How Salutem saved 1.5% of a £90m Payroll.

💚 "These savings - almost £1.3m in the first four months - we can reinvest in our people."

Salutem Care and Education is a complex Social Care group, delivering supported living, residential care, children’s services, and specialist education. They support more than 1,100 people, over 140 services across the country, and employ more than 3,000 colleagues.

Sona is the workforce management platform that puts people at the heart of every shift. A next-generation solution that brings together end-to-end functionality with intelligent AI insights that make every shift run smoother and every customer or resident experience better. 

In 2024, Salutem rolled out Sona’s Scheduling product and within weeks, they had clear evidence of time savings, payroll accuracy improvements, and a level of operational insight they had not been able to achieve before.

Book a meeting

At a glance, this is the impact Salutem saw once Sona was live across the organisation:

• £1.3m in payroll savings
• 4 - 8h saved per week per manager in admin time
• near 100% staff adoption of platform within the first 3 months
• universal positive feedback from frontline teams 
• increased consistency of care for supported individuals

Sona is saving us money, improving wellbeing, and giving me visibility across 3,000 staff in seconds. It’s the best system rollout we’ve ever done.

Kirstie Jones, Chief People Officer

With real-time visibility into operations, Salutem was saving 1.5% of their total payroll within the first four months, surpassing the initial 1% forecast.

These savings were underlined by:

• Fewer overpayments
• More accurate alignment of staffing to needs
• Stronger overtime controls
• Fewer rota errors
• More consistent break and sleep-in practices
• Clear rules around contracted vs. additional hours

Managers saving up to a full day every week

Managers across Salutem reported saving between four and eight hours a week thanks to digital rotas, templates, drag-and-drop scheduling, automated reporting, and the removal of manual processes.

For some, the shift has been transformative:

One manager went from spending ten hours a week on rotas to two or three. Others are saving a full day. It varies, but the impact is real.

Luke Laville, Head of Digitisation & System Implementation

These time savings have repurposed managerial capacity back into quality, culture, and support — rather than admin. 

The impact of this extra day cannot be overstated: more coaching, more observations, more support for colleagues, and better outcomes for the people they support.

It keeps continuity for the people we support. We can see who helped them yesterday and keep that consistency. It gives a steady level of care.

Gabriela Elisei, Registered Manager

Open shifts have also replaced long WhatsApp threads, making shift distribution transparent and fair.

Visibility into staffing, hours, and wellbeing — all in real time

One of the biggest operational breakthroughs for Salutem has been instant visibility into how staffing actually works across the organisation.

Before Sona, data lived in spreadsheets, emails, or local files. Trend analysis was limited, and leadership rarely had a real-time snapshot of hours, absence, overtime, or compliance.

With Sona, that changed immediately.

I can see sickness trends, patterns of lateness, staffing risks, and wellbeing concerns instantly. That’s something we’ve never had before.

Kirstie Jones, CPO

This visibility has also strengthened their ability to work with commissioners and ensure every delivered hour is covered by the fees. Teams at Salutem can also use data to evidence reassessment conversations when needs change.

When supporting over 1100 individuals, this level of operational clarity has been transformative, particularly around ensuring everyone is receiving the amount and type of care they need to thrive.

A smooth roll-out with strong adoption rates

A consistent theme across the organisation was how smooth the implementation felt. Compared to their previous attempt with another provider, Sona delivered a very different experience.

It is the first major system where staff genuinely said they were excited to use it.

John Godden, CEO

Managers quickly adopted the system, reflecting how effectively Salutem's rollout team partnered with Sona's to provide training and clear communications.

From a payroll perspective, the roll-out also marked a significant shift in accuracy and clarity.

It is so easy to use. For payroll, the transparency is a huge advantage because people rely on being paid correctly. You can't mess that up. Sona helps us get things right every single time.

Jackie Sanger, Group Head of Payroll & Pension

Frontline leaders also felt the difference immediately:

It brought consistency. We can plan ahead, support our teams properly and keep continuity for the people we support. It has made everything more stable.

Gabriela Elisei, Registered Manager

A single system capable of handling high organisational complexity

Salutem’s services are diverse — children’s care, residential homes, adult supported living, education settings, and more. The operational reality is a mixture of different contracts, requirements, and multi-role staff members. 

We tried another solution a couple of years back. It simply couldn’t cope with our requirements. We ended up reverting to paper.

Kirstie Jones, CPO

During their new tender, Sona stood out not only for its flexibility, but for the robustness of the architecture and its future-proof approach to development. 

Sona’s architecture is miles ahead. We wanted a system that would still be modern in five, even ten years’ time.

John Godden, CEO

Sona became the first rostering system that could unify all parts of Salutem's business model, while integrating cleanly into existing systems including Nourish, and Stream (formerly Wagestream).

Frontline teams now have clarity and stability

For frontline teams, Sona has brought something that sounds simple but has a major effect on wellbeing: predictable rotas.

With Sona, staff can see their schedule weeks in advance, pick up extra shifts easily, check in on tablets, and access accurate pay without chasing managers.

This stability has been a major contributor to early improvements in staff retention.

If you're a shift worker and you don’t know next week’s rota, how do you plan your life? Sona fixes that.

Kirstie Jones, CPO

Integration with Stream (formerly Wagestream) also means staff can access wages early when needed — a meaningful benefit in today’s cost-of-living environment.

Future-proofing Salutem Care & Education's growth

Salutem plans to grow by another 500 to 600 colleagues over the next year, with the intention to double their workforce within 5 years. With Sona now embedded across the organisation, they feel prepared for the next stage of growth.

Our systems are fundamental to our success. Sona is built to grow with us.

Kirstie Jones, Chief People Officer

For large and complex providers, the message from Salutem is clear:

Sona pays for itself. It gives visibility, it saves time and it improves care. It has been a step change for us.

Luke Laville, Head of Digitisation & System Implementation