If your non-profit is like most non-profits, you have a hardworking staff dedicated to doing their best for the clients you serve.
But hard work and good intentions don’t always add up to the right results. There is a key ingredient to getting consistently good outcomes and that is accountability.
What is at the root of accountability? The core of it is being able to track whether your caseworker staff is focusing on the right things with each and every client.
It is actually a common problem in any work situation for people to work hard, but not necessarily on the details that really matter. This is as true in the non-profit world as anywhere else.
Now, of course, you can’t follow your caseworkers around or be looking over their shoulder all day. Even if you can monitor them closely in certain situations, people don’t tend to thrive when they feel like someone is over their shoulder ready to pounce on a mistake.
There is a solution to this and it involves using affordable technology. But before that, there is something else that is absolutely key to installing accountability into your processes. Let’s address that first.
What Are The Standards… And Does Everyone Know Them?
The first thing to do is to define the standards that you want your caseworkers to meet for each and every client. Without a doubt, you have many of these in place already – no place can function without them. But it can be an interesting and useful exercise to go through and precisely define your ideals for each client interaction. Then you should ask, how do we objectively measure if we are meeting this ideal?
Whatever those objective measurements turn out to be for your unique non-profit, that is what you should use as the accountability standard for all your caseworkers.
But that is not quite enough – there is one more step: communicating the standards clearly. To be fair to your caseworkers, you need to make sure that they are crystal clear on what is expected of them and that they have the knowledge and training to meet those standards.
Technology and Accountability
All this can be made much easier with technology. In fact, without the right technology, it can be very hard to implement.
Some specific examples:
Let’s say that there is crucial data and information that must be collected and recorded for every client during your intake process. If you are still using a paper and file method, there is no way to know if this is being done consistently without almost constant auditing. If you are using software that is outdated or inflexible, you often can’t get it to match up to the information you need to collect.
But with the right software, you can create specific fields that must be filled out for every client. This makes sure nothing gets missed.
Another example: Should your caseworkers be reaching out to clients again within a set period of time? If this is the case, they should be documenting it on the computer. You can then run reports tracking exactly where follow-up has occurred… and where it has not. Then it is simply a matter of sharing these reports with your caseworkers to show them what is going right and what needs improvement.
Do you see where the right technology can make accountability almost effortless? Technology can be a game-changer when it comes to promoting accountability in non-profits
If you want to learn more about how good software can improve your service to clients, here is an easy step you can take right now. Click here to download the report, The Unofficial Guide to Electronic Case Management. It’s free, concise, and packed with information that can better help you understand your options.
