Setting employment goals

Prototyping digital tools and ways of working with Recovery Focus' employment services

#servicedesign #research

Overview

The brief

It is well reported that obtaining meaningful work or employment contributes significantly to people’s wellbeing. Recovery Focus, a national charity who support people in this journey towards work, were interested in how they could make use of digital tools and ways of working to provide person-centred services, whilst reducing the administrative burden on staff.

How might we make better use of digital tools to improve employment services?

The solution

Following a discovery and a series of low-fidelity prototyping, a new web application was built to support client-led action planning.  The web app was piloted for 6 weeks alongside a control group and resulted in positive outcomes for client experience, digital skills and staff efficiency.

The learning from the pilot informed a comms and engagement plan to introduce the new tools and ways of working to Recovery Focus’ employment services UK-wide.

Team

Role - Service designer and researcher, working alongside a product designer and developer (Mindwave Ventures)

Timescale - 12 months including discovery, design, development and pilot (2017)

Over

4 weeks

spent on-site conducting user research and user testing

94%

of clients using the web app

felt their advisor involved them in decision-making

Approach

Discovery

A discovery phase was conducted to:

• Understand the context and how the service is delivered

• Capture user needs of staff and clients

• Understand attitudes towards digital

• Identify strengths, pain points and opportunities for improving the service

Seven different employment teams were visited UK-wide. 15 clients, 18 employment advisors and 19 managers took part in research.

The research was synthesised into themes, insights and user needs.

“Richmond Fellowship have given me so much support. One year ago I couldn’t leave the house on my own. Now I can get the bus to ASDA and buy different soups on my own... I feel confident and proud of myself”

- Client

Key insights

• Employment Advisors go above and beyond to provide a truly person-centred service, yet client progress can go unrecongised when it’s not a direct employment outcome

• Co-production sits at the heart of the organisational values, yet clunky technology doesn’t encourage this in practice 

• Processes are often paper-based, resulting in duplication as staff copy notes to their online database

• Frontline staff perceive the introduction of technology as a replacement of face-to-face services

• Clients’ goals are usually captured retrospectively by members of staff, and the current ‘Support Plan’ document is not live or collaborative 

• Digital skills and confidence is a prerequisite for the majority of jobs

A number of potential opportunities to improve the employment service were identified and prioritised by Recovery Focus in terms of desirability and feasibility.

The refined design brief at the end of the discovery phase:

How might we encourage client-led action planning?

Prototyping

Assumptions about a client-led action plan were captured and prioritised. These included:

• Clients who use a collaborative action plan will have a better experience of the employment service

• Being involved in writing an action plan will enable clients to take more responsibility and ownership of their recovery / progress

• Using a collaborative action plan will enable clients to make more progress towards their goals

• Having a digital tool to write action plans will reduce staff time required to document appointments

• Using a digital tool in appointments will enable clients and staff to build digital skills and confidence

• There is a need for a purpose-built web app

This set the foundation for a series of prototypes to learn as quickly and cheaply as possible what a solution could look like.

Paper prototypes were used in role-play sessions and live appointments to test how a plan could be built collaboratively.

“I don’t remember the practicalities after a session - I could access this in a calmer state of mind”

- Client

Early prototypes confirmed the need and enabled the design to be iterated and refined. This led into a digital action plan, which would reduce the time staff spent documenting appointments.

Weekly testing with staff and clients was conducted on-site to test usability, prioritise features and trial different devices.

Agile was an excellent method of engaging staff and managers across the organisation by showing how user feedback was incorporated.

Evaluating the impact

The new web application, called Aspire, was evaluated in a six week pilot. The aims of this evaluation were:

• Gather objective evidence to understand the impact

• Gain feedback from a representative sample of users

• Identify areas for further research and iteration

33 clients and 17 members of staff took part. Half of the clients were allocated as the control group and continued with appointments as usual.

The pilot results showed that:

• The use of Aspire has a positive impact on client experience of the service

• Clients were building digital skills and confidence through using Aspire

• The app had a negligible impact on ‘distance travelled’ towards employment outcomes

• 71% of clients would like to continue using Aspire in appointments

Other insights from the pilot highlighted the need for reliable WiFi access, being involved in the choice of devices, providing training and responsive IT support and continued involvement in product development.

“What I enjoyed most was working with clients on their goals. It was prompting participation”

– Employment Advisor

Next steps

A plan was produced to support the roll-out of the web app across Recovery Focus’ employment services. To support adoption, it was recommended that:

• Staff who took part in the pilot are invited to become ‘champions’ to co-train colleagues

• Reliable, fast WiFi is introduced across all sites

• Staff are involved in trialling different devices before investing

• A product owner is identified to prioritise fixtures and features

• The feedback loop continues, with staff and client feedback being actively sought and acted upon

By enabling clients and staff to set collaborative employment goals, Aspire demonstrates how a user-led design process, coupled with agile methodology, can result in sustainable service improvements.

“It was nice to have a platform to say what we want and why. It showed me what was possible to make it a truly client-led experience”

- Employment Advisor