Why HR and Scheduling should be a single system

HR and Scheduling sit at the core of running  a Care organisation. The complex skills required and the 24/7 nature of providing care to vulnerable individuals demand seamless integration between these systems to ensure operational efficiency and high-quality care.

After interviewing C-suite executives from supported living and residential care providers with staff sizes ranging from 500 to over 5,000, we’ve compiled their insights on integrating HR and Scheduling. These leaders shared their experiences, the challenges of managing these systems separately, and what they would do differently if they could start from scratch.

The challenge of separate HR and Scheduling systems

Integrating HR and Scheduling when they’re part of different solutions often results in inefficiencies and inaccuracies. One WFM specialist likened this to navigating a “country lane” compared to the “motorway” of a unified system. Data might transfer, but not with the speed, frequency, or precision needed for real-time operations. This can work for simpler integrations where the same system always plays the role of "source of truth," such as between HR and an Applicant Tracking Solution, but not between core systems. 

Issues can stem from two main causes:

1. Core systems branded under the same name but lacking true integration.
2. Separate systems with inadequate or poorly maintained integrations.

If HR, Scheduling and Payroll systems don’t really integrate well with each other, then there can be quite a lot of manually patching things up, using spreadsheets or even pen and paper - so there’s tons of data slipping through the cracks.

Head of IT, Residential Care provider with 1,000+ employees

Core systems such as HR and Scheduling - as well as Payroll - need a two-way real-time integration that is consistently maintained and updated in order to work well together.

When purchased separately or if the integration is a "country lane" one (one-way, batch integration), a small change—such as reducing working hours or altering a contract type (e.g. from full-time to part-time)—requires manually informing multiple departments (staff teams, location managers, HR, Payroll, etc.). This change will also:

• Affect the schedule and lower efficiency.
• Impact annual leave allowances.
• Potentially alter other types of pay, including holiday pay, SSP, etc.
• Push managers to book agency staff if they weren’t notified in time.

For a deep dive into the science behind integrations and how to tell if an integration is going to work well, watch Sona’s CTO, Ben Dixon, in this 30-minute Masterclass! 

Overall, this is an ideal scenario for your tech stack, but realistically many providers will be some steps away from this set-up. Therefore, leadership teams making tech decisions with the goal of future-proofing their organisation should bear this in mind to avoid the following:

Potential consequences of not buying HR and Scheduling together 

1. Overspend on salaries

An HR system should house all workforce documentation—contracted hours, pay rates, qualifications, visa restrictions, holiday allowances, and working preferences. Ideally, this data should seamlessly integrate with Scheduling, so that managers generate compliant schedules that sync with Payroll.

For example, absence and holiday data feeding incorrectly into Payroll has cost Perthyn, a supported living organisation with 700 employees, up to £100,000 per year.

We found a significant improvement in our payroll errors. Historically there were a lot of mistakes being made. We'd issue our pay slips ahead of pay day and pay would be inundated in queries the next day. Whereas now, we're not finding there's any queries in terms of rotas. The number of errors we could have experienced around pay slip time could have been up to 50 or even 100 errors.

Kat Angell, Executive Financial Director & Business Development

Discover how Perthyn has saved more than £200k/year with a next-generation WFM solution!

2. Overspend on admin time and increased risk of errors due to manual workarounds

HR updates are often needed daily, and a without real-time integration, data must be reconciled across systems. If hours aren’t updated promptly, managers may book unnecessary agency staff, incurring additional costs. 

When HR and Scheduling sit under the same system, these activities are completely removed because the information moves across in real-time, reducing both admin overspend and the risk of errors.

If it doesn’t have open APIs or real integration capabilities, we’d just remove the provider from the list [when looking for new tech]. We already know that’s going to drain a lot of resources down the line, so we’d rather not consider it.

CEO, Supported Living organisation with 1,100 employees

Discover How top Social Care leaders are purchasing WFM tech in 2025 in our latest infosheet!

3. A low quality integration means data may sync incorrectly or not often enough

An additional question to ask when building an integration between HR and Scheduling is how often the information updates between the two systems. Huge amounts of data need to travel, ideally in real-time, to ensure that schedules are accurate. Integrations that don’t see as many changes throughout the day as an HR system does (e.g. between a Learning Management System and HR) can still see great results with a daily update.

We’ve experienced issues with care hours being split incorrectly between care and other work types, absence coding incorrectly, and agency hours not pulling through in reports.

CEO, Residential Care & Supported Living provider with 1,000+ employees

While integrating separate systems can be a stop-gap, it’s not without challenges. Integration projects require significant resources for development, roll-out, and maintenance. Moreover, non-Social Care specific vendors may deprioritise updates if the sector isn’t a key market for them.

To ensure long-term success:

• Choose vendors specialising in Social Care who are motivated to maintain and enhance integrations.
• Look for open APIs, regular feature updates, and a track record of continuous improvement.
• Where possible, select a unified system for HR, Scheduling, and Payroll to eliminate integration challenges entirely.

Conclusion

Integrating HR and Scheduling into a single, unified system is not just a matter of convenience. It’s a transformative step toward reducing costs, streamlining operations, and delivering consistent, high-quality care.

If a fully unified solution isn’t viable, it is vital to partner with vendors who specialise in Social Care and are committed to maintaining and enhancing integrations.

Want to explore how a fully end-to-end HR, Scheduling and Payroll solution approach could work for your organisation? Book a consultative session with Sona’s tech experts and discover how we can help you optimise your operations and deliver growth.