Improving Your Organization From The Inside Out: Future Proofing Disability Services

Operating in a constantly evolving sector, such as the disability industry, means that service providers in this sector need to be abreast of any changes occurring and future adjustments to policies, regulations, recommended actions, and more to assist them in serving their clients in the best ways possible. 

As the onus is on support, this must mean you are adept at supporting your operations before you can even begin to support those requiring your help successfully. Navigating care and services to support people living with disabilities means you need to be careful and exact with every decision you make to avoid impacting others’ lives in the wrong way and further complicating what you are trying to do.  

Much like the common idiom goes, “charity begins at home,” improving the quality of care and standing must also be within your organization to enable this to continue through your actions and more. Let’s take a look at how you can do this.  

Leverage Technology

Companies supporting people in this environment must utilize the best technology at their disposal. In the NDIS field in Australia, this means using an NDIS software solution for NDIS providers. Essentially, you need to preempt any challenges impacting your work and implement technology assistance to allow for other workflows, increased collaboration, and fewer mistakes. Operational efficiency is key here to deliver the services required and expected by clients to improve their quality of life, and if you engage with the best technology in the sector, this can drastically improve your output and future-proof the work you do and how to do it. 

Conduct A SWOT Analysis

What you’re going to need to do here is to identify your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can enable you to uncover what is working well, what isn’t, where you need to change or adapt, and what can harm your company moving forward, as well as avenues for you to branch into in the future or to work towards. A comprehensive overview of all of these aspects of your business can enable you to put measures in place to successfully make adjustments required to improve what you do and how you help people as well as stand you in a good position for the future. 

Reduce Staff Turnover

Nothing is going to impact your company quite the same as a high staff turnover. Constantly having different people take over others’ workloads, picking up from where someone else left off, and forging new relationships with clients isn’t great business. And these changes aren’t always for the better, especially for clients. If your company has a high staff turnover, you won’t likely get the results you expect or the seamless service you wish to provide clients. 

Step back and examine why people are leaving. Is there something within your company that is making people jump ship and move on quickly, e.g., a toxic work culture? Or is the industry as a whole causing people to hit burnout? Maybe it’s simply not finding the right people who don’t expect the job role they need to do or aren’t qualified for it.

You can offer training and seminars attendance on topics relevant to the work you do, such as disability rights, mental health support techniques, or the latest assistive technologies. By increasing education, championing your team, and supporting them as required, as well as offering fair wages and benefits for the job role they’re expected to carry out, you can reduce staff turnover and improve the quality of care you provide.

Improve Scheduling

Having the right people in the right places at the right time is a massive part of your operation, and if this isn’t working out for you, then addressing scheduling issues and improving them can facilitate smoother operations and increase client assistance and satisfaction. Scheduling software, for example, can be instrumental here, as can an online booking system removing the manual elements of arranging appointments and filling diaries so you can allocate staff where required and when for their workloads and for increasing capacity so no one is overstretched due to incorrect allocation of work and clients. 

Prioritise Finances

Part of improved finances is indeed utilizing technology, as mentioned above, as this can improve the tracking of income and expenditure and ensure the right allocation of resources. However, technology is only so much, and as many, you need to be proactive with ensuring your funds go where they need and when so you can provide the right level of assistance. 

This doesn’t mean putting the brakes on and not spending anything, but it does mean making more careful spending choices, being critical of what needs financial assistance and what doesn’t, and where your money will be best spent.

You can do this by tracking historical spending, producing financial reports, and creating cash flow forecasts based on data to help you allocate your budgets moving forward so you can cover what you expect to have to cover and ensure you have funds left for any additional resources you might require.

Stay On Top of Regulations

Staying updated on regulations is not just a task, it’s a crucial responsibility in the disability services sector. It’s your duty to be aware of all upcoming and outdated regulations and avenues of support and assistance. By making it your mission to identify new changes, you can take advantage of changes in regulations and deliver the correct support, ensuring success for you and your clients.

Update yourself on sturdy pricing standards, NDIS regulatory changes, for example, qualifying criteria for different forms of assistance, and quality standards within the service you provide.

There is a lot that goes on under the hood, so to speak, when it comes to supporting people with disabilities, Understanding their needs, and giving them the assistance they require, be it via products and adaptations, mental health support, or advice and guidance on different aspects of their life or anything else that falls under your remit can make for a complex and stressful working environment. However, getting things in order within your organization can enable you to improve standards across the board so that not only are you ready and well-placed to provide the assistance required but also support ongoing operations so nothing is missed or passed over due to mistakes or inefficiencies.