You’ve analyzed your workforce challenges and spotted areas of improvement. Now, you need to get leadership aligned on the tactics and technology needed to manage workforce risk.
This guide can help you start that conversation. The talking points below help explain the value of workforce technology and flexible workforce resources to executive leadership, address common objections, and align your organization around a stronger workforce strategy.
Investing in new workforce technology
Making the case
ShiftKey’s technology will allow our organization to tap into a network of licensed, experienced independent professionals on our terms. Using configurable settings, we can prioritize our favorite professionals, monitor utilization and costs, and leverage automation to improve outcomes and reduce administrative burden.
This approach gives us more flexibility to manage workforce fluctuations while maintaining control over spending and coverage.
Combatting objections
"Our employees don’t like new technology."
The data says the opposite. In a survey of senior care employees:
- 64% said more technology would help them provide quality care
- 55% are excited and open to trying new technology
- Only 5% said technology is too complicated or difficult to use
- Just 2% are resistant to trying new technology at work
Another survey reinforced these trends, finding that healthcare employees are less likely than the overall workforce to believe new technologies will make their jobs more frustrating or difficult.
In many cases, technology helps reduce administrative burden and allows team members to focus more on resident care.
"New technology is too hard to implement."
ShiftKey is intuitive and easy to adopt, with both desktop and mobile applications that allow schedulers to post shifts and manage requests from anywhere.
ShiftKey provides a dedicated account manager who offers personal guidance on platform utilization, weekly insight reporting, quarterly business reviews, and extensive market analyses. This empowers us to adopt the platform successfully and optimize how we use it over time.
"Our workforce costs are already eating into our budget, so we can’t afford to add another expense."
We would only pay for ShiftKey when we use it. There are no retainer fees, hidden costs or surge pricing. Features like the Utilization Tracker allow us to monitor and manage our spend so we stay within budget. By filling schedule gaps quickly with independent professionals when needed, we can maintain operational stability and potentially increase revenue by taking on more residents.
Adding more workforce resources
Making the case
Demand for senior care continues to grow, and many teams are feeling the strain. In a survey of senior care employees, 68% said that their workload has increased as demand for senior care services rises. 44% said having a larger workforce would help them feel more prepared to meet that demand. Adding independent professionals to our workforce when we can’t meet demand spikes can provide the critical relief valve needed for our employees to avoid burnout.
Having a backup workforce strategy also protects our organization from broader risks. Workforce instability could expose us to regulatory, liability, and reputational concerns in addition to operational disruption.
We need to ensure we have adequate workforce resources in place so we aren’t exposed to penalties related to staffing or survey citations by coverage gaps. Our reputation could also be impacted if we cannot maintain appropriate care coverage.
By ensuring we have a plan to supplement our workforce when needed, we can respond more quickly to demand changes, new residents, or unexpected turnover.
Combatting objections
"Instead of engaging contract workers, can’t we just have our employees pick up more shifts or have administrators help with caregiving work?"
Burnout is already a major issue in senior care.
In a survey of senior care employees, high levels of stress and burnout are the top reason employees say they are considering leaving the industry. If we continue asking our employees to take on additional shifts and responsibilities, we risk increasing turnover and decreasing our quality of care.
"Adding another workforce source will be too much for our schedulers to manage."
Managing multiple workforce sources can be challenging if systems are disconnected. However, OnShift’s employee scheduling software integrates with ShiftKey’s independent professional marketplace, so schedulers can manage the entire workforce through a single tool.
This actually reduces administrative work: the integration automatically identifies open shifts within our schedule and advertises them on the ShiftKey marketplace. This gives us a backup plan if our employees are unable to fill a shift while reducing manual administrative work.
Senior care communities using the integration of ShiftKey and OnShift have seen results such as:
"Independent professionals are too expensive."
The real cost often comes from alternatives: excessive overtime, employee burnout and increased turnover.
If we do not maintain proper coverage levels, we also risk reputational damage and potential compliance issues. ShiftKey has guardrails that help us manage spending with no hidden fees or surge pricing.
Communities using the OnShift and ShiftKey integration have reported significant beneficial results:
"We already use a staffing agency, or we tried something like this before and it didn’t work."
ShiftKey is not a staffing agency. It’s a technology platform that connects care communities with licensed independent professionals who choose when and where they work.
Because of this model, ShiftKey can complement our existing workforce strategy rather than replace it. It can serve as a flexible backup resource when we experience call-offs, turnover or increased demand.
Many independent professionals on the ShiftKey marketplace are experienced caregivers who previously left traditional roles but returned to the field because they value the flexibility offered by the platform.
Additionally, because of ShiftKey’s national presence and marketplace size, ShiftKey allows us to streamline our services and consolidate multiple sources of external workers into one. This reduces administrative work while still enabling operational agility to expand our workforce as needs arise.
"Our market doesn't have enough healthcare professionals and technology won’t change that."
While workforce shortages are real, finding professionals often depends on how we connect with them.
Many licensed caregivers want to work but prefer flexible schedules that work with other life responsibilities and commitments. Technology platforms like ShiftKey make it easier for these professionals to return to the field.
In fact, more than 70% of professionals on the ShiftKey marketplace previously left the healthcare field and returned because of the flexibility provided by the platform.
Today, the ShiftKey marketplace includes more than 140,000 licensed independent professionals, expanding the pool of talent that organizations like ours can leverage.
ShiftKey is a great way for us to reach local talent that our recruitment efforts are missing. If a worker’s needs change and they decide to seek full-time employment with our organization, there are no fees for hiring them.
Moving forward
Getting leadership aligned on workforce strategy isn’t easy, especially when budgets, technology adoption, and care quality are part of the conversation. The talking points above can help you start those discussions and address common concerns. If you’d like additional guidance tailored to your organization’s workforce challenges, connect with the ShiftKey team to learn how senior care communities like yours are approaching workforce risk and building more resilient scheduling strategies.
