Smarter scheduling for NDIS providers: How to stop rostering from running your day

Most people who work in the NDIS want to provide better care for people with a disability. After all, that’s why many of us got into the sector. But when a business becomes successful, you might find that your day becomes more about juggling phone calls and sticky notes than caring.

Part of the complexity is NDIS rostering, which becomes increasingly difficult the bigger your business becomes. For many organisations, it feels like a moving puzzle that never quite fits.

In this article, we look at 7 NDIS rostering headaches that providers like you know too well. Plus some solutions to fix them.

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Headache 1. The 8am sick call scramble

You’ve got your week’s roster of care perfectly organised, then out of the blue a support worker calls in sick. Your careful planning collapses like a deck of cards.

Your morning is ruined by spending countless hours making phone calls, sending text messages and chasing confirmations.

Solution: The right rostering system removes the panic from those mornings and gives providers peace of mind. As Visualcare’s Senior Product Manager Shiam Ahmed explained, with our auto-matching tools, you can reallocate shifts quickly based on skills, availability, and location.

“If you need to reallocate because someone's sick or can't make it, it's easy to send out an invitation for shifts that haven’t been filled so workers can pick up additional hours,” he said.

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"Removing single points of failure across your organisation is needed if you're looking to scale into the future without growing pains."

Shiam Ahmed, Senior Product Manager, Visualcare

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Headache 2: Key information lives in someone’s head

Often, your coordinators develop great relationships with their clients, know all their personality quirks and which workers fit so they get the best care.

This works great for the client… until the coordinator is away and rostering becomes guesswork.

Solution: A centralised roster of care system that captures preferences, certifications, and rapport, so anyone can step in with confidence.

“We have this matching system. It records information about the participants and certification and skill sets for their workers. Then it can help identify the right worker and also who is going to be closest to the client, so they can optimise on costs,” Shiam explained.

“There's just no single point of failure. Anyone can come and fulfil that rostering job,” he continued.

Headache 3: Endless phone calls and texts

Once you’ve sorted out the shift planning for disability support, the admin for NDIS scheduling doesn’t end. Coordinators complain of spending hours chasing up shift notes from support workers who have moved on to the next job.

Solution: An app-based system that sends automatic updates and reminders, giving support workers the info they need in their pocket.

“The workers have a mobile app. They know what shift to turn up for, what time and all the information about that participant,” Shiam said.

At the end of the shift, support workers send shift notes about the participant before they can sign out.

“Making sure detailed notes are kept is important,” he continued.

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Headache 4: Balancing short shifts and long travel times

NDIS support workers often do multiple short shifts in a day. There’s lots of travel and lots of data that needs to be captured. Without smart rostering, you might end up sending workers zig-zagging across suburbs, and the travel costs can easily add up.

Solution: It’s easier when you can see where your workers are with digital NDIS roster of care software. NDIS rostering software helps group shifts geographically so you can save time, costs, and stress.

This also has benefits from a back-office perspective too. The Visualcare worker app allows support workers to put in the right information about where they’ve travelled so they can easily get paid on time.

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Headache 5: Compliance risks

The NDIS is a highly regulated environment, so forgetting to check an expired credential or missing a penalty rate can have real consequences.

Solution: Scheduling software with built-in compliance checks stops mistakes before they happen.

“It means that the support workers or the nurses have all the information they need as well as the qualifications required to fulfil the services that we've signed up for the participant,” Shiam said.

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Headache 6: Providing 24/7 service

For many NDIS participants with round-the-clock needs, they need support 24/7. Although providers provide this ongoing support, rostering staff can’t always be glued to a computer.

Solution: With mobile rostering tools, it lets coordinators manage shifts from anywhere, even at 2am.

“We also have a mobile version for the rostering team, so they can work after hours but not have to be in front of a computer. So if someone needs a shift overnight, they can do that wherever they are,” Shiam said.

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Headache 7: Burnout

Lots of providers say the biggest cost of rostering isn’t admin hours – it’s staff wellbeing. When staff are spending their days fighting rostering fires, they don’t have time to spend on doing important work they enjoy and improving their business.

Solution: Smart NDIS scheduling reduces rework and stress, leaving teams free to focus on care.

“We often hear really good stories of how much time is given back to them and how they can sleep better at night because everything is working how it should,” Shiam said.

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How to take action with smarter NDIS rostering

Want to see where your NDIS rostering can improve? This blog is part of our series on reclaiming time in NDIS organisations. Our white paper highlights some strategies for reclaiming times.

It includes a NDIS scheduling checklist to help you:

- self-audit your current processes,

- spot hidden inefficiencies, and

- build rosters that support staff and participants.

[.button-mint][.mt-0]Download our whitepaper to get the scheduling checklist[.button-mint][.mt-0]