Pro Bono Profiles: Change Management for Better Unemployment Services

When Salesforce employee Gaëlle Da Silva Esa first put up her hand to take part in a pro bono project her goal was to improve her professional skills and to do something a bit different with her 7 volunteer days off, a benefit for Salesforce employees. What she got back in return was a lot more. Not only did she make a personal connection with a unique organisation, its staff and the local community, she was also able to give Jobcare the tools and training it needed to maximise its resources and truly make a difference in the lives of the people it serves.

“Jobcare is a great organisation. They’re helping unemployed people by giving them confidence and skills training and they’re really make a difference. Because they were local I could meet them face to face and really understand who they are, what they’re doing and develop a much better relationship with them. There are so many people who need our skills – I think, if we have those skills, we should help people with them.”

Gaëlle was introduced to Jobcare via Stephane Maurin, a Salesforce Success Manager and pro bono champion at Salesforce Dublin. From the initial consultation to go-live day 6 months later, Gaëlle worked closely with Jobcare and designed and executed a Salesforce implementation that would allow them to address sustainability issues. The vision was to have a single platform that would help Jobcare manage clients, volunteers, supporters and business partners, and ultimately enable the organisation to maximise efficiencies, improve data quality and streamline reporting.

Today that vision has become a reality, thanks to the commitment and hard work of Gaëlle.

Making Services More Personalised

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Jobcare interacts with around 5,000 visitors annually who are looking for support in becoming employed. It offers 20 courses throughout the year and manages a client base of around 650. In the past, client communications and program management had been difficult because of the lack of IT infrastructure – something Jobcare knew it needed to invest time in developing.

“Jobcare has been operating in Dublin for 22 years,” said Peter Johnson, Business Liaison Manager at Jobcare. “We have a huge cohort of clients, volunteers and business partners but our existing database was no longer fit for purpose. We didn’t have the flexibility and the security we needed to fulfill our needs. We needed a solution that was much more powerful.”

“With Salesforce, we can be a lot more targeted in our support to our clients and we can also follow up with them and provide additional support. About 55% of clients will find work in the calendar year, but that means 45% won’t. Jobcare needs to keep in touch with those unsuccessful in their search so they stay motivated and are given the support they needs – Salesforce gives us the ability to do this.”

For those who do become clients, Jobcare needs to track the types of employment they’re interested in and also the courses they have attended. Previously, if an employer came to them with a new opportunity they would need to do a timely search in the database for anyone that might have those skills. With Salesforce, this data is now readily available.

From Manual to On-Demand Reporting

Accessing real-time reports on its clients and services was very important for Jobcare because 90% of its funding comes from the government, and they require regular impact updates on all programs. Working directly with staff, Gaëlle built custom reports in Salesforce to make it easy to pull reports at a moment’s notice, increasing efficiencies and freeing up staff time to work on other tasks.

“Having all the information in Salesforce helps us report in an accurate and timely manner to our corporate supporters,” says Niamh Curtis, Jobcare’s Job Club Leader. “But more importantly, we need to report monthly to the Department of Social Protection. Also our board needs bi-monthly updates on how effective our programs are – all that is going to be made much simpler with Salesforce.”

Targeting the Right Volunteers

Jobcare regularly recruits volunteers to assist with activities like mentoring, coaching and job search support. Before Salesforce however, it didn’t have any mechanism for segmenting volunteers or communicating opportunities with them. Now, volunteers can sign up directly from the website and start their journey with Jobcare.

“It’s fantastic. Salesforce is now linked to our website so if someone signs up as a volunteer I’m notified and can start the onboarding process right away. It’s so straightforward and it’s going to be so empowering for us. Recently, I was looking for 40 volunteers to act as career coaches for a career fair. I segmented the volunteers in Salesforce and sent them a campaign with no trouble – they spent a full day coaching 230 clients – it’s a great example of how we’re already seeing the benefits of Salesforce.”

Building Better Connections with Business

Jobcare relies on corporate partners to enhance the services it provides to job seekers and to supplement its funding. Before Salesforce, it was much more difficult for Jobcare to engage consistently with its supporters. “We had no way of keeping that data. So inviting them to events, offering them pro bono opportunities or maintaining consistent relationships with them was very difficult. With Salesforce we can now execute campaigns much more easily which we’re hoping will improve our communications and ultimately help us raise more funds.”

Setting up for Success

Gaëlle’s plan was always to make sure Jobcare fully understood the implementation and could self manage their Salesforce. She worked through a change management plan and trained up a number of staff who would be taking care of administration.

A pro bono experience like this, doesn’t just end when the projects finished – Gaëlle hopes to stay connected and to check up and see how the team is getting on over the next couple of months. We’re excited to see what Jobcare achieves and the impact Salesforce and this exciting pro bono project is able to have.

Learn more about Pro Bono Week 2016 and the Pro Bono Program at Salesforce. Follow@SalesforceOrg for more pro bono celebrations.