Sona Webinar Recap | Closing the gap: Strategies for workforce retention in Hospitality
Here are the main takeaways from Sona’s webinar on closing the labour gap in the Hospitality industry.
Building a staff schedule couldn’t be easier.
Reduce payroll errors with real-time T&A.
Fill 50% more shifts with your own employees.
Ensure shifts are covered even if you're understaffed.
Manage absence requests and approvals.
Practical ways to boost team morale with proven examples from across the sector.
Find out what care employees say matters to them most at work.
Search and view employees with customised permission levels.
Key employment information all in one place.
Store visas, professional certifications and more with easy access.
Control personal and operational details of your staff.
Why are people leaving Social Care, and where are they going?
Take ownership of your payroll processes.
We asked 250 Social Care leaders about their attitudes towards digitisation and their plans for the next 12 months...
Share updates with a single click.
Staff can see relevant messages in one place.
Request post-shift feedback from staff.
Recognise staff contributions by sending them praise.
Identify staff at risk of churning.
How care organisations can embrace flexible working and thrive.
Maintain quality of care and reduce costs.
Bring out the best in your teams.
Streamline operations across sites.
Keep your staff and volunteers connected.
Richard, our Head of Product, worked in social care for 10 years before bringing his experience to Sona.
Over 500k shifts are created by our customers each year.
Integrate with Nourish.
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Sona is the 2022 Leaders in Care Awards winner for Innovative Solution of the Year for Care Homes.
Give staff greater visibility of shifts available to work, with a simple "shift claim" process to increase their income.
Improve employee engagement and retention with a seamless employee communication platform.
Happier staff provide greater customer experiences, which in turn drives return rates, revenues and recommendations.
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| 6 min read
Here are the main takeaways from Sona’s webinar on closing the labour gap in the Hospitality industry.
| 2 min read
Sona has been shortlisted for the Innovative Solutions, Care Homes and Best Care Marketing Team categories, at the Leaders in Care Awards 2023. The awards ceremony annually recognises the best providers, leaders, and suppliers in social care.
| 8 min read
Welcome to the first edition of Sona’s Social Care around the world series.
PUBLISHED: September 2023
Why are people leaving Social Care, and where are they going?
This report looks at the trends seen in the last year, the meaningful changes compared to 2022, and highlights how Social Care organisations can improve recruitment and retention, and better target the needs of those who receive care.
PUBLISHED: July 2023
10 practical strategies to boost your sales per labour hour
These practical strategies will help your hospitality organisation gain a competitive edge by boosting sales per labour hour (SPLH). Provide a few details to get instant access!
PUBLISHED: June 2023
Showing appreciation is crucial for staff retention in the care industry.
Our latest report provides 15 practical ways to boost team morale with proven examples from across the sector. Provide a few details to get instant access!
PUBLISHED: June 2023
Sona's KPI Cheat Sheet is designed to provide clear metrics to track progress and make informed decisions specifically within the Care industry.
PUBLISHED: April 2023
Our set of handy templates is designed to help you improve your employee experience and retention rates, covering the key questions you should consider asking any future leaver.
PUBLISHED: January 2023
Take our bespoke quiz, designed to help you understand your communication style and provide tips to improve your communication with others.
Social Care, Workforce Management, Customer Stories, Scheduling
How streamlining shift management through Sona has transformed Praxis’ operations, given valuable time back to managers, and significantly reduced agency costs.
5 minute read
Industry
Social Care
Locations
Northern Ireland (HQ), Ireland, Great Britain and the Isle of Man
Size
1800 staff supporting over 1500 individuals
38% reduction in spending on agency staff
40% reduction in manager time spent maintaining rosters
71% of unallocated shifts filled within 24 hours of posting
9 in 10 staff say Sona is a more efficient way of distributing rotas
It was such an amazing process, it was really simple, and the benefits were clear from the first few weeks of using the software. Four weeks from the introduction of the pilot…the agency saving was 38%. The senior leadership team couldn’t argue with the data.
Ciara Duffy - Head of Operations, NI Foyle
Staffing is a constant source of frustration for leadership teams in social care organisations, and Praxis was no different.
Rosemary Doherty, Regional Director of Care and Development, says it’s a simple equation. “Clearly, your best resource is your staff. If you don’t have the staff, you can’t offer the services.”
For years, Praxis’ operations team had to rely on manual processes for completing their rotas, including rounds of emails and follow-up phone calls.
It’s all very time consuming for managers and intrusive for team members. Plus, important information was getting lost in a sea of ‘are you available?’ emails.
Managers and team leaders were saying that two to three days of their week were being taken up with the rota. So we thought there has to be a better way of doing this - there has to be some technology that can help.
Rosemary Doherty - Regional Director, Care and Development
Sona worked with Praxis to configure and deploy Sona’s shift fulfilment platform, which is specifically designed to:
automate the process of finding staff to cover available shifts, eliminating hours of manual work
maximise the number of shifts covered by contracted staff
Following a successful pilot, Praxis Care is rolling out the Sona platform to every member of staff (which they can download straight to their smartphone).
Every time Praxis’ managers and team leads have a shift they need to fill, they post the details on Sona, and all eligible team members receive an instant notification on their phones.
Employees can book themselves in for the shift then and there, and the relevant supervisor is notified that cover has been found.
In the pilot area, Praxis is now filling over 50% of its unallocated shifts within six hours (and over 70% within 24 hours) without agency support.
“Being able to have a new method of getting shifts covered, and seeing it be so successful, was incredible.”
Muireann Canavan - Manager, Templemore Supported Living
The Praxis team have noticed a wide range of benefits since they began partnering with Sona to transform their shift management and communication.
Staff:
Are getting quicker, easier access to overtime when they need it
Are no longer inundated with email, text and phone messages
Have more control and ownership over when they’re working and when they’re not
Have more opportunities to work across different client groups and support areas, broadening their experience and opening up new career opportunities
Managers and team leaders:
Are spending 40% less time on rota management and rota-related admin
Have become more productive and cost-efficient as a result
Have been freed up to focus on their core business - delivering high-quality care services
The service:
Has reduced its spending on staffing agencies by 38%
Is on course to achieve a 270% ROI on management time saved alone (based on a projected 13,800 hours saved this year)
Is seeing improvements in staff engagement with team leaders and the wider organisation as a result of streamlined shift communication
The GMB Union recently recognised Praxis Care as one of the top employers in the care sector.
Praxis chose to take advantage of the free pilot programme, giving them the opportunity to ensure Sona was the right fit with no upfront commitment.
From day one, Sona’s customer success team has supported them with all aspects of the implementation and smooth running of the platform, including:
Ensuring the system and data feeds were fully configured to Praxis’ specific use case
Dedicated training for managers and all other admin-level users
Regular project reviews and reporting
A dedicated account manager (Molly) to oversee the delivery of everything above and ensure that day-to-day queries and requests are handled promptly
This approach reflects Sona’s commitment to work in partnership with customers to build workforce technology that solves real problems and delivers real, measurable value for its customers - from frontline to head office.
It felt like a real partnership. Sona seemed to understand that we, operationally, really wanted this to happen. Because we could see that it was going to make a big difference, not just to our staff but to the quality of services provided by those staff. In my experience, there hasn’t been a hurdle we haven’t been able to overcome.
Rosemary Doherty - Regional Director, Care and Development
The team at Sona have been absolutely fantastic, you know. They were so kind in terms of allowing me to pick up the phone or email quick responses, and then in terms of listening to our needs.
Ciara Duffy - Head of Operations
Well, I just love working with the team at Sona. I find they're really easy to chat to, really responsive and to have somebody who is going to respond to all your silly random questions is really reassuring (because at the start we had a lot of silly random questions), so their patience and support has been invaluable.
Muireann Canavan - Manager, Templemore Supported Living
Lunch with the team
Praxis Care supports 1,500 adults and children with mental ill-health, learning disabilities, autism and dementia. Its operations cover more than 80 locations in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Great Britain and the Isle of Man.
Already the largest provider of its kind on the island of Ireland, by 2025 Praxis hopes to be providing support to more than 3,000 individuals.
Praxis recently launched a new package of benefits, rewards and health and wellbeing support for its 1,800 staff, gaining recognition from the GMB union as one of the top employers in the sector.
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3 min read
How streamlining shift management with Sona has transformed Praxis Care's operations, given valuable time back to managers, and reduced costs.
4 min read
Sona created a unique feature to streamline the process of filling gaps in rotas to save managers time and hassle instead of calling, texting and emailing.
4 min read
Learn how Sona's shift management software and employee app are delivering significant ROI for our social care customers, including helping them to cut staffing agency spending by up to 40%