Lianne te Veldhuis of Elver shares her experiences
Elver provides care for more than 900 people with intellectual disabilities. As a care provider, Elver—like many other organizations in the sector—faces the dual challenge of staff shortages and increasing budget cuts. The pressure to organize operations more efficiently was growing, but the management information available fell short. Much of the data was compiled manually: time-consuming, error-prone, and only partially comprehensive.
“The ZZP Management Dashboard has had an immediate and significant impact on our operations: it saves us at least two days a month in manual work.”
Although there was plenty of data available within the organization, the resources to utilize it effectively were lacking. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily halted many development initiatives. Afterward, the time was ripe for a structural approach, and the first concrete need was clear: insight into the allocation of care hours, compared to the care intensity packages on which funding is based.
In collaboration with EscuLine (part of SureSync), Elver developed the ZZP Management Dashboard. The dashboard links revenue from funding streams—such as the Long-Term Care Act (Wlz), the Social Support Act (Wmo), and the Youth Act—to the salary costs per care team. This allows regional managers to assess the financial health of their teams on a monthly basis and make immediate adjustments where necessary. Over- and understaffing are visible at a glance.
The regional managers quickly became accustomed to the dashboard and became active users early on. Decisions regarding the allocation of additional hours or the more efficient scheduling of a team are now supported by up-to-date data, without the need to involve an analyst. Regional managers and the Planning & Control department meet once a quarter for an in-depth analysis, during which the dashboard helps investigate the causes of negative outcomes. Absenteeism or high reliance on temporary workers are examples of factors that come to light in this way.
Elver does not view the ZZP Management Dashboard as an end goal, but rather as the first step toward becoming a fully data-driven organization. Currently, its use is primarily limited to regional managers, but the ambition is to expand it step by step to other departments and roles. An internal steering committee determines which topics receive priority and which insights contribute most to effective decision-making.
Elver’s experiences also offer lessons for other organizations. Involve employees early in the process and clearly identify what they need. Be transparent about what is and isn’t possible. And simplify processes wherever possible, because the simpler the workflow, the more reliable the resulting data.