Putting data to work: Workplace skills charity saves time with new data management

Background

For Learning to Work, connections are everything. Over 17 years, the nonprofit has cultivated relationships with more than 18,000 young people and thousands of businesses. It uses a vast amount of data to identify and arrange perfectly matched work experience placements for 5,000 students every year. With this much information to juggle, Learning to Work needed help.

Learning to work facilitates links between education and the world of work, helping 18,000 young people every year to develop the skills needed to begin their careers through work experience placements and employer events. With a long history, the charity was battling outmoded data management processes which were slowing down staff and creating unnecessary headaches for management.

But this is exactly where our expertise can make all the difference. Huge amounts of data can be a powerful tool, and with the right technology, we could speed up matchmaking between students and businesses, save hours of time and eliminate a myriad of easily made mistakes. The first stage of the process was to understand the systems already in place, how the team works best, how we could empower them to support even more young people by freeing their time and energy.

Solution

We created a Salesforce CRM containing the details of more than 35,000 contacts, a testament to the charity’s mammoth achievements over the years. Each organisation or contact is stored alongside all pertinent data – including risk assessments and safety reports – saving hours of time spent tracking down vital information. Updating information, such as workplace locations and the details of placements on offer, is now simple, with all information held in one place thanks to Salesforce Opportunities software. Automated processes have also transformed time-consuming tasks; event invitation lists can be auto-created and notifying the system of a confirmed placement automatically produces job descriptions for students and confirmation letters for businesses.

We created a Salesforce CRM containing the details of more than 35,000 contacts, a testament to the charity’s mammoth achievements over the years. Each organisation or contact is stored alongside all pertinent data – including risk assessments and safety reports – saving hours of time spent tracking down vital information. Updating information, such as workplace locations and the details of placements on offer, is now simple, with all information held in one place thanks to Salesforce Opportunities software. Automated processes have also transformed time-consuming tasks; event invitation lists can be auto-created and notifying the system of a confirmed placement automatically produces job descriptions for students and confirmation letters for businesses.

With the arrival such substantial changes, significantly simplifying staff members’ day to day workload and opening up time for them to focus on making a huge impact on the lives of young people, it was essential that we fully trained everybody at Learning to Work. We know that people – not just technology – will change the world, and so we left everyone inspired and empowered to do their day jobs with renewed energy and focus.

Summary

Learning to work now has a state-of-the-art data management system that syncs every process of supporting young people, every step of the way. The new technology sets a clear path towards even further growth and will scale up as the charity does. Management are now able to gain at-a-glance updates, giving better service to businesses and students alike. The system has marked the beginning of a new, more efficient chapter for Learning to Work.

At Cirrico, we know how to use technology to create a more efficient future. With our particular focus on transforming non-profit and education organisations, our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to truly help people. Learning to Work provides an invaluable service to young people on the brink of carving out their own futures. We are proud to have been able to support this and look forward to watching as these young people go on to improve the world in their own ways.