Zorgpartners: one unified onboarding experience across 10+ locations and units

Where the Appical onboarding app makes the difference:

• One unified journey, with content tailored to different roles and locations. Central information that's the same for everyone, supplemented with information that varies by location and job group.
• Reducing early-stage attrition, by making the first period as clear as possible.
• Structural insight into the onboarding period. Instead of only hearing afterward what went wrong, Zorgpartners now knows how things are going during the process.

The challenge

Zorgpartners is an organization offering housing and care services in the Midden-Holland region. They provide care and support to residents at 13 care centers, and also help with home care, recovery care, and wellbeing. 

The sector the organization operates in is under pressure. The Netherlands is aging, more care is needed, and at the same time the organization's own workforce is aging too. Retaining staff is therefore a structural priority. This societal challenge is felt within the organization: "Our attrition is quite high," says recruiter Paula Daalhof. Together with a colleague, she's responsible for employer branding, recruitment, selection, and on- and offboarding. 

"We want to prevent things from going wrong as much as possible in that first period. That's where you can catch a lot. You want to avoid hearing afterward: 'my onboarding period wasn't good at all. I wasn't welcomed properly and I had no idea who my manager was.'"

No uniform approach

Zorgpartners has a diverse workforce: from doctors to housekeeping staff, spread across thirteen locations. On average, around 40 new employees join per month. Tailored onboarding matters here, and a locally arranged welcome is valuable. But what was missing was a uniform foundation: information that's the same for everyone, regardless of which location you start at.

Previously, there were central introduction sessions for all new employees. That didn't hold up: "it took a big toll on everyone's schedules, and not everyone agreed on what should be covered. It's also questionable how much a new employee still remembers after a four-hour session. The time investment and the organization of it simply weren't sustainable in the long run."

So the question became: how do you give everyone that same foundation without it costing extra time? An onboarding app turned out to be the answer: a foundation for everyone, personalized where needed.

How the app was set up

Implementation began with working groups: a sounding board group with people from across the organization, from wellbeing staff to managers from the care homes themselves. Their main task: making the information as uniform as possible, while keeping it manageable for everyone, from housekeeping staff to doctors.

Together with Appical, timing was carefully considered: what information do you release, and when? After all, you want to avoid overwhelming someone with information in the early period. Think of a week before the start date, the day itself, and a follow-up two weeks later. "We got really good advice on that timeline in particular," says Paula. That support continued afterward too: for anything technical, she can turn to her dedicated contact person. "The moment something technical isn't working, I call or message him, and he always comes up with a solution."

What the onboarding process looks like now

The Zorgpartners app contains three courses: one for pre- and onboarding, one for offboarding, and one for holiday workers (students who work for the organization for a maximum of 6 weeks).

All employees receive the same basic information, such as applying for the Certificate of Conduct (VOG) that everyone must submit, but also what the organization stands for and how to prepare for the first day of work. 

After that, the information is tailored to the job group and location. A nurse, for example, must also submit a BIG registration, something that isn't relevant for a facilities employee. Content also varies by location: think of what your new workplace specializes in, what kind of clients you can expect, and where you can park.

A few highlights from the app:

• Content that becomes available step by step: a week before the start, on the first day, after two weeks, after a month, and up to sixty days later.
• Relevant information by location and job group: everyone gets the same foundation, but a nurse will, for example, see different information later in the process than a facilities employee.
• Integration with the HR system, so new employees automatically receive an invitation to Appical.
• Easy feedback collection: questions like "What did you think of the app?" and "What did you think of your onboarding period?" map out how employees experience the onboarding process. Those insights are used to improve the process.
• An offboarding course for departing employees with practical information, such as where to hand in belongings and how the handover works, a checklist with tasks, and an exit questionnaire.

The results: a uniform foundation and insight

The same foundation everywhere, with local input

Six years after the onboarding app launched, the difference is clearly noticeable. "Every location still arranges the last, local step itself, for example with a digi-coach: a colleague who helps new employees with the systems." 

But the basic information, which used to be handled differently everywhere or sometimes not at all, is now fixed for everyone. As a result, work on engagement and clarity starts even before the first day, thereby reducing the risk of someone leaving early on. 

Structural insight into the employee experience

Feedback has become a fixed part of the process. Instead of only hearing afterward what went wrong, Zorgpartners now asks everyone how their experience has been. That also applies to offboarding. In the past, feedback was requested via an email with a link, but now the barrier is lower. The exit interview is part of the offboarding course in the app, with the central question: how was your experience of working at Zorgpartners?

Of course, all that feedback is only valuable once something is done with it. That's why Paula discusses the outcomes regularly with each location. That does require someone to manage and update the app, so that the content, imagery, and writing style stay current. For organizations considering the same approach, that's the key lesson right away: who's going to own the app?

Once that's clear, the app stays relevant for years, for every new employee who joins.

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