PickaShift is an innovative app connecting care workers and their employers in residential and nursing homes. It quickly informs all signed up staff about shifts that have become available at short notice and encourages them to bid for those shifts at an increasingly favourable rate.
In the process the home saves valuable time and money by avoiding lengthy periods ringing staff and of course saves much more by avoiding expensive agency fees.
If you are a care worker, either full or part time, PickaShift can quickly alert you to shifts that have come up at short notice. You can then choose to claim the shift. The app also keeps a record of extra shifts you have done and how much you have earned.
If you are the owner of a care facility then you will know just how expensive using agency staff can be and also how frustrating it can be trying to contact staff when a shift suddenly needs filled. By simply uploading a form through our software all of those staff who have downloaded the app are immediately alerted and can choose to claim the shift.
By also offering those who have downloaded the app a more favourable rate it encourages them to bid for the shift and in the process reduces the risk of paying those expensive agency fees.
Both homeowner and staff members can simply download the app from the Apple store. Staff will be asked to register with the home or homes of their choice and can do this through the app.
How it works.
• The home elects to use PickaShift and encourages its full and part-time nursing and care staff to download the app to their phones or mobile devices.
• When a shift needs filled at short notice, and there is a potential of an agency fee, the home administrator puts it on the PickaShift system. The app saves time by immediately alerting staff that a shift needs filled and encourages them, through an auction process, to bid for that shift.
• The auction process. The homes aim is to avoid the expensive agency fee. In order to do so it may be prepared to pay a little more to its staff. Using its unique tool PickaShift invites full-time and part-time staff to participate in a time-bound upward auction. If someone wants the shift they bid by simply hitting a button and claiming it. If not, each subsequent step of the auction becomes increasingly attractive until someone finally bids.
The benefits
• The home has saved an expensive agency fee if the shift is filled
• The home has saved in terms of costly administration
• Both the home and the staff member have communicated in a timely, simple and effective way
• The staff member receives an increased level of income
• A bigger pool of available staff can benefit if temporary, former or semi-retired staff sign up wishing to avail of occasional shift work
• Staff are treated in an equitable way