Lean management at the Office for Social Welfare and Work:
From provider of social benefits to public service
by: Jellemiek Zock and David Binnerts
Welfare laws in The Netherlands changed in 2004. As a result the Social Welfare Offices in the cities changed as well: Instead of the state providing social benefits, the emphasis now lies on the client and his responsibility to find work. Moreover, unemployment benefits are no longer a goal in themselves, but a temporary way of support, in which the client, if motivated, finds work himself. This adjustment has changed the relationship between the Social Welfare Offices in Holland and their clients, and as a consequence, the management of these offices.
The Office for Social Welfare and Work of the City of Groningen, SOZAWE, found an exciting answer for the new conditions. Clients now receive much better service; the work for employees of the office has become more interesting; and the costs have been reduced. In this article Jellemiek Zock, director of the office, and management advisor David Binnerts, describe how this process of change has taken shape.
The new task
When the social welfare laws changed, we, at the Office of Social Welfare and Work in Groningen (SOZAWE) asked ourselves a few questions:
- What can a client expect from us?
- What do we expect from our clients?
- What does this mean for our employees and how do we support them?
- What does this mean for the application procedures?
SOZAWE had to be turned around from an organization that provided benefits on the basis of laws and rules, into a public service that supports qualified citizens to help them to re-enter Groningen society. We developed the ambition to be known as THE PLACE TO BE. And to have all clients working by the year 2010. The starting point for achieving this goal was recognizing the possibilities of our clients, and not dwelling on their limitations.
We now support and supervise the individual clients in their search for paid work. In order to finance this, the office costs had to be lowered, the organization of the office had to be streamlined, and employees who otherwise would be un-employed themselves had to become consultants.
SOZAWE chose ‘lean management’ as the method to achieve its goals.
Lean management
‘Lean management’ is a management philosophy, developed by Toyota over the last 50 years. Many organizations and business corporations have been experimenting with ‘lean management’. In the eighties this happened mainly in the automobile industry, in order to compete with Toyota. However, since the wide scale possibilities of the Internet have become available, other branches of industry and corporate organizations are looking into the advantages of ‘lean management’. They discover that, by applying ‘lean management’, practically everything can be manufactured better, less expensively and with quicker delivery.
‘Lean management’ enables organizations to mass-produce for low costs even when the demand is small and variable. With this discovery it becomes possible to apply ‘lean management’ to (governmental) service institutions, where the client almost always is the co-designer of the ‘product’ he ‘buys’.
According to the lean management philosophy, everything begins with the needs of the client. Procedures to fulfill these needs are continuously improved. ‘Lean’ defines precisely what is an improvement and what is not - not only of the ‘product’, but also of the process of improvement itself. The focus on speed forces organizations to get rid of superfluous steps in their procedures, and makes it possible to achieve the same output with less capacity. An interesting side effect is that the quality of the product improves as well.
Lean management appeared to be the ideal philosophy for SOZAWE to create the necessary work capacity to improve their ‘product’, which is the payment of welfare benefits. It also inspired the employees to permanently participate in the process of improvement of the service.
SOZAWE’s approach
In the year 2003 ‘lean management’ was applied experimentally for the first time. One of the teams to execute the new social security laws suffered under a heavy workload. The reason for this was that there were many homeless people in their files, along with regular clients, and both needed a great deal of attention. The procedures through which these two categories of people were dealt with were totally different. They were both time consuming with a long waiting list. As a consequence both categories of people didn’t get the attention they deserved. This caused extra work, many questions from the clients, and mistakes. It also led to irritation and burnout. So the workload increased even more.
With the cooperation of the workforce the whole procedure of application and granting an allowance was re-designed. Employees and other organizations involved in the service for homeless people were engaged in the process of re-designing the program. This is how an integrated service for this specific group of people was created, unique in The Netherlands. With the same work capacity, a complex category of people can now adequately be serviced.
The next step was to focus on regular un-employment benefits in the department of fraud control, in order to create work capacity for the individual supervision of clients. In ‘lean’-terms “fraud control” doesn’t belong in any organization, because it means that something isn’t working… and that this, somehow, has been accepted as a fact. Fraud control and investigation were disentangled, and new procedures of prevention and termination were put in place. Both sets of procedures were improved again by the professionals themselves.
By looking at the whole procedure of how to terminate the fraud, and not only at the separate parts of the process (control, investigation and administration), the procedure became more efficient. Attention is now focused on prevention, so that fewer clients are entering the system in the first place. As a result less money is spent on benefits. Also the amount of work to be done is reduced. The office doesn’t have to go through the bureaucratic procedures of application, re-claiming paid out benefits, re-working mutations, etc. Ivestigation of fraud is also reduced, since there are less people who could cheat. The office capacity is freed for the new task of individual coaching of clients towards a job.
By speeding up the procedures, the application of special welfare benefits was improved too. 80% of clients get the answer to their applicatons right away, at the desk., Iinstead of having to wait for several weeks, calling back, chasing their dossiers, making appeals and getting frustrated. Of course this is to the benefit of both the client and the office. Most of these inquiries and appeals stem from rejected applications for special welfare benefits. . Now there is much less need for appeals, but if a client objects a decision this too is dealt with faster. Clients who make an appeal are called back right away. The office inquires the case on the same day and within one week the appeal is granted or not.
The result: SOZAWE@WORK
One employee can now settle an application within two hours, instead of several weeks of consulting, administration and answering inquiries etc. The client gets his benefits on time. Inefficiencies are squeezed out with lean management. So, SOZAWE found itself with enough professional capacity to set up a huge program for new clients. ( The program consists of a team of consultants ready to help applicants immediately as they show up,with creating a life without welfare. This team has consultants with expertise in the field of making résumé’s; who are knowledgeable in the marketplace; have contacts with businesses; know about educational programs, etc. The team members are responsible for an intensive supervision at the start of the intake procedure. And they literally coach new applicants straight to a job. In many cases an application for welfare benefits is not even necessary anymore. In other cases the time of receiving the benefits can be reduced to just a few weeks, to bridge the gap.
Next
As these processes of change are implemented and refined it is possible to keep developing them. For example, by creating programs for the prevention of un-employment and job orientation courses for graduating students. So, in the future, the step of clients getting to apply for welfare may be eliminated altogether.
For more information, contact David Binnerts at david@takt-group.com and/ or +31 (0)626 250 175.