Transforming Workforce Management: A Six-Year Digital Evolution
Summary
Barchester Healthcare, the UK’s largest independent health and care provider, has delivered a six-year digital transformation of workforce management across 260+ care homes and hospitals. By implementing Allocate Optima and Loop from RLDatix, Barchester replaced fragmented and paper-based processes with modern, data-driven systems. This shift has supported safer staffing, reduced reliance on agency workers, improved staff wellbeing and increased flexibility. The programme demonstrates how digital workforce innovation can directly enhance resident safety, create consistent care environments and build operational resilience in non-acute settings.
The Challenge
Managing a workforce of more than 20,000 employees across a nationwide network presented significant challenges. Care homes and hospitals relied on decentralised, paper-based processes that limited visibility and slowed decision-making. Manual rostering often led to staffing vulnerabilities, while a high reliance on agency workers increased costs and disrupted continuity of care. Staff also had limited flexibility to shape their own schedules, affecting wellbeing and work-life balance. The need for modernisation became particularly urgent during COVID-19, when safe staffing and agility were critical.
The Solution
Barchester partnered with RLDatix to deliver a phased rollout of Allocate Optima and Loop, supported by 320+ biometric time clocks. Optima introduced data-driven rostering, improving compliance monitoring and forward planning, while Loop gave staff greater flexibility through mobile self-service tools. Training and blended learning helped build adoption and confidence, while feedback loops ensured continuous improvement. Leadership alignment across operational and clinical teams supported cultural change, with 75% of staff now on personalised patterns that reduce administration and improve engagement.
Results & Next Steps
In the past 18 months, the programme has delivered measurable improvements. Unfilled shifts reduced to 9.4% compared with a national average of 31.5%, sickness absence fell to 3.0% compared with 5.8%, and agency use dropped to 3.6% compared with 11.8%. Managers report spending more time with residents instead of administration, while staff value the flexibility and empowerment provided by Loop. Adoption of self-booking continues to rise, moving from 6.8% to 22.7%. Looking ahead, Barchester plans to build further engagement with Loop, extend flexibility across the workforce and continue to share learning with the wider care sector.
