As a business owner you probably have a pool of direct optical locums you can rely on to fill gaps in your rota, but how many of them are engaged? If you post an emergency shift to your pool of directs, what percentage of them respond? If the answer is below 50% then you’re not alone.

Often these pools of direct optometrist locums can become disengaged and this can lead to branch closures. To avoid this, it is vital to develop a network of engaged locums through regular communication and competitive rates. By engaging with your locums you are reducing both the risk of closures and emergency agency fees. But how do you engage with these locums? Regular communication is key to managing these relations.

We often hear that shift coordinators contact locum staff via social media like Whatsapp and store their personal data on spreadsheets. Both of these methods are inefficient and present issues including GDPR risks. The most effective way to manage locums and permanent staff integrating a platform like Locate a Locum into your company processes.

We've shared our Weldricks Pharmacy case study below that details how our platform allowed them to take back control of their locum pools and permanent staff which led to a 50% reduction in shift fill rates.

Case study: Weldricks Pharmacy

Overview & Challenges

Weldricks Pharmacy has 63 branches, with over 600 trained pharmacy staff. They wanted a system they could use for their rota planning that was ‘live’. This would enable any changes to be seen immediately by branches. This would also support any shift changes and contacting Locums about vacant shifts in a simple and efficient manner.

The administration of staff leave required paper-based leave requests to come through head office for sign-off. Weldricks wanted to ensure that the solution they chose highlighted any potential compliance issues to ensure they met all regulatory requirements.

Solution

Locate a Locum worked collaboratively with Weldricks to implement an end-to-end workforce management solution. Weldricks Pharmacy is now able to utilise our full suite of tools to manage their staff with the below features -

Rota - Schedule permanent and bank staff into shifts through a live rota Bank - Easily communicate with and book compliant staff through Locate a Locum's mobile app Leave - Manage leave requests on one platform and allow staff access to their own schedule through the mobile app Reports - Improve performance by accessing detailed insights through the Locate a Locum Reports module

Weldrick’s locum coordinator Amy had this to say about Locate a Locum increasing their locum engagement rate by 90%

Working with Locate a Locum has been fantastic. We now have visibility of all our branches' rotas and we can create schedules up to 9 months in advance for permanent and relief staff. The platform is easy to navigate, simple to read and contains all the information needed on one intuitive platform.

Interested? Get in contact today

If you want to find out more about how Locate a Locum can help manage your workforce, including locum engagement, get in contact with us here to book a demo of our platform. Our team will always be at hand to support you and your team with our system that allows you greater freedom in your role and control of your business.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!
Locate a Locum Team