With the implications of the 2024/25 Federal Budget’s deferral of any meaningful commitment to early childhood educator and care wage increases now well understood approved providers are revisiting their workforce planning assumptions for the next financial year.
“We as an organisation were quite disappointed with the lack of any real clarity provided as to when and by how much the Federal Government will contribute to address historic underpayment of educators,” Sandi Odisho, area manager at Early Education Holdings said.
“It looks like we will need to wait at least another year before any changes are to be seen. In the meantime we will need to look again at our staffing assumptions going forward, and in particular our rostering plans.”
These types of conclusions are becoming increasingly commonplace as approved providers recognise that persistent staff shortages are putting pressure on service teams and are likely to continue and that initiatives to relieve these pressures are essential for the long term health of their organisations.
In light of this it is probably unsurprising that a great deal of interest is starting to build in the benefits of employing solutions that leverage next generation technologies to ensure that rosters are not only optimal from a regulatory perspective but also from an efficiency and staff preference basis.
Daitum’s rostering for childcare solution at top of interest list.
“There is no doubt that educator shortages, which really picked up steam during the COVID-19 pandemic and have persisted to today, are contributing to a higher rate of burnout and career dissatisfaction in the early learning sector,” Dr. Philipp Rohlfshagen, a renowned expert in rostering technology and founder of prescriptive analytics company, Daitum, said.
“With this trend likely to persist for some time and to counter the negative consequences of these disruptive trends, approved providers have become more and more focused on finding effective solutions that not only support business performance but also promote work life and workplace harmony as well.”
Daitum’s Rostering for Childcare combines the power of advanced AI with a deep understanding of the ECEC sector. It has been crafted to provide a solution that specifically caters to the needs and challenges of early childhood services.
Conscious of stressors placed on their teams, service leaders can secure a great deal of relief for themselves and their team of educators by employing tech enabled rosters. Gone are the days when rostering was simply about filling shifts at the will of the senior leadership. That is not the case any more.
Effective staff rostering in ECEC is no longer just about filling shifts
Guided by the organisational motto “Better Decisions Faster – with a heavy focus on ‘everyday’ decisions,” the team at Daitum has recognised that for roster optimisation technology to be useful it must be highly accessible to its users and produce practical outputs that achieve the desired outcomes.
Daitum does not require huge amounts of data to perform its roster creation tasks and can integrate with most established software systems used in ECEC settings, on both the payroll and CCMS side.
Importantly though the Daitum system allows users to input a whole range of very specific staff preferences before the AI smarts get started and in so doing ensures that the resultant rosters are optimised for the business and all its team members.
“We like to think of our system as being the ultimate workforce productivity tool that also enhances staff wellbeing by considering preferences and busting biases. Irrespective of the Government’s next moves, Daitum will continue to cater for services’ workforce needs,” Dr. Rohlfshagen added.
To learn more about Daitum’s rostering for childcare solution by visiting their website here.