To work together in a modern welfare environment, you need a good digital skill level. But welfare workers want to do their work, not spend their time in classrooms learning about Microsoft Teams. We solved this by setting clear standards and making learning fun.
ContourdeTwern, a Dutch welfare organization, faced significant challenges in adoption of collaboration software and improving digital skills among employees. The goal of the project was to develop a way for ContourdeTwern employees to empower themselves by developing their digital skills at their own level and pace. In addition, collaboration had to be made easier by standardizing, and possibly automating, the way people at ContourdeTwern work together.
Marcella Marsé, Microsoft 365 Advisor at ContourdeTwern
During the training sessions for the digicoaches, it’s always clear that these people also have a lot of ideas. So, something’s really happening. There’s a buzz. Everyone wants to keep it going. The digicoaches, along with the team leader and the team, are driving this. And it’s working. Someone from a location told me: we’re not going to let go of the name ‘Samen Digitaal’ (‘Digital Together’) after the project. Anything to do with technology or change will be ‘Samen Digitaal’ from now on. That really shows how committed everyone is and what energy the project has triggered in the organization.
ContourdeTwern
Healthcare
ContourdeTwern wanted to improve digital skills and collaboration among welfare workers, but employees lacked clear guidelines on how to use digital systems and had varying levels of digital confidence.
ContourdeTwern introduced standardized work agreements, deployed Microsoft Teams as the central collaboration platform, and implemented a tailored digital learning environment that allowed employees to develop skills at their own level and pace.
Digital skills increased across all function profiles, collaboration and document management became structured, WhatsApp largely disappeared as a work tool, and employees began taking initiative in continuous digital learning.
People who spend their working day with clients and not behind a desk tend to get fewer opportunities to develop their digital skills. On an organizational level, this makes adopting new technologies challenging. We see this across all sectors. This is a problem now, but it will be a much greater problem when AI really hits home, as it will in every industry sooner or later. The potential of AI and data to positively transform the work of professionals in welfare is huge, but making it a reality requires that everyone in the organization has the skills to use the technology.
Many employees at ContourdeTwern were struggling to effectively use existing digital systems. This was due to a lack of digital skills, but also to unclear guidelines on how systems should be used. Although some Microsoft Teams setups worked well, there was no structure to capture these best practices and apply them organization-wide. As a result, digital communication and collaboration were suboptimal.
“During the pandemic, we had already transitioned to the cloud. That was great because everyone could start working in Teams. However, there wasn’t really any significant adoption, which I think was the case for many organizations. So, we really needed a structured way of working, along with some formal policies.”
The first thing we did was draft an information policy. This established clear standards on how ContourdeTwern wanted to work with information and provided a base for detailed work arrangements that could be taught to all employees through a new online learning environment. We didn’t develop this from scratch, since we found a team manager that had their digital operation in order and decided to implement that approach organization-wide. Because, why change something that already works? We introduced this person to the higher management and made them a hero in the project.
To start employees off on their journey towards more digital skills and empowerment, we built a learning portal that assumes no prior knowledge. Learning there starts with a self-assessment that assigned a learner profile to the employee: starter, skeptic, enthusiast or innovator. In addition, it tailors the learning materials to the function profile of the employee. At all times, the friendly ‘digital digicoach’ Sam is available to provide tips, tricks and advice.
Beyond the initial project and beyond the learning program, the organization needed additional changes to improve digital work. This involved training specialized digicoaches and schooling team managers to empower their people and stimulate them to develop digital skills.
During the training sessions for the digicoaches, it’s always clear that these people also have a lot of ideas. So, something’s really happening. There’s a buzz. Everyone wants to keep it going. The digicoaches, along with the team leader and the team, are driving this. And it’s working. Someone from a location told me: we’re not going to let go of the name ‘Samen Digitaal’ (‘Digital Together’) after the project. Anything to do with technology or change will be ‘Samen Digitaal’ from now on. That really shows how committed everyone is and what energy the project has triggered in the organization.
By standardizing work agreements, centralizing communication in Microsoft Teams, and supporting employees with tailored digital learning.
Employees improved their digital skills, collaboration became structured, and teams took ownership of ongoing digital learning.
ContourdeTwern struggled with low adoption of digital tools, unclear work agreements, and uneven digital skill levels across employees.
