Social Service Agencies, both governmental and non-profit, are currently studying the productivity of their case workers. As caseloads increase and budgets restrict hiring, productivity is becoming topic number one. Agency management is desperately trying to isolate the working conditions that impede efficient workflow and demoralize an already overworked staff.
Our engineering team at GVT conducted similar research when designing FAMCare human services software. Their mission was to identify bottlenecks in social service work flow and to design solutions. Here’s what they found and what they did:
BOTTLENECK
TIME ALLOCATION - Only 1/3 of social workers’ time was spent with families; 2/3 of their time was spent on paperwork. "If it wasn't documented, it didn't happen."
SOLUTION
INTEGRATE THE TWO FUNCTIONS - Design an intuitive software that mimics the social worker’s natural work flow and can be completed during the normal course of the social worker’s day.
*IMPORTANT NOTE – FAMCare has 4 different workflow engines built in!
BOTTLENECK
INFORMATION NOT AVAILABLE WHEN NEEDED
SOLUTION
STORE ALL INFORMATION IN ONE INTEGRATED SYSTEM and make it available through mobile technology wherever the social worker happens to be.
*IMPORTANT NOTE – client lookup, case notes, reporting – all available through smart phones and tablets.
BOTTLENECK
Time spent with clients often necessitates information gathering outside the system. This leads to hand written data and data collected on lap tops and mobile phones not being integrated into client files.
SOLUTION
INTEGRATE ANCILLARY TECHNOLOGY such as audio recording, note dictation, and auto-syncing into the integrated information gathering and reporting system.
*IMPORTANT NOTE – with FAMCare, each client has their own document repository to store all types of information such as scanned documents, audio files, images, video files, etc.
BOTTLENECK
High employee turnover causes constant interruption, duplication, and repetition of work.
SOLUTION
INTEGRATE THE DOCUMENTATION FUNCTION SEAMLESSLY into the social worker’s professional lifestyle. Eliminate all manual record keeping and note taking.
*IMPORTANT NOTE – the Pathways module allows you to create new data collection forms with ease…no programming skills necessary.
BOTTLENECK
Multiple data collection requirements from multiple authorities requiring endless duplicate documentation.
SOLUTION
ENSURE THAT ALL DATA COLLECTION MEETS STATE AND FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS at the point of collection.
*IMPORTANT NOTE - FAMCare software continuously integrates all data collected into State and Federal forms for reporting.
