Part-time employees are on the rise - and so are the costs (mostly)
Nowadays, finding employees who want to fill a 100% position is becoming increasingly difficult. Generation Z in particular has different expectations of a job and the mix of working life and leisure time is becoming increasingly important.
On one hand, this has many advantages for a company, but it also brings significant disadvantages.
More jobs for the same number of job percentages
It goes without saying that if a company has to hire two or even three employees in order to achieve the same number of percentages, it must also have the necessary space. Of course, there are solutions for this as well. Be it that the employees work from home/remote office, a job sharing concept that consistently divides the days among the employees or even an open-space office with flexible workstations.
But this is not always possible, especially in long-term care. Creating shift and duty schedules is already a major challenge today. In addition to the family situation, other factors such as vacations, illness, maternity/paternity leave and, above all, the needs of our seniors must often be taken into account.
Needs of the employees
Als Arbeitgebende sieht man sich zudem aufgrund des Fachkräftemangels auch den neuen Bedürfnissen der Mitarbeitenden gegenübergestellt. War es früher branchenüblich, dass eine Pflegefachkraft auch Nacht- und Wochenendschichten abdeckt, können Mitarbeitende es sich heute aufgrund des Fachkräftemangels erlauben, diese Dienste abzulehnen. Arbeitgebende, die dem heutzutage nicht zustimmen oder zustimmen können, werden in der Rekrutierung noch zusätzlich benachteiligt.
This situation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers the opportunity to bring back those professionals who have changed industries for precisely this reason. On the other hand, there is of course the risk that in the long term only nurses who prefer a classic "9 to 5" job will be employed.
In the end, it is our senior citizens, our parents, grandparents and families who suffer.
Advantages of the new generation
Part-time employees in particular are often found to be less active in the company, but when they are there, they are often more motivated. In addition, the very good work-life balance means that employees are more rested and therefore more focused at work.
For the new generation of employees, the amount of salary is no longer necessarily in the foreground. Values such as self-fulfillment, meaningful work, working atmosphere and fair performance-based compensation are once again more in focus.
A company that succeeds today in providing these required values, but above all in actively living them, will gain a significant advantage over its competitors when it comes to recruiting.
Costs for the IT infrastructure in the homes
The IT infrastructure must also be ramped up accordingly. Much is becoming more digital today, including in nursing. So it often requires a personal login, an email address, a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) so that employees can get information or even the performance recording can be done directly on the mobile devices.
In order to protect myself legally as a company, it is then also of great advantage if I can determine who of my employees has recorded the performance at what time. This in turn means that a license must be purchased from the respective provider for all (part-time) employees. All of this involves high costs for the employer and should not be underestimated.
Digitalization as an advantage in recruitment
To be clear, we did not find the golden key in the numerous discussions we had with our customers. However, we were able to learn that, among other things, a modern and digital work environment can make "digital natives" prefer one employer over another. State-of-the-art technology that is easy to use and saves time on maintenance are good arguments for getting Generation Z on your side.
Additional benefits such as more flexible work schedules, job sharing offers, temporary assignments or even "on-call" pools for caregivers who can step in are other important criteria that speak for you as an employer.
What SmartLiberty can do to help
Our SmartLiberty solution and associated app (motica care) is specifically designed for long-term care and is more than just a normal call and location system. It is a digital platform that combines the call, telephony, mobile care documentation, messaging function and many other tools on one end device. An interface that is clear and easy to understand in terms of handling allows both "digital natives" and somewhat less digitally savvy nursing staff to navigate easily and save time.
More part-time employees = higher costs? Not with SmartLiberty's new FLEX+ model
In order to also meet the needs of the market and accommodate the increase in part-time workers, SmartLiberty launched a new subscription model as of the beginning of the year.
The Flex+ model offers you the maximum flexibility based on the actual services used in the system. SmartLiberty generates a monthly invoice based on actual daily usage by active individuals. Active individuals include residents, visitors or virtual users recorded in the database, as well as staff who are logged in via smartphone and/or have a staff badge in use or in motion. The SmartAbo is not limited in the number of persons and adapts daily to your actual needs and workloads. It includes all licenses required for normal operation (resident call, runaway protection, assistance call, technical alarm, ESPA 4.4.4) and services necessary for the regular operation of the system (motica care).
Example: Why should you pay for a user (employee) 365 days a year, if the system is only used e.g. at a workload of 60% (three working days/week)?
Unser System prüft jeweils, ob sich eine Person am Tag X eingeloggt hat oder der Personalbadge für Quittierungen etc. im System verwendet wurde. Ist dies nicht der Fall, wird diese Person für den entsprechenden Tag auch nicht als User gezählt und nicht verrechnet.
Calculation example
Calculation example
Calculation example
This has only advantages for you as a company. To name just a few:
- Cost-optimized, progressive expansion of bed occupancy
- Optimized costs on weekends (usually less administration staff logged in)
- Occupancy fluctuations are compensated (pandemic, flu wave, etc.)
- Automatic adjustment in case of expansion or reduction of the number of beds in your facility
- Independent of the number of part-time employees
This SmartAbo FLEX+ model helps you to keep costs under control at all times without having to purchase a separate license for each employee. You only pay for what you actually use. (See also:(The end of the classic maintenance contract: The new "pay-per-use" subscriptions from SmartLiberty | SmartLiberty).
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