Certitude is London’s leading adult social care provider for people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs. A not-for-profit organisation set up in 1990, it proudly supports over 1,800 people in 17 London boroughs – providing outreach support, registered care homes, day opportunities and much more. Certitude helps people to develop new skills, meet other people and live the life they want – so they can bring their own unique brilliance to the world.
Certitude employs 1500 people. It recently implemented a pilot scheme using Quinyx – introducing it across its back-office function (payroll, HR, learning and development) and a small team of operational colleagues – ahead of a wider roll-out.
Christo Gouws, Certitude’s Director of Digital says:
“As part of Certitude’s recent growth, we amalgamated with an organisation called Yarrow Housing, which was already using Quinyx.
“We’d been looking for a workforce management tool for Certitude anyway, and the feedback from Yarrow colleagues using Quinyx was really positive. So we chose Quinyx for Certitude, knowing it would work for us. It’s been a great thing to ‘inherit’. We’ve taken our time to embed Quinyx into our organisation, because it’s key for us that everyone who works at Certitude is 100% comfortable and confident in using it.”
Certitude is working towards several goals by using Quinyx:
Reducing paperwork
With lots of staff still completing paper timesheets, Certitude aims to cut down on admin time, allowing people to focus on providing quality, individualised support. During the pilot, time spent on timesheets – completing, approving and processing them – was reduced and we aim to remove paper timesheets completely once rollout is completed.
Better management of staffing levels
Christo explains: “The way we’re structured, we might have a manager responsible for three houses, and each house might have a team assigned to it. We want to be more flexible, so if there’s a shortage in one house, we can move colleagues around, and managers can quickly see who’s available and who isn’t.
“Quinyx gives us really powerful and sophisticated reporting to help us understand how we’ve allocated workers across our locations. This means we can provide the best possible support, so people can live the lives they want to live.”
Reduced use of contract workers
Linked to the above point on staffing levels, when employee scheduling is more efficient, Certitude can rely less on contract workers and make considerable cost savings.
Scheduling learning and training courses
Historically, the organisation has found it difficult to schedule in employees’ training courses. Using Quinyx means that training time can be seamlessly allocated into schedules.
Full integration into one solution
Christo says: “I believe that Quinyx is going to completely transform how we work at Certitude, enable us to deliver our Digital Strategy, and help us achieve our ambitions of becoming a ‘digital first’ organisation.
“There’s so much for us to do with Quinyx, such as fully integrating our payroll system, and using the survey functions to monitor employee feedback.
“And we’ll potentially look at integrating some of our training courses so that they can be completed through the app too. Integrating everything into one solution is definitely the way we want to go.”
What the Certitude team say about Quinyx:
Benjamin, Manager
“I manage a number of houses in Hammersmith and Fulham. With Quinyx, I can see the rotas of all the houses that I look after, and those managed by my colleagues too.
“With the Quinyx app, you can view everyone’s calendar, and it gives you the opportunity and flexibility to rota people.
“The best thing about Quinyx is time efficiency, because previously we used a spreadsheet which consumed most of our time. Also, it’s connected to our HR and finance teams. I can sign off when shifts are completed, both at the end of the shift and at the end of every month – this information goes straight to our finance team, and people are paid at the right time, with the right hours they’ve worked.
“Quinyx is great for support workers and managers because you can view your rota from anywhere you are, and support workers can also book their annual leave, their off days and their training days with the Quinyx mobile app.”
Edith, Support Worker
“Quinyx makes life easier for me and my colleagues. I don’t need to struggle to call the house to check the paper rota for me. All I have to do is check my phone. I can easily request to swap shifts with colleagues, and my manager gets a notification to approve the swap. If anyone calls off sick, or maybe we’re having a long day out, whenever the timing in the rota is changed, I get a notification.
“When I first heard about Quinyx, I was scared because it was new. I’d never heard of it, I’d never used it - but when my manager talked me through it and I downloaded it from my app store, I found it so easy to use.”
Ben
“Quinyx has helped me understand my colleagues’ work-life balance. We plan the rota one month in advance so that gives people the opportunity to plan their life outside of work and get the balance they need.”