Case Study: Dougie Mac hospice achieves paperless HR and COVID test tracking with IRIS Software Group's IRIS Cascade

Software helps hospice to track tests as COVID complicates HR

Dougie Mac (Douglas Macmillan Hospice) is a Stoke‑on‑Trent hospice caring for patients with life‑limiting illnesses 24/7 and employs around 320 permanent staff plus many volunteers. HR Administrator Emma Walton inherited paper‑based, Excel-driven processes that could not scale, and the COVID‑19 pandemic — including work with Public Health England to test hundreds of employees — made reliable test, absence and furlough tracking critical. To address this, the hospice adopted IRIS Software Group’s HR system, IRIS Cascade.

IRIS Software Group implemented and customised IRIS Cascade to record COVID‑related absences, test status (positive/negative), and furlough periods, and helped Dougie Mac digitise all employee records as part of a move toward paperless operations. The system’s self‑service and manager functionality shifted routine tasks out of HR, enabled staff to book holidays and view payslips, supported accurate tracking of hundreds of tests, and delivered measurable time‑savings and reduced human error across the 320‑strong workforce.

Dougie Mac

Emma Walton

HR Administrator