Autism Plus is a United Kingdom-based organization founded 35 years ago to support adults and young people with autism, learning disabilities, mental health and other complex needs. Autism Plus employs specialist teams ranging from social care support workers, a clinical lead, mental health nurse, occupational therapists, speech therapists, a positive behavior lead, a transitions team, and dozens of other support and home care staff and requires 24-hour staffing at its residential service.
With over 450 employees across northern England, the organization was struggling with manual processes for scheduling, time tracking and job costing that were burdensome for employees, the payroll team and finance.
After decades of using these processes, Autism Plus leaders including Sarita Kumari, Head of Digital/Change Management, knew it was time to upgrade the employee experience and tapped TCP’s Humanity Scheduling for its industry-leading solutions.
In addition to the approved integration with Workday, Autism Plus sought a single solution that could help automate scheduling, align schedules with timecards and help streamline job costing to ensure clients were always billed properly. With most departments using paper schedules and some using “free” scheduling software, the organization learned an important lesson. As Ms. Kumari stated perfectly, “What seems free is not always free and is not always the most efficient way to do things.” It was time to make a big, organization-wide switch from paper to digital.
Out with Paper Time Cards and In with Precise Job Costing
Autism Plus began using TCP’s Humanity Scheduling platform to help them gain better control over their labor budgets and employee scheduling, and to ensure their timekeeping information and schedules were aligned. With teams using disjointed solutions for scheduling and timekeeping, a seamless, automated, bi-directional integration with Workday ensured the data captured was an accurate representation of each employee’s day. Employees were accustomed to noting their start and end time each day and writing it down on their timecards—a process with high potential for error. With TCP’s Humanity Scheduling integrated with Workday, employees no longer have to complete timecards, they merely approve their time each week in the Humanity app!
This streamlined the process for the payroll team. Previously, they had to review each paper timecard to ensure the time submitted matched the time scheduled for each employee and verify that employee time was tied to the correct client cost codes. The job costing feature aligned with Workday Time and Labor made this important step almost effortless. TCP’s Humanity software helps Autism Plus accurately track billable hours, ensures clients are correctly invoiced and helps the organization easily view how it delivers against its client contracts.
The Autism Plus team was confident TCP’s Humanity Scheduling platform once integrated with Workday Time and Labor would improve overall accuracy and save the organization a significant amount of time—and it did—but hearing how it impacted employee work-life balance was icing on the cake! Previously, schedules were created just a few weeks in advance, which made it difficult for employees to make long-term plans for vacations and holidays. With automated scheduling from TCP’s Humanity Scheduling, Autism Plus employees can plan their lives farther in advance. Ms. Kumari tells us,
“Humanity really helps enhance the way we work. We now have better time sheets and better invoicing. Employees are happy because it’s less work and more accurate pay. As an organization, it helps ensure we are paid accurately by clients. It’s a win-win!”
