Background
Many, if not most, care providers will occasionally use office-based workers to cover care events where no other resources are available.
This scenario introduces new requirements - especially in relation to pay - that Plait aims to support through the concept of “office hours” and “overtime” contracts.
Setting up an Employee as both a System User and Care Worker
Setting up an employee in two roles within Plait is as simple as either:
Entering them up first as a new care worker, saving that record and then selecting Care Worker > Set up as System User.
Or, entering them first as a new system user, saving that record and then selecting System User > Set up as Care Worker.
As far as the care worker setup is concerned, their Employment Status would need to be changed from “Successful Applicant” to either “Induction”, “Probation” or “In Post”. Then, one or more Employment Contracts would need to be set up, as described below.
As far as the system user setup is concerned, their Role would need to be set to either “Basic” or “Admin”.
Additional Setup for Office-Based Care Workers
Before they can be assigned to any care events, an office-based care worker (just as any other care worker) will require at least one Employment Contract.
In most cases, we expect an office-based care worker to have either one or two contracts, as follows:
If the worker is ever required to attend care duties during office hours (for which they will either receive no pay at all - over and above what they are paid for the office hours - or they will receive some kind of pay “top up”), then they will require an “office hours” contract.
If the worker ever performs care duties outside of their office hours, for which they will receive “full” payment (as this is - in effect - overtime work), they will require an “overtime” contract.
Setting up an Office Hours Contract and Defining Office Hours
To set up an “office hours” contract for an office-based care worker:
From the Care Worker’s Employment tab, add a new contract, enter a suitable description (such as “Office Hours”), and the relevant start date.
Select the appropriate Grade. Presumably, a Grade (and Grade Group) will have been set up against the worker’s Organisation with distinct tariff lines that pay the correct rate (which might be 0) for care duties performed by office-based care workers during their office hours.
Tick the “Use for office hours care work” box. (This option is only provided if the worker in question is both a care worker and a system user.)
To define what their office hours are:
Go to the Care Worker’s Calendar tab, click on the Options button above the calendar and change the Calendar Mode to “Display Office Hours Availability”
Enter new availability record(s) on the calendar to map out the periods where the worker is contracted to perform office-based duties. (This special “office hours” availability will appear in blue rather than the standard green colour used for “regular” availability.)
Setting up an Overtime contract and Defining Overtime Hours
Setting up an “overtime” contract for an office-based care worker is simply a case of adding a Contract to their Employment tab and not ticking the “Use for office hours care work” box.
To define what their office hours are:
Go to the Care Worker’s Calendar tab, click on the Options button above the calendar and change the Calendar Mode to “Display Overtime Availability”
Enter new availability record(s) on the calendar to map out the periods where the worker is NOT contracted to perform office-based duties, but is available to perform “overtime” duties. (“Overtime” availability will appear in the standard green availability colour.)
Note that a care worker cannot have Overtime Availability and Office Hours Availability at the same time.
Assigning an Office-Based Worker to Care Events
For care workers who have both an “office hours” contract and an “overtime” contract, it is obviously important that the correct contract is selected when assigning that worker to care duties. This will ensure that they receive the correct rate of pay for the event.
Provided that the “office hours” and “overtime” contracts, and the “office hours” and “overtime” availability have been set up as described above, the selection of the correct contract when assigning an office-based worker to a care event will happen automatically, as follows:
If the event falls wholly within the care worker’s office hours (as defined by their “office hours” availability), their “office hours” contract will be automatically selected.
If the event falls wholly within the care worker’s overtime hours (as defined by their “overtime” availability), their non-”office hours” contract will be automatically selected.
If the event starts within the care worker’s overtime hours but finishes after they are due to have begun work at the office, or starts within the care worker’s office hours but finishes after they are due to have finished at the office, their non-”office hours” contract will be automatically selected, but Plait will treat that as two events for the purposes of payroll, with the worker’s “overtime” and “office hours” rates applying to the relevant portion of the event.
Each time the event is updated, the contract selection will be checked, and automatically adjusted if necessary (e.g., if the start time or event duration changes).
However, the contract selection for existing events will not be changed in bulk if the worker’s office hours are changed.
Office-Based Care Worker “Promotions”
If the rate that an office-based care worker is paid for office hours care work changes over time (perhaps because they become a “senior” worker), then their first “office hours” contract can be assigned a finish date and a second “office hours” contract started under a different Grade. The only restriction is that a worker cannot have overlapping contracts with “Use for office hours care work” ticked.