Imagine there’s a childcare group called Kid’s Central with 10 centres across two states. Each Centre Manager is responsible for creating rosters that are compliant, but they also must meet their revenue targets.
They use their existing childcare management software to schedule staff, which still involves manual work taking hours each week. Managers use the previous week as a template and then adjust as they need – working out if they’ve met regulatory requirements for room ratios, as well as taking into account educator availability, and the number of children booked in.
Despite the work that goes into creating these rosters, managers are finding it difficult to manage busy periods during the start and end of the day. They’re also finding it challenging to schedule the limited staff they do have so there’s enough of the right people on, without overworking them.
With Demand-Driven Rostering, Ento integrates with their existing childcare management software, as well as the other systems they’re currently using. It then uses information like historical and current booking data, educator’s qualification and availability, as well as Modern Award and industry regulations to forecast the number and mix of educators that should be on – down to the room level.
Now, instead of hours it used to take creating rosters, Centre Managers only need minutes. In particular, it’s helped Centre Managers to schedule the right number of educators during pick up and drop off times, where child numbers are most dynamic.
During these times, as well as the overall roster, they now have just enough educators rostered on to not overspend on labour, but are still compliant. Even break times are accounted for and managers receive alerts if there’s a risk of someone being overworked – so they can adjust the roster before it’s too late.