Dear Blossomers,
With the new academic year in full swing, we have been working on our staffing and HR module to bring you efficient nursery staff planning. Our staffing module is in the final stages of testing by our pilot nurseries – It will be available as an upgrade for all nurseries shortly!
Sara Thakrar
Founder, Blossom Educational
Here’s what you can expect:
1. Get to know the staff management features
2. Staff profile
3. Staff register
4. Staff worklog
5. Staff rota
6. Staff leave
7. Rooms
8. Settings
Get to know the staff management features
Manage your staffing requirements from an efficient and intelligent centralised system.
These staffing features integrate within the wider Blossom platform:
- Staff Profile
- Staff Register
- Staff Worklog
- Staff Rota
- Staff Leave
Staff profile
View and edit information about staff members and manage their leaves.
As well as a fresh look for the staff profile there are some additional fields for staff members:
Payroll number
Input a staff member’s payroll number, which will be visible in various staff exports.
1:13 staff-child qualification
This allows staff members qualified to take responsibility for more children of certain age groups (specified in the nursery settings) to impact the default staffchild ratio and the staff required on the rota.
Register only staff
This is a new permission level for staff members such as chefs that should not have access to the main platform and data but should be able to use the staff register. They will also appear on other staffing features for managers to schedule shifts. track actual working hours and manage their leave.
Staff leave
From the leave tab, view and edit a staff member’s holidays and sick leave within a date range.
More > Staff > Select staff member
Staff register
Staff members clock in and out to log when they are working or on break.
Entries logged from the register create working and break activities in the staff worklog. Clocked in times count towards the total working hours. Managers can edit entries and export the worklog for payroll purposes.
When you enter staff register mode, for security reasons you will be logged out of the main app so the data there cannot be accessed by the staff members using the device to clock in or out on the register.
More > Staff > Staff register
The staff register has a list of staff with their current status (clocked out, clocked in or on break). Filter by those statuses and also the overall locations inside building or outside building.
Create your pin
Your 4 digit pin is used to update your register status. After selecting yourself, you will be prompted to create your 4 digit pin. Use this pin going forward when using the register.
Using the register
If you are currently
- Clocked out: You can clock in.
- Clocked in: You can change locations, start break or clock out.
- On break: You can only end break (works the same as clocking in).
Select a location in the next step (optional if starting a break). This can include any of the new room types (teaching rooms, non teaching rooms and outdoor locations).
Staff worklog
Timesheet of actually worked hours that are logged from the staff register.
The staff worklog tracks the hours that staff members have actually worked. The time entries come from the staff register and are grouped into cards:
- Work times
- Break times
- Holidays
- Sick leave
An ongoing label will show entries that are currently still clocked in. The total hours for the week is displayed under the staff member’s name.
More > Staff > Staff worklog
Select a day on the staff worklog to view the workday details.
This provides are more detailed view of the work and break entries with their totals hours and location. Here you can also manually add or edit entries. When editing, type a comment to appear on the change log. The change log button displays a log of changes made to the day.
Use the export button for a CSV of the worklog. The data of the actual working hours can be used for payroll purposes. There are three different breakdown options.
Daily
This is the most detailed breakdown showing staff member’s working hours for each day.
Weekly
Working hours are aggregated per week. This is useful to check if people have worked their weekly contracted hours.
Total
Working hours aggregated for the total selected period.
Staff rota
Schedule staff shifts based on occupancy requirements for each room.
Shifts can be assigned in teaching, non teaching and outdoor locations created in the rooms section. For past weeks, shifts, leave and staffing flags are a snapshot based on the last day of the week and cannot be changed.
The charts shows the staff expected and staff required throughout the day to see when you are under or overstaffed to efficiently plan your rota. By clicking on a certain point on the chart you will see the children expected in and their session at that point in time.
The staff required is based on:
- The nursery setting for staff:child ratios for specific age groups.
- Occupancy levels of children expected in.
- Minimum staff required for a room in the room section.
The staff expected is based on the shifts you have assigned in the room. Break times reduce the staff expected totals.
The staffing flags tells you the number of instances where you have staffing issues on the rota for each day. Expand the row to view the specific times you are under or overstaffed.
More > Staff > Staff rota
To assign shifts for the week use the add shift button or select a staff row if there are existing shifts. Input the activity, location (for work times) and times. If the staff member is qualified with the setting 1:13 ratio switched on in their profile, they can take responsibility for more children of certain age groups (specified in the nursery settings). Setting a ratio between 1:8 and 1:13 for the shift will impact the default staff-child ratio and the staff required for this time and room.
From the 3 dots for a row, you can copy the shift times to all days for the week to save time. Use the checkbox at the bottom to copy the whole week’s shifts to other chosen weeks.
Switch between the week and day view on the rota.
The week view shows the overview with cards similar to the staff worklog. The day view gives a more detailed view of the staff members with shifts assigned in the selected room and day. The day view timeline makes it easier to view the staffing flags and the current working and break times.
The rota can be exported as a PDF or CSV file. The PDF file is more visual and can be used to send to staff members, while the CSV export gives you the raw data.
Top tip:
Export both the worklog and rota as a CSV using the same breakdown and report date to compare the actual and planned working times.
Staff leave
Get a monthly overview of staff members with holidays and sick leave to improve staff planning and help keep track of leave hours. Leaves are added as specific times and hours. Leave times can be added in parallel to working and break times and display in the staff worklog and staff rota.
The colours represent the leave types (holidays and sick leave) and the days show the total hours of leave.
Click on an existing leave entry to view the details of the full leave entry as well as the specific day. Multiple leave types on the same day splits the cell and entries can be selected separately.
Add leave from the button or click on the plus icon when hovering over a day without existing leave. Select the staff member and leave type. After selecting the date range, those days will appear for the leave times to be inputted. From the 3 dots you can add more times to a day and also copy the times in that day to all of the days to save time.
More > Staff > Staff leave
Rooms
If you have the staffing module activated your rooms management will include 3 room types:
Teaching rooms
These include children, work with children’s room moves and appear across the platform. Define the typical age groups for the room and the maximum capacity for occupancy reporting.
Non teaching rooms
These are rooms without children (e.g. office or kitchen) that are used for staff management across the register, worklog, rota and staff exports.
Outdoor location
Works the same as non teaching rooms but more specific to outdoor areas (e.g. garden)
A minimum staff required value can be set for rooms to calculate the staff required when planning the rota.
More > Rooms
Settings
Configure your rota and occupancy preferences with two new settings:
Set staff to child ratios for age groups
This tracks how many staff members are required at specific times in each room. For each age group define the default staff:child ratio and choose if staff members that are qualified for a 1:13 ratio should impact the staffing requirements on the rota and occupancy.
Calculation for staff required
There are two calculation rounding options to help you view the most accurate staff required numbers for your needs. The system will either round the staff required per age group (usually leading to a higher number of staff required) or round the total staff required at the end (usually leading to a lower number of staff required to save costs).
More > Settings > General Settings
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