as possible. The team is more resilient, more focused and has high morale, it reduces the pressure on the registered manager to address staff attendance issues and allows them to focus on supervisions and appraisals.
Summarising his views, Chris said, “Using CoolCare4 lets the staff love each other a bit more. They tend to do the right things consistently and that actually reflects into other areas of how the care home runs.”
Grosvenor House has been open for 35 years but it is now better run than it ever has been. CoolCare is a key part of the new philosophy that we have established which is driving that change.
Chris Bainborough, Director
