If you work in the Netherlands, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Zorg van de Zaak (ZvdZ) — or even worked with them. As a corporate healthcare and wellbeing service provider, ZvdZ has successfully helped nearly 1.5 million Dutch workers find a healthier, happier lifestyle at work and at home.
Today, ZvdZ’s network of professionals and partners is renowned for navigating the complex, often sensitive world of employee health with utmost care.
Like many service-oriented organizations — especially in the healthcare sector — ZvdZ’s mission is built around tight processes. Contracts between employers, evaluations, reporting, and appointment scheduling all need to be carefully managed per client. Unfortunately, ZvdZ’s existing way of working wasn’t doing them any favors. Despite their professionalism, they relied entirely on systems like Excel and email to plan their whole operation.
These manual, decentralized tools were the cause of major frustrations for everyone involved, including ZvdZ’s own partners. As ZvdZ tried to scale up by acquiring new clients, human errors quickly spiked, costing both parties time and money to put right. In some cases, the planning phase for evaluations alone could take twice as long as expected!
Merlin van Eerden, Director of Health Services knows better than anyone how frustrating processes affect employee satisfaction. So he needed a solution fast (within 6 months) and he wanted ZvdZ to be actively involved in the development process.
BlockBrains, a development partner of Betty Blocks, was the perfect match for this project. Together, their one-two punch of industry and development knowledge would dramatically speed up the development of a bespoke PlanDesk application.
“We knew we needed a new application and were aware of the shortcomings of our old application but we were having trouble defining the right requirements. The experience of BlockBrains and the agility of the Betty Blocks platform gave us the confidence we were on the right track.” - Merlin van Eerden, Director of Health Services
We all know what a basic PlanDesk application should do: Organize schedules, align appointments, and streamline how you communicate with clients — fantastic . . . But ZvdZ and BlockBrains knew they could be a lot more innovative thanks to the flexibility of no-code. With all the extra time saved in building, they included more quality of life functionality, like a preliminary employee questionnaire.
After just 4 months, the final application was ready to go live with a host of valuable features for Zorg van de Zaak and its customers. Here are some examples of what they created:
1. Customized questionnairesEmployees can log into a private portal where they can partake in a custom questionnaire based on their function. Answers to these questions help medical professionals get early insights into what can or should be advised for a particular employee.
2. Automated appointment schedulingWith the PlanDesk portal, employers can see exactly when Zorg van de Zaak’s consultants are available for appointments and arrange meetings from their side. Notifications are sent to all parties automatically to inform them of times and dates.
3. Private data storage and reportingEach party using the application is assigned different user rights to limit which information they can access. Employers cannot see the results of examinations, while Zorg van de Zaak’s consultants can use evaluations to generate detailed reports.
4. Reduced handling errors to zeroThrough the new application, Zorg van de Zaak has effectively eliminated human error from the evaluation process. The time required for planning has been halved and consultants are now able to focus on more critical tasks.
Inefficient processes are one of the biggest time and motivation killers in service organizations. They’re not always obvious from the start but when your business grows their impact can quickly derail even the best-laid plans!
Merlin’s decision to overhaul ZvdZ’s underlying process came at exactly the right time, and thanks to BlockBrains, they pulled off their ambitious project with time to spare. Today, with the new tool in place, Zorg van de Zaak is ready to help millions of more workers (including their own) get the best out of their working environments.