Organization
Four Seasons Healthcare
Four Seasons Healthcare provides in-home care in Pennsylvania and Delaware. With a team consisting of registered nurses, they are here to provide the best patient care from a medical perspective.
Location: Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Industry: Home Healthcare
Company Size: 50-200 employees
Challenges
Four Seasons Healthcare operates in a highly competitive industry, with hundreds of companies providing home healthcare in a given area. Compared to when they first started out in 2010, they now had 80 employees and were experiencing workforce management problems. Due to the nature of their work, nurses work remotely in patients’ homes. As a result, it was difficult to communicate schedule and availability changes and monitor motivation and performance.
For them, employee motivation is crucial to their operations. As their Managing Director, Richard Koster says: “Happy caregiver equals happy patient.” They wanted to invest their resources into recruiting motivated workers, incentive programs, and better scheduling processes. They also wanted to keep costs low and sustainable due to the volatility of the industry.
We are a caregiver centric business. A large part of that has been driven by the Celayix mobile app.
Richard Koster, CEO
Solution
Celayix’s cloud-based apps helped Four Seasons Healthcare solve its workforce management difficulties. With scheduling features like self-scheduling, managers could easily publish shifts needed for patient care. Some shifts included certain qualifications or requirements too. Workers simply signed onto the mobile app and picked up shifts according to their own schedule and availability. With increased scheduling autonomy, employees had a better work-life balance which helped enhance the delivery and quality of patient care. Overall, the Celayix system had a positive impact on the organization and most importantly, the in-home care workers.
Results
Increased employee autonomy and motivation through self-scheduling
The self-scheduling process was very satisfying for both management and employees. Management ensured patient needs were met by specifying qualifications in published shifts. The system also eliminated overtime costs automatically by preventing employees from scheduling themselves if they exceeded hours. The process also freed up time for management to focus on other aspects of the business like recruitment.
For employees, they could now choose shift times and locations that fit their schedules. Self-scheduling also allowed them to have autonomy over the number of hours they wanted to work. This resulted in an increase in employee satisfaction, and subsequently performance meaning higher quality patient care.
Improved communication and transparency
With a remote workforce, the Celayix apps provided a better medium for communication between employees and management. Employees could easily submit their availabilities in the app. Management would receive notifications for any changes and can consider all availabilities when it came to scheduling. Management can also see when employees are checking in and out of their shifts at a glance.
Utilized data for business acquisition and growth
Scheduling, time and attendance data were now being recorded and kept in the Celayix system. Using reporting, Four Seasons Healthcare could see improvements in employee punctuality and attendance. They were able to leverage this data to stand out against competitors.
“The only way you can differentiate is how good you are”.
Richard Koster, CEO
Differentiation from competitors helped them build a strong reputation in the industry and also acquire new patients for care. It was an effective tool that helped them reduce marketing costs.
Overall, the implementation of Celayix in Four Seasons Healthcare’s operations helped them increase employee satisfaction and motivation, and improve the quality of their patient care. On the business side, they were able to save costs with better employee retention and grow their business.
