Blog
Care homes and the payroll dilemma
15th September 2021
Care homes have faced a litany of challenges in the wake of the Covid pandemic – particularly in terms of staff attraction and retention. In an industry poised for exponential growth in the coming decade, care homes need cost-effective solutions to align with this growth trajectory while ensuring continued wellbeing support of their employees.
Staff retention issues
It’s no secret that care home support staff are struggling financially. A rudimentary Google search reveals that care homes across the country are struggling with staff retention against a backdrop of poor pay conditions and a global pandemic. According to Homecare1 , “66% of care home providers are experiencing more of their staff quitting their jobs than before the pandemic”, due to low pay and Covid burnout.
A growing sector
This doesn’t bode well for the sector, which is experiencing a growing demand for new homes. In fact, JLL2 recently predicted that the over 85 age-group is set to increase by 27.5% per annum to 2030, which is 7 times the growth rate of the overall UK population. This in turn means the demand for new care homes will increase, as will the need to employ and retain essential staff.
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Care home staff
But care home recruitment is a complex issue. Many employees are not English natives; others are on several different types of employment contracts and pay rates, while others may be required to work across multiple locations. How therefore, can care home managers align with their needs of their diverse staff while ensuring adequate support and continued staff engagement?
In a nutshell: Through the payslip.
Cloud payslips for care home staff
Cloud technology has evolved the payslip from a government-mandated pay advice document to a hub of employee financial empowerment and engagement. This is good news for care home managers who faced ongoing challenges distributing payslips and engaging with their staff during the pandemic - at a time when their staff would have needed more support than usual.
Benefits for care homes
It’s not just the employees who would benefit. Maintaining healthy overheads is a crucial initiative for care home managers, but these constraints are severed by the costs associated with printing payslips, or the time placed upon payroll teams in addressing employee pay queries. Then there’s the issue of establishing and maintaining communications with a dispersed workforce – something that greatly affected the care home sector during the pandemic, and which legacy systems proved ineffective at addressing. Then there's the issue of scalability. As care home groups look to expand their services to keep up with growing demand, they will need technology that can align with these demands. Cloud payslips are the obvious solution, as they can address all of these challenges.
The challenge of legacy payslip processes
Let’s talk a little more about printed payslips. It’s a known security risk to leave payslips on a desk, as you can learn more about here. And there’s the issue of cost. For providers with multiple care home groups in their remit, the printing and distribution of payslips represents a significant weekly and monthly overhead (in addition to the known security risks). It’s basically an outdated, unrealistic, and unsustainable scenario for this growing sector.
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The future is the cloud payslip
Many care homes (or their payroll provider) might be reluctant to switch to a cloud solution because of the perceived cost, or because of pushback from older workers who might be considered late adopters in technology. It’s not always abundantly clear that cloud solutions are quick to implement, simple to use, and a cost-effective tool to support employee wellbeing and engagement. It's crucial that care home managers are made aware of the ecosystem of benefits that exist beyond the cost and resource advantages.
Conclusion
In lieu of significant (and unlikely) pay rises for care home staff across the UK, care homes will need alternative solutions to engage with, and support their employees.
PayDashboard’s cloud payslip solution is an ISO 27001-approved, interactive payslip and engagement platform. It is a simple, cost-effective solution that integrates with your payroll software to enhance employees’ payday and empower them to take charge of their finances. The payslip solution includes a dedicated Client Success team that will remain with you through the onboarding process and beyond.
PayDashboard’s payslip platform is the de facto payslip and payday experience to align with the needs of the diverse and growing care home sector.