One of the most challenging aspects of running a caregiving business is devising a schedule that is fair and equitable and that fully considers the needs of each employee.
Lack of scheduling flexibility is one of the main reasons for the high turnover rate in the home care industry. Some caregivers may only be able to work part-time, some may be available only on the weekends, and some may need certain days off. Finding ways to make a schedule that satisfies everyone may be a logistical nightmare.
To ensure your business runs smoothly and your employer branding remains strong while accommodating every caregiver, you will need powerful scheduling software.
Almost all staff scheduling tools offer both free and paid plans, and in this article, we will focus on the advantages and drawbacks of the best programs currently available.
Sling
Used by tens of thousands of businesses, Sling is often considered the best free employee scheduling software for group scheduling. It’s versatile, user-friendly, and works across desktops, iPhones, and Androids. You can use it for shift scheduling, time-off requests, available shifts, news sharing, and long-term scheduling. It’s free to use for unlimited users but with limited features.
However, premium and business options are charged per user and offer numerous additional features such as overtime tracking, paid time off management, sick call-outs, and others. Sling may be the best option if your home care agency has a small number of employees since the paid features are provided for each separate user. If you choose to pay for Sling, we recommend choosing annual billing, saving you 15%.
Homebase
Another popular staff scheduling tool with over a hundred thousand users, Homebase may be the best free option for small businesses. Its main advantage over competitors is that it’s free for unlimited employees in one location.
Homebase’s free plan also includes employee scheduling, attendance monitoring, online time clocks, job postings, and applicant tracking. Fully integrated payroll is available as an add-on for every plan, but it's a bit pricey at $39 + $6 per employee a month.
In addition to the basic free plan, Homebase also offers essential, plus, and all-in-one plans with numerous additional features that run from $25 to $100 a month (with a discount on yearly payments).
Again, the good thing is they charge per location regardless of the number of employees, so this is the best option for a home care agency with a single location.
Findmyshift
This scheduling software makes it quick and easy to create a roster schedule using their drag-and-drop calendar interface. You can add as many items to as many cells as you like, as well as create and store templates of repeating shift patterns, which will speed up your scheduling process.
The great thing about Findmyshift is that if you own a small home care agency with one manager and up to five employees, you can get a free plan for a lifetime, including a modest 10MB for document storage space. Its other plans are Starter ($25 a month for up to 20 employees and one manager), Business ($40 a month for up to 100 employees and ten managers), and Enterprise ($70 a month for up to 300 employees and 300 managers).
Once again, paying yearly rather than monthly will save you 15% and would be our recommendation.
Social Schedules
A free plan with Social Schedules offers scheduling basics for up to 10 employees in one location. It offers time-off management, in-app messaging, and it also allows you to track worker availability, maximum consecutive days and penalty hours.
Additionally, an employee contract tracing feature may be particularly helpful in case of disease outbreak. Social Schedules offers free use of all features for up to 14 days. Its paid plans for an unlimited number of employees include Starter ($13 per month/location) and Premium ($34 per month/location), with a 20% annual billing discount.
The best thing about its Premium plan is that it features certification management so that you can keep track of certification for each caregiver.
Connecteam
With Connecteam, you can start with their free version and then easily add more features over time if needed. If your business has fewer than ten employees, then the free-for-life small business plan that includes payroll integration will be ideal for you. The free plan includes an extremely helpful real-time clock-in and clock-out option for caregivers, along with GPS Geolocation stamps to know where employees clock in and out from.
If you want to try one of their paid plans, you can get a 14-day free trial on Basic, Advanced, and Expert options. Basic is $29, Advanced $49, and Expert $99 a month for up to 30 employees (you can also pay a small extra fee for every additional employee). And if you pay yearly, you can save 18%.
Conclusion
Picking the right staff scheduling tool depends primarily on the size of your company: the number of locations and employees, as well as how useful specific features may be in fulfilling your scheduling needs. For a single-location business with up to 10 employees, you have several free options that may give you everything you need.
If you own a caregiving business with more than one location and/or over 10 employees, try out different plans and determine if it makes financial sense to get a paid plan for any of the services.
If it makes the complex scheduling process easier for you and helps you keep your employees and clients satisfied, then the investment will pay itself off in the long run, especially if you pay yearly rather than monthly.
Having a well-managed scheduling and tracking system to help meet the needs of your staff should improve employee retention and ensure that clients are getting the quality care they need when they need it.
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