Case studies

The SMART electronic rostering software is an invaluable tool in the roster planning and management of 1300 nursing and ancillary staff at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust helping to target a reduction in requested bank shifts through visibility of and re-allocation of unused hours.

Transparency
Brenda Blackett, Project Manager of eRostering at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust explains the benefits of the system and the achievements of the new rostering policy:

“The key benefit is that we now use a ‘transparent’ system that brings together all considerations: timesheet, rostering and absences so they can be managed within one integrated, up-to-date and current system that makes contracted hours more visible.”

Prior to this system, the Trust could not track contracted hours against hours worked. Staff were getting paid standard hours and timesheets were picking up enhancements, however there was no overall monitoring of hours worked against contracted.

Compliance
Brenda continues: “Now, the Trust is using the electronic roster it knows whether staff are working the hours they are contracted for. This is a realised benefit for the Trust. Having an electronic record of shifts also makes it easier in the case of an incident as the Trust can see who was on duty at any time. Sickness absence is also very visible on the system. You can see when absences took place and if there was a pattern, for example, when staff should have worked nights or a long day. It is really beneficial to see this on the electronic system – as you wouldn’t spot the same trends on a paper version.”

A fundamental feature of the SMART eRostering software is that employees can look at their own working hours, request shifts or arrange a shift swap from anywhere with Internet access.
Brenda continues, “Staff found the request kiosk a positive addition as they can check holiday balances and credits from home before they are sent to payroll and see that pay is generated correctly prior to receiving it. Because of direct links to timesheet as long as the roster is correct, the system ensures there is less room for error – we are expecting less pay queries in future as a result.”

Auto-Rostering
The Trust also uses SMART’s Auto-Rostering feature which ensures appropriate skills are rostered to meet patient care demands, these are guided by a set of system parameters for the number of bands required to work each shift. Brenda explains:

“If four people want to work a ‘band 6’ shift but you only require two, the system will only accept two requests for the shift. It does this using a fair-play policy that looks at shifts already worked or requested and then allocates on this basis. Previously this was a manual process which wasn’t auditable - auto-rostering ensures it is fairer for all.”

New policy and savings
Prior to implementation, the Trust conducted a review of working hours against contracted hours and highlighted a need for changes to the rostering policy. The new rostering policy states that wards must use accumulated contracted hours by allocating extra shifts where possible to reduce requests for bank shifts. The new policy has led to a reduction in enhanced pay and bank usage and the rostering system has provided valuable data to highlight any non-compliance of the policy and to measure enhanced pay savings.

Stephen Kennedy, Deputy Director of Finance at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust confirmed the savings from eRostering were significant. He said:

“Significant savings have accrued from the implementation of eRostering, of circa £0.5 million. In addition the Trust now has a more transparent system for managing the deployment of staffing within ward areas, and this will provide spin-offs into other areas in the future”.