Praxis Care partners with Sona to imporve 1,200 Northern Ireland health and social care staff to

1,200 Northern Ireland health and social care staff at Praxis Care are to be given greater flexibility over choosing extra shifts as well as when and where they work.

The new work improvements follow investment by leading social care charity Praxis Care in an employee app and shift management software to give its staff more control and choice flexibility over and improved access to extra shifts and opportunities to work across different services.

The partnership with London-based startup Sona is the latest in a series of new measures and benefits introduced by Praxis to increase recruitment and retention. This ongoing commitment to rewarding existing employees and attracting new staff led to Praxis being recognised as one of the care sector’s leading employers by the GMB union.

Praxis Care is the island of Ireland’s largest charity provider of care for adults and children affected by mental ill-health, learning disabilities, autism spectrum conditions and dementia. New benefits have been rolled out across the four jurisdictions in which Praxis Care’s 1,800 employee workforce operates in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and Great Britain.

Created for the social care sector and designed for frontline staff, Sona lets employees access vital functions with a tap, including real-time schedule view, schedule change notifications, overtime shift alerts, instant messaging and feedback.

This means staff have more flexibility to decide when and where they want to work, giving them opportunities to pick up shifts in services they don’t usually work in, resulting in a 90% satisfaction rating for their new digital rotas. Praxis has already seen a significant impact in a pilot in Londonderry, including a 38% saving on staffing agency costs and a 40% reduction in management time spent on administering rotas.

Last month, Sona announced its £5m seed funding round, led by Google’s venture capital fund, Gradient Ventures. The company has raised over £7m since August 2021, reflecting its success with customers, including Praxis Care and its strong growth in social care.

Aidan Daly, director of HR and L&D at Praxis Care, said, “I believe Sona will revolutionise how we manage our rosters, providing our employees with more visibility and control over the shifts they want to work. The beauty of the product is that employees who are rarely at a desk are able to pick up shifts, book leave and have control over their working patterns all through their mobile devices. Sona has the added benefit of reducing the time managers spend in developing and filling rosters allowing them to focus on what they came into Praxis Care to do - support vulnerable people to live as independent a life as possible in the community. We are excited to be in partnership with Sona and for the new possibilities that come with their latest funding round.”

Muireann Canavan, manager of Templemore Supported Living at Praxis Care and part of the Sona project team, explained: “Sona has really changed our approach to getting shifts covered and communicating with our staff about shifts. One of the biggest challenges that we found with getting shifts covered and with communication with our own team was we were sending out just huge masses of emails and important information was getting missed. Just being able to use a new method of getting shifts covered and have it be so successful was so incredible.”

Oli Johnson, Co-founder of Sona, added: “Working with Praxis is a dream for us. It’s a true partnership - we both believe that the right technology doesn’t just make life easier for employees - it can radically improve the way care organisations operate and make them more attractive employers in a competitive market for talent. Following our fundraise, we have lots of exciting plans to expand and improve the app so we can achieve even more with Praxis and our other amazing customers.”