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According to research from Knox D’Arcy, public sector organisations are falling behind the private sector because of less effective management. The research suggests local authorities are around 27% less effective in their staff utilisation than the average private sector business.

With these findings published, there has been predictable reaction from many quarters – with the some unsurprising “public sector bashing”… simply making people work more effectively will solve the financial crisis facing public services … though some voices offier stout defence of public sector institutions against private sector bias.

This has been balanced out by a range of “messenger shooting” incidents. Public sector union UNISON has said the study is “misleading, unrepresentative and unhelpful”.

While it’s difficult to come to certain conclusions from what has been published, the findings are certainly worth some exploration. Read the rest of this entry →

Front line managers in NHS Trusts have to deliver the optimum deployment of staff to deliver high standards of patient care while avoiding wasteful expenditure.

Using paper or spreadsheets to deliver this involve significant time-consuming and wasteful administration for front-line managers and back office teams alike.

Attractor was asked to help an NHS Trust prepare and plan for a new rostering project – aiming to ensure the organisation would acheive key objectives.

Rostering, Time and Attendance Solutions have the potential to deliver significant strategic and financial benefits to organisations. But delivering those benefits is not easy … they won’t materialise automatically from simply rolling out new tools to all teams and departments. It takes much more than this. Read the rest of this entry →

The acquisition of HMT Systems, the suppliers of Rosterpro, by SMART brings together two of the most widely-used staff scheduling solutions within the NHS.

Two of the solutions available under the NHS procurement framework will now come from one group.

Linking with partners, SMART can bring together nursing and administrative scheduling, medical workforce rostering and expenses administration systems. Read the rest of this entry →

The NHS London Procurement Programme has completed work on its Workforce Optimisation Framework.

Eliminating the burden of an OJEU procurement process, the framework with supporting material provides a robust approach for NHS bodies to procure tools which support productivity improvements.

Available to NHS organisations across the country, the framework means those procuring rostering and staff bank systems benefit from NHS corporate buying power and know the suppliers meet standard NHS contractual and technical requirements.

In the context of anticiated financial constrataints and the QIPP, this framework has become available at the right time and has been worth waiting for! Read the rest of this entry →

The technology supporting effective employment and deployment of the workforce are vital for most businesses, but become especially important as businesses grow beyond a few hundred. Up to that point, keeping staffing lists and employee information is a moderate challenge. After that it gets really serious.

Keeping track of who works in each location, function, role, when they are scheduled to be on duty and when they actually attend for work is demanding – for front line managers, human resources and payroll teams.

There are plenty of solutions on offer promising to solve al your problems. But accepting the marketing information of an effective sales team often leads to disappointment.

It is all too common for businesses to report failure to realise benefits after installing software systems and this can reflect a mismatch between the needs or expectations and the features and technology of the system purchased.

Often however, the technology takes the rap for the results of ineffective planning, wrecked configuration and deployment and poor change management. It’s always easier to blame “the system” than admit these other deficiencies.

Attractor has helped organisations to clarify business need and turn this into specifications for procurement, sometimes supporting evaluation and selection of systems. Beyond that stage, working with local stakeholders and operational teams, Attractor’s support and expert contributions to benefits planning and change management activity have ensured organisations deliver the return on investment required.

The concept of “Workforce Management Systems” covers a wide range of technologies and Attractor has worked on many of these, including -

• Human Resources and Payroll Information Systems
• Manager and Employee Self Service Solutions
• Staff Scheduling and Roster Management Systems
• e-Recruitment Systems
• Time and Attendance Systems
• eHR and HR Portals
• Expenses Management Systems
• Learning Management Systems
• e-Learning Solutions
• Training Administration Systems