CASE STUDY
HCF Management Improves Visibility into Staffing and Drives Savings
and Efficiencies
Company Background
HCF Management’s tradition of caring is reflected in its history of high occupancy
throughout 27 communities offering skilled nursing, rehabilitative and assisted
living services. HCF operates primarily in non-metropolitan areas, where there is a
growing need for quality extended care as well as higher levels of skilled services.
Over 4,000 employees work for HCF, focused on providing the very best care and
enhancing the quality of life for residents and their families.
Business Challenges
Reimbursement cuts caused management at HCF to look for new ways to drive
efficiencies and control labor costs – the organization’s largest expense. In addition,
HCF had little visibility into staffing and scheduling, which made it difficult to stay
on budget and make adjustments.
www.hcfinc.com
Paper Scheduling
HCF communities had been scheduling employees in each building using pen and
paper, while some of the more advanced properties relied on a spreadsheet. Nurses
and nurse managers spent valuable time creating schedules, managing changes and
updating shifts. “Our staff was spending hours and hours on scheduling, making
calls, and filling shifts,” stated Scott Unverferth, Director of Operations for HCF. “The
problem with paper schedules is that you would hand out the schedule and then it
would change 100 times by the time you walked out of the office.”
In addition to the significant time involved, manual scheduling led to a slew of other
challenges. Identifying proper staffing levels was difficult. “If census went up or
down, the hours didn’t change. Sometimes we were budgeting at 85 but still staffing
at 89. Adjustments weren’t made as residents left. It just wasn’t efficient.”
As HCF evolved to take on more short-term residents, this problem worsened and
the costs and complexities skyrocketed. Jacque Welch, Administrator at Van Wert
Manor, added that staffing to census was challenging, “We used to have to punch in
census a few times a day, look it up in one instance, then put it in another, and then
look at another sheet and manually count by hand.”
Costly Overtime
Overtime costs were climbing with the manual approach to scheduling. “We used to
manually guess in our head who might be in overtime just so we could make a quick
decision when trying to fill an open shift,” commented Welch. And, management
staff lacked visibility into overtime across communities and did not have a
reasonable method for heading off overtime costs. “Managing overtime was
cumbersome. We had to run several reports on Kronos and they would come out a
week after the pay period.”
“As part of the management
team, I can get a real-time
view of where we are when
it comes to hours and
overtime. This is our biggest
cost in the company and
seeing it in real-time allows
us to intervene before it
becomes a problem.”
Scott Unverferth, Director of
Operations, HCF Management,
Inc.
When open shifts occurred due to staff call-offs or an unanticipated swing in census,
bringing in additional staff usually meant incurring overtime. “Someone would just
say ‘I’ll work it’ and we would fill the shift. We didn’t know if overtime was going to
be an issue or not,” added Welch. In addition, overtime was often built right into
employee schedules, since it was difficult to see on paper. And, employees clockingin early or out late exacerbated the problem. Overtime crept up throughout the
organization.
1621 Euclid Avenue• Cleveland, OH 44115 • (216) 333-1353 • www.OnShift.com
Limited Visibility
Reporting on staffing and labor management at HCF was time consuming, involved
multiple products, and hindered the ability to understand the staffing situation
across communities. “It was really hard to know where everybody was with staffing.
The information we were using from our reports was already a couple weeks old,
since we relied on payroll reports after the pay period had wrapped up,”
commented Unverferth. In addition, employees were distanced from the scheduling
process and had little insight into their schedules. “People complained about it.
Schedules were published at the last minute and employees just didn’t know what
was going on,” said Welch.
The Solution
HCF turned to OnShift staff scheduling and labor management software to get off
paper schedules and get online, across all communities. HCF selected OnShift
because of the efficiencies it would gain within the communities and the visibility it
delivered across properties, at the corporate level. The company established three
goals for the initiative: 1. Improve access to HPPD measurement; 2. Reduce
overtime; 3. Provider greater visibility into staffing.
Commitment to Success
OnShift’s training and customer success team worked one-on-one with each
community to get up and running, train schedulers and educate staff. OnShift’s
customer success manager stays on top of each community’s scheduling efforts by
tracking to KPIs, looking for areas of continuous improvement, and sharing best
practices. “The training on OnShift was really good, easy to pick up, and we learned
a lot. We like working with our customer success manager who checks in with us all
the time and shares great ideas. Whenever I have a question, OnShift answers it,”
stated Welch.
Jacque’s Best Practices
Pick up tips from Jacque Welch,
Administrator at Van Wert
Manor, who’s experienced great
success with OnShift.
 Look at the dashboard in OnShift
throughout the day to see overtime,
open shifts and PPDs. Use the overtime
red flags to make changes in advance.
Take someone out of overtime
whenever possible.
 Use monthly gift card drawings to
encourage staff responses (yes or no)
to open shift messages. OnShift tracks
the responses for you. The incentive
will boost your response rate!
 Pay attention to the daily emails. If
you see a lot of red, you’ve got work to
do.
 Plan ahead with staff adjustments.
Look at census in the morning to see if
resident discharges or intakes are
planned, and adjust accordingly.
Reduce shifts if they’re not needed
based on a change in census.
 Update staff call-ins and trades every
day. Don’t fall behind.
Gaining HPPD Visibility
With OnShift, HCF communities have an automated way to track staffing HPPDs and
better manage to their labor budget. Because OnShift identifies potential
over/under-staffing situations, schedulers easily adjust staff while ensuring HPPD
requirements are met. As census fluctuates, schedulers use OnShift to pinpoint the
exact hours and number of staff required by shift to adhere to the budget and
deliver quality care.
Reducing Overtime
Spending hours on the phone looking for shift replacements became a thing of the
past with OnShift. Open shifts and call-offs are filled quickly using OnShift’s
communications platform, which sends open shift messages via text, email, and
automated phone call. In addition, OnShift’s predictive analytics provide necessary
insight into potential overtime before it occurs, so schedulers can make appropriate
adjustments. “With OnShift, we can see who’s projected to go into overtime. It’s so
helpful because changes can be made to avoid the costs,” stated Unverferth.
OnShift’s Integration with Kronos also plays a role in overtime management. Punch
variance reporting highlights issues so managers can make appropriate
adjustments.
 Try to distribute open shifts more
evenly. See who’s picked up shifts in
the past and share extra shifts more
fairly based on a broader group of
responses.
 Consider how the scheduling
template in OnShift can help you
manage shifts more consistently, by
assigning staff to the same hall on a
regular basis.
 Monitor your daily PPD and make
sure it never drops below your
minimum.
Management Transparency
Scheduling and labor management became transparent processes with OnShift.
Community and corporate management can now access staffing information in realtime. Dashboards, reports and alerts keep actionable data, like overtime, staffing
levels and budget adherence, at their fingertips. For the first time, corporate
executives have an easy way to view and access staffing information across HCF
communities. Proactive emails to management highlight trends, current and
upcoming information about hours, costs, and overtime, so corrective action can be
taken where needed.
1621 Euclid Avenue• Cleveland, OH 44115 • (216) 333-1353 • www.OnShift.com
The Results
With the help of OnShift, HCF communities reduced overtime, improved adherence
to labor budgets, and dramatically improved visibility into staffing and labor
management. The company’s efforts around staffing have been embraced within the
communities, which has led to greater efficiencies and a boost to staff satisfaction.
HCF is in the process of expanding its use of OnShift beyond direct care and into
other departments of its communities.
Decreased Overtime
Overtime projections and red flags, along with automated communications to assist
with filling shifts, have driven lower overtime and associated costs for HCF. In total,
the majority of communities have reduced overtime. Highlights include:
-
Top performing HCF communities decreased overtime rates 35% - 61%,
creating significant cost savings
The Manor at Perrysburg decreased its overtime rate 60% within two
months and is on track to save over $100,000 the first year of
implementation
Average overtime is 1.88% for all communities
“Our HPPDs are clearer now
than before. There are no
complicated calculations
with OnShift and we don’t
have to manually count
things.”
Jacque Welch, Administrator, Van
Wert Manor
The Manor at Perrysburg
Greater Adherence to Labor Budget
OnShift played a critical role in helping HCF transition to managing labor by HPPD.
This effort has created efficiencies and increased each community’s adherence to
the labor budget. “Our HPPDs are clearer now than before. There are no complicated
calculations with OnShift and we don’t have to manually count things. You just click
HPPD in OnShift,” stated Welch.
The communities remain properly staffed and avoid over/understaffing on a regular
basis. They are able to adjust staffing plans quickly when census changes as well as
plan schedules based on future estimates. Unverferth adds, “We have much more
resident turnover today than we did in the past because we care for more shortterm care residents. OnShift helps us stay on budget and staff properly and safely so
we can continue to deliver high quality care to our residents.”
-
Eliminated overstaffing across communities, thereby lowering costs
The Manor at Perrysburg saved $277,320/year by eliminating overstaffing
and staffing properly on a consistent basis
Communities maintained proper staffing, even as census fluctuated
“With OnShift, we can see
who’s projected to go into
overtime. It’s so helpful
because changes can be
made to avoid the costs.”
Scott Unverferth, Director of
Operations, HCF Management, Inc.
1621 Euclid Avenue• Cleveland, OH 44115 • (216) 333-1353 • www.OnShift.com
Increased Efficiencies
Already running a tight ship due to reimbursement cuts, HCF found even more
efficiencies once OnShift was on board. “The ease of the product and efficiencies are
great. Our schedulers are more productive and now they have more time to do other
things.” At Van Wert Manor, Welch added, “My DON has so much more time now.”
Consistent assignments have also progressed with the use of OnShift. “OnShift’s
template approach makes it easy to make consistent assignments. This is one of our
Quality Measure Goals and with the template, it’s easier to do and prove,” said
Welch. Additional scheduling benefits include:
-
Communities fill open shifts within 20 minutes, on average
Schedulers spend less time creating and updating schedules, taking less
than half the time prior to OnShift
More Informed Decisions
The transparency that HCF has gained into staffing and labor management helps
managers drive a more efficient business. “As part of the management team, I can
get a real-time view of where we are when it comes to hours and overtime. This is
our biggest cost in the company and seeing it in real-time allows us to intervene
before it becomes a problem,” said Unverferth. The management team relies on
executive reports to get the visibility needed to keep costs in check and ensure safe
staffing across communities. “Overtime and HPPD projections built into the emails
and reporting go a long way in helping us manage the business,” he added.
Dashboards and predictive analytics also give administrators insight into staffing
situations so they can adjust hours, people, positions and shifts when necessary. In
addition, OnShift has helped managers make hiring decisions as it drives visibility
into open positions. Now, HR can see exactly where people need to be hired,
avoiding the need to just hire full-time people without regard to shift needs.
Higher Satisfaction & Quality
Employees within HCF communities are more involved in the scheduling process
with OnShift. 24x7 access from any computer or mobile device means they no longer
have to walk into an office to get schedules. “They’re engaged. They like that
scheduling is hands-on for them. It’s easy for them to make requests, mange timeoff, and change schedules in advance. They don’t complain about schedules
anymore,” said Welch. And OnShift’s messaging capabilities mean that open shift
messages are distributed quickly and more evenly among staff, which has boosted
morale within the communities.
1621 Euclid Avenue• Cleveland, OH 44115 • (216) 333-1353 • www.OnShift.com