In the long term care industry labor costs associated with overtime are the proverbial thorn in the side of administrators as they get pressure to quantify bottom line labor cost savings from the CFO or Director of Operations.

We tend to categorize overtime into two main buckets:

• Planned Overtime
  • Planned overtime essentially consists of overtime that has been built into the week’s schedule.  This sometimes happens on the planning end because maybe there has been turnover in staff and for that particular week you’re shorthanded and know the position won’t be filled right away, so based on the staff available you plan overtime to ensure all shifts are covered.
  • An unfortunately common occurrence is promised overtime.  Often as a bargaining tactic, promises of a fixed amount of overtime for a staff member may have been agreed to in the hiring process.  This is dangerous for a few reasons:  For one, it ensures you’re going to have larger labor expenses than needed because they’ve been built into the schedule and promised to an employee.  Second, this can tank staff morale if others, who were not promised such an overtime guarantee, learn of this and feel slighted.  That leads to turnover and more call-outs causing additional unplanned overtime – growing your total overtime costs exponentially

• Unplanned Overtime
  • Time theft, is a contributor to unplanned overtime.  When someone punches in slightly earlier than their shift is assigned to start, or decides to punch out of their shift 5 to 10 minutes later than they’re supposed to – these small increments of time add up and can cause overtime to occur.  With a known time and attendance policy, for punching in and out of shifts as well as appropriate data collection devices that can meet the needs of your staff, however they need to punch in and out of their shifts (via a mobile smartphone or tablet device, a desktop computer terminal, or a biometric hand reader punch clock), can contribute to reducing or eliminating such time theft.  Plus, your automated time and attendance software can alert you when early or late punches occur.
  • Finally, there are call-outs, when a staff member calls in sick or doesn’t show for their shift.  These open slots in the schedule need to be filled immediately.  In these situations you may not be able to completely avoid overtime costs, but with your automated scheduling software you can have insight into making a wise timely decision about who should fill the open slot.  For example, if a call-out occurs for a CNA position, you likely want to fill that position with another CNA, rather than a nurse (who is on a higher pay scale and may already be close to overtime hours for that pay period), even though the nurse is readily available and willing to take the shift.

With the appropriate workforce management system, that includes time and attendance and scheduling, your facility can reduce, and in some cases, eliminate both planned and unplanned overtime costs.  

In conclusion, you can reduce overtime by scheduling more efficiently, staying alerted to time and attendance infractions, and as a result reduce bottom line labor costs that can positively affect margins allowing all to get back to offering quality care.

Posted By: Nick Venturella Insperity Time and Attendance

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