Curious to know how care agencies utilize Connecteam? We gathered examples of best practices from leading companies in the market to help you identify what may be relevant for your company.
Care agencies use Connecteam for:
Streamlining Communication to caregivers / care-workers
Uplifting Employee Engagement
Compliance Purposes
Day-to-Day Digital Reporting and Checklists
On-boarding of new care-givers / care-workers
Client Services / Service Users Info
Making Company Policies and Digital Resources Available
Human Resources needs
Training
Job Scheduling
Time Tracking
1. Streamlining Communication
Communicating with caregivers is critical but not an easy task, with the majority of the team on the go, keeping everyone on the same page and engaged can pose a real challenge. Here are some of the best communication methods and tools used by care agencies/care providers utilizing Connecteam:
Realtime push notifications and updates: for both formal and informal communication. From celebrating birthdays and events, to sending a CEO memo, to updating on new services available, shift changes, or new openings in the company.
Targeted communication: Providing each employee with the relevant information they need. Easily differentiating between probation, hourly, interim employee, care service managers, caregivers or sites.
Employee directory: making it easy to find the contact details of team members, with full permission management.
Chat groups and channels: to streamline day-to-day communication easily and efficiently, and to allow caregivers a communication channel with their respective manager.
2. Uplifting Employee Engagement
Care agencies often feel the need to put the caregivers in the center and to uplift the general employee engagement in the companies. Some of the common practices used to achieve improved employee engagement include:
Periodical surveys - whether it’s a simple 2 question feedback survey or a robust employee satisfaction survey, care agencies use the Connecteam app to allow employees to share their feedback with ease and efficiency.
Trainer feedback - allowing the caregiver to provide feedback on the trainer and the training session.
Newsletters - (mostly used by care agencies with more than 150 employees) newsletters are an efficient way to keep the team on the same page, providing recent updates on the business, activities, growth etc.
Photo albums and images - sharing of photos and images from key events with the team.
Suggestion box - often used to let all team members share their ideas in real time for how to do things better and raise improvement ideas.
Open door policy - care providers with open door policy let caregivers address key stakeholders (service managers / leadership / HR) with questions or issues, providing a direct channel that is trackable and efficient.
3. Compliance Purposes
As compliance is a big part of care agencies and care providers day-to-day, 'Read and sign' forms are common, and are often utilized by compliance officers for individual acknowledgment of company policies and regulations. All documents are logged and are available for export in an Excel or PDF format.
Commonly used Read & Sign compliance documents include agreement to / acknowledgment of:
Opting out of the 48hrs working time directive
Medication Policies and Procedures
Administration of Medication Policy
Assistance in Self Administration of Medication Policy
Auditing and Monitoring of Medication Policy
Collection of Prescription Policy
Controlled Drugs Policy
Medication Away from Home Policy
Medication Error and Near Misses Policy
Over the Counter Medication
Safe Disposal of Medication Policy and Procedure
Storage of Medication Policy and Procedure
Training and Competency Policy and Procedure
Sexual harassment policy
Other read and sign documents.
4. Day-to-day Digital Checklists and Reports
As day-to-day operations are often accompanied by relevant paperwork, care agencies digitize day-to-day forms, checklists, and report and therefore reduce friction from day-to-day activities, automate information flow, improve response time, and gain better oversight. Here are some popular examples:
Incident Reporting
Annual leave (including push notification update on approval)
Mileage tracking (weekly / monthly)
Supervisor inspection summary report for a caregiver
Fall risk assessment
Medication risk assessment
Hoist checklist
Bed rail assessment
Equipment visual check
Night worker assessment
Expense reimbursement
Employee performance review
Shadow shift summary (for caregiver on probation)
All entries submitted by employees are always digitally logged, can be automatically sent to a predefined email address as a PDF copy and can be exported in an Excel supported format.
5. On-boarding of new care-givers / care-workers
The need to deal with high employee turnover and to provide a high level of service, leads care agencies to build an in-app on-boarding process to make the development more efficient and quick. Usually this incorporates:
A formal letter welcoming the employee to the company
Guidance checklist "New employee checklist"
Personal information form (personal info, contact info, emergency contact)
Opting out form: the 48hrs working time directive
Declaration of pre-booked holidays
Uniform order form
Information for company Badge (photo and details)
Training summary feedback (depending on the training provided as part of the on-boarding)
Training (for more details please refer to section 9 below)
Read & Sign of appropriate forms
6. Client Services / Service Users Info
Care agencies looking to provide ideal experience to their clients, maintain a useful information folder for each client, to equip caregivers with the information they need and an easy way to report / initiate action items. Such information may include:
Information about the venue of the client, including the address and special entry instructions.
Task lists to be performed as part of the service for the prospective client throughout the day.
Useful forms such as creating a grocery list, reimbursement form, opening a maintenance call, etc.
Emergency contact information
7. Making Company Policies and Digital Resources Available
Care agencies often make digital resources available for their teams so they can easily find the information they need in one place. The most common resources usually shared with the teams include:
Policies and protocols
Employee handbook
'How To' guides (electronic equipment usage / login to a web service etc.)
Code of ethics
Sexual harassment policy
Uniform policy
8. Human Resources Needs
HR teams and executives in care agencies leverage Connecteam for automating processes and for better control over workforce related issues:
Refer a friend - makes it easy for the workforce to recommend friends for a position which helps increase their recruitment reach.
Vacation/sick leave request management - users receive an automatic update if requests were denied or approved.
Personal information form for on-boarding new employees (personal info, contact info, emergency contact, documents such as tax forms /photo ID etc.)
Updating contact information (Address /name / mobile/ email /bank account change)
Employee satisfaction surveys or performance reviews.
9. Training
In-app training is used by care agencies to provide relevant training materials on the individual level, common training practices include both professional and compliance related training:
Dementia training
Stoma care training
First Aid training
Hoist training
Abuse Neglect Exploitation (ANE) training
Sexual harassment training
Test and quizzes.
10. Job scheduling
For dispatching and managing service user's calls, care agencies utilize Connecteam's Job Scheduling feature to provide all relevant information to the caregiver easily:
Assigning caregivers for services based on different requirements.
Providing all relevant information including time, address and special instructions.
Keeping records of check-in / check-out time and location, and allowing for shift notes and comments.
Allowing employees to accept/reject shifts (optional - can be disabled).
11. Time Tracking
Taking advantage of mobile phones availability, care agencies use Connecteam for time tracking and payroll sheets:
For clocking in and out of shifts with a GPS location stamp.
Leveraging predefined reminder settings to make sure employees are clocking in and out on time.
Utilizing notes and tags to address specific needs (like filtering by customer or specific dates).
Exporting payroll sheets, per shift or as a total.