Case Study: 4U Care

Helping a disability care organisation to achieve it’s business goal of being Australia’s number 1 provider of quality of care.

Client: 4U CareIndustry: Not For Profit

About 4U Care

4U Care is a Newcastle-based disability care organisation (Not For Profit), providing care for clients in Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie regions.

Established in 2017, 4U Care is an NDIS approved provider and offers a range of services that are individually tailored for people with a disability to pursue their individual goals. The business now cares for 180 participants and has a team of 120 staff.

Unlike other care organisations, 4U Care is a participant driven support model, with the organisation building specific programs for individuals, based on their goals and needs. Given NDIS funding sits with participants, the 4U Care model allows participants to specify exactly what services and help they require and invest their money accordingly.

“The system has greatly reduced the time spent on intensive tasks, it’s saved us at least 12 days per month in administration time, allowing us to re-allocate those HR resources to growth areas of the business."

Jono Dunn – Managing Director

The Challenge.

4U Care Managing Director Jono Dunn says that given the participant driven support model approach of the business, the process of matching clients to support workers and the recruitment process involved to bring in new skillsets as required is a complex and time-consuming process.

While the business originally was looking for assistance with financial automation and spoke to book keepers and other providers who offer off-the-shelf finance solutions, it was an introduction to Cypher IQ Digital that sparked a range of business automation and digital workflow system opportunities for 4U Care.

Recruitment is an ongoing, time-intensive task, which is critical to the business’ ability to provide a sustained level of quality care to clients. “The only way we can grow to meet the enquiries and referrals and provide opportunities for more people is through a streamlined and efficient recruitment process,” explained Jono. “On the other side of that is our referrals process, where we have staff in liaison roles chasing up all the elements of information and working through various emails and spreadsheets, which is another time-intensive task, to make sure that nothing is missed and we’re bringing clients on-board in a timely manner.”

The Solution.

“Cypher IQ Digital’s approach reflects how we approach what we do,” said Jono. “They got to know us and our business and developed a solution within their workflows that would suit us. While we were initially looking for assistance with finance automation, Cypher IQ were able to suggest an automated and digital workflow system that also incorporated our recruitment and referrals process.”

Cypher IQ Digital has also provided opportunities for face-to-face and digital training. “This was a big change to our organisation’s processes and the whole process has been seamless,” mentioned Jono.

The Result.

“The new system has allowed us to achieve a higher quality of care and better utilisation of resources,” said Jono.

“The system has greatly reduced some of our time intensive tasks and saved us at least three days per week in administration time, allowing us to re-allocate those HR resources to growth areas of the business”.

We now have a clearer idea of when we need to recruit and what skill set we need. On the finance side of the business, we now have a better insight across expenses so we can make informed investments in the business.”

The software allows for high-level front-end data capture upfront within the referrals and recruitment process, which has enabled more consistent communication and a streamlined on-boarding process.

“The process with Cypher IQ Digital from concept phase to implementation was very quick,” recalled Jono. “Within the space of a few weeks we went from initial discussions to having the training sessions.

“After implementing the software in June, we were able to manage in excess of 35 applications (including onboarding in July) which allows us to offer quality care to more people, sooner and more efficiently.”

“The solution has also allowed our staff to have greater autonomy and increased accountability – we can now all see exactly where a task or process is up to so that everyone knows where things stand.”

While the system has only been in place for three months, Jono now says that he wishes they had implemented it a lot earlier. “We were previously unaware of this system and its potential,” said Jono. “Having been through the process, I can attest to the fact that if you optimise your workflow processes, it will greatly help your business. Cypher IQ Digital is helping us to achieve our business goal of being Australia’s number 1 provider of quality of care.”