Simple digital staff scheduling for five daycare locations

Christian, multicultural and inclusive: those are the values of the “Arche” daycare center in Langenhagen, near Hanover. On weekdays, 115 children play, run around and learn here. “We want to share the Christian faith with them and their parents,” says managing director Reinhard Kahle. “But we are not a church institution; we are an independent Christian association.” FEBEL e. V., short for Freie evangelische Bildungs- und Erziehungseinrichtungen (independent Protestant education and childcare facilities), has existed since 1994.

Today, 55 people work here across five locations: early childhood educators, housekeeping and cleaning staff, and administrative staff. Staff scheduling? Dyflexis has taken care of it for more than a year. “It lets us record working time digitally, comply with the legal requirements and even make very last-minute schedule changes.” Reinhard Kahle talks to us about his experiences and next steps.

Ring ring. Here comes another one. Often in the evening. On Sundays too. A call from someone canceling a shift. “I’m afraid I can’t come in tomorrow. I’m ill.” No wonder: viruses and bacteria do the rounds at daycare. Every mother and father can tell you about it. And of course, daycare staff aren’t always spared either. So, figuratively speaking, the schedule has to be written in pencil rather than in ink.

The same goes for a kindergarten, a nursery or an after-school club. And those three also belong to the “Arche,” along with a playgroup and a forest kindergarten.

After the schedule is before the schedule

Reinhard Kahle, managing director of FEBEL for four years, still remembers the time before Dyflexis well. “As soon as the schedule for all five locations was finished, we could start all over again and change a lot by hand.” Colleagues had to look after their own children at short notice, for example, had family emergencies or fell ill.

At first, the daycare manager took on the time-consuming job of creating the schedule. She called round for availability and built the staff plan in Excel. “That really was fiddly work,” Kahle recalls.

The challenge: different working-time models and legal requirements

First, not everyone on the team works full time. Second, many part-timers have school-age children and are therefore usually only available in the mornings. “But the Arche is always open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an extra hour before and after as early and late care,” explains Kahle, who has two grown-up children and four grandchildren himself. “We want to cover those hours for the good of the children and parents.”

And third, the law sets very clear rules for childcare. “There must always be two educators present per group,” the 59-year-old managing director gives as an example. “And our social-pedagogical assistants are not allowed to work alone.” That quickly turns scheduling on the computer into a nerve-racking job. “And at the end, we had to print everything 40 times and hand colleagues slips of paper.”

Bye-bye, Excel; hello, Dyflexis

So about a year and a half ago, the marketing specialist decided to retire manual scheduling. “The colleague responsible was retiring. Her successor knew digital workforce management from previous jobs and came knocking on my door very quickly.” Reinhard Kahle saw the benefit straight away, even though he enjoys working with Excel himself and loves getting stuck into formulas. “With Dyflexis, we can create schedules much more easily. We immediately see who is available at all and is still allowed to work under their contract, and we can take individual working-time wishes into account better.”

Complying with legal requirements? No problem with workforce management

Another advantage: with Dyflexis, FEBEL e. V. directly meets the legal requirement for digital time recording. “That got the association’s board, which decides on investments like this, on our side quickly,” reports Reinhard Kahle. “Especially as Dyflexis is a European provider and our sensitive data is stored on European servers. That was enormously important to us in our choice.”

The required distribution of educators across all groups at all five locations now also works almost at the push of a button. In Dyflexis, the association was able to give every employee color-coded labels in their personnel data, depending on their training or role, for example educator or social-pedagogical assistant. “That way, we can see at a glance whether we meet all the legal requirements for childcare or whether we still need to swap shifts.”

The benefits for employees: more clarity, easy to use

And the daycare staff? They see directly on their smartphone when, where and how they work. Are they on childcare time, actively with the children, or on preparation time, when they can prepare for parent meetings, for example? And they can enter requests for leave or days off right there too. “Nobody here has to deal with a schedule on slips of paper or shouted across the room anymore. That won over the initial skeptics too,” sums up the FEBEL managing director. “The app is really easy to use, and acceptance is now 100 percent.” Do employees ever give praise? The Lower Saxon has to smile. “Up here in the north we say: no complaints is praise enough.”

In the pipeline: automated payroll preparation

And Kahle has further plans with Dyflexis. “At the moment, we’re not yet using all the benefits the software offers.” Besides staff scheduling and digital time recording, the managing director wants to have Dyflexis prepare payroll automatically in the future. No problem for the workforce management software. As soon as the connections to the tax advisers are in place, they’ll get started. “That will save us an enormous amount of time,” says Reinhard Kahle happily. “Easily 15 hours a month. Time we can use more meaningfully, for our parents and children, for example.” And we at Dyflexis are delighted to support FEBEL in the valuable contribution this association makes in and for Langenhagen.

Reinhard Kahle, Managing Director, FEBEL e.V.