There is a great shift in the way child care providers now work with digital technologies. With the ongoing impacts of COVID, demand for workers and the need to keep families engaged, it’s more critical than ever to keep up. Is digital transformation on your agenda?
In this blog post, we explore ideas for going digital for the child care sector, with a specific focus on digitising your business’ workforce management processes.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation is the implementation of different initiatives, from digitising services, management and operations to automating processes with artificial intelligence (AI). It’s an organisational change that is needed to stay competitive in today’s world. Digitisation allows businesses to adapt quickly and create efficiencies in business processes.
Why go digital?
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the idea of digitisation while balancing the sector’s unique set of challenges. The good news is that technology can help, and your business’s bottom line can benefit too. Providers can see the benefits of going digital in many areas:
- Recruitment and onboarding – it’s no secret there’s a shortage of skilled workers in the sector. Taking a digital approach allows for a faster turnaround, keeps HR on top of the workflow and impresses new hires.
- Rostering – intuitive, fast, scheduling tech means more time for managers and staff to focus on care and quality standards.
- Clocking in and out – digital time and attendance removes the need for the tedious tasks that involve paper, scanning, emailing, spreadsheets, and more
- Compliance – paper or spreadsheets don’t need to be the go-to for managing enrolments, attendance and educator-to-child ratios! Software can power smart reporting, giving finance and operations teams the insights they need at the touch of a button
Not only can leveraging tech help with day-to-day tasks, but it can keep your business agile when responding to change. In short, less time handling admin gives your team more time to focus on care quality and business growth.
“It was a huge cost to process payroll and was such a waste of someone’s expertise and experience. Since implementing Ento, we’ve more than doubled our workforce and added five new locations but have managed to significantly reduce our payroll processing time.”
– Ian Harvey, Atlantis Childcare Group
Sounds great, where do I begin?
Are you currently weaving technology into programs at your centre? If so, you’re already dipping your toes in the water. Like many providers have experienced, innovation has emerged in response to remote learning requirements in the ECEC space. That’s great news; it means there’s an appetite for change there! With that in mind, maybe some of your centre’s back office processes can benefit from going digital too.
Digital transformation shouldn’t be an initiative that’s limited to the leadership team. It should include people from all areas of the business – this is where you’ll glean the best insights and win over naysayers. Get a diverse mix of employees to weigh in on what’s working and what’s due for an upgrade, as they’ll all have different perspectives to contribute.
Here are four ways to get started:
- Get your team on board
- Figure out the areas overdue for an upgrade
- Develop and communicate the plan
- Start tackling one process at a time
Where can I find out more?
The future of child care is changing, are you ready to step up to the challenge? There’s a growing need for business agility and workflow efficiency, and all roads lead to digital transformation.
For ideas on how you can digitise your workforce management processes, download our guide. It offers key considerations for centres – whether you’re in the early stages of your journey or ready to upgrade existing software.
