GoodLife U: Workforce Strategies Empower Organizations to do More

Mission-driven organizations continually do more with less. But what if an organization could do more with more?

GoodLife U is a toolbox designed to do just that. It includes accessible, practical, and affordable solutions to enable home and community-based service providers to do more with limited (and dwindling) resources. GoodLife U’s strategies help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) live with greater independence, while also improving the lives of the direct support professionals (DSPs) who make this possible.

The Need for Innovative Strategies

Agencies and providers cannot afford instability within the workforce, yet the DSP workforce has been one of the most unstable workforces nationally for over three decades, with only more crises on the horizon. Organizations must make new and safer considerations to share staff across sites, and must urgently learn how to reduce the number of different people involved in care to protect those served. Our solution to these challenges includes innovative schedules and pay strategies that powerfully and positively impact DSP wages, capacity to work extra, stability, consistency, overall payroll costs, and more.

Representative of a 40-year collaboration between GoodLife Innovations and the University of Kansas, GoodLife U is the culmination of extensive applied research and embodies proven strategies to measure, address, and improve organizational (in)stability amidst the direct labor crisis. Organizations that have implemented GoodLife U’s strategies experience cost savings, increased efficiency, and the opportunity to sustain their mission-driven initiatives.

GoodLife U’s team of experts also consults on reimagining and redesigning traditional service models for the best use of technology.

A Curriculum for Change

The GoodLife U team provides consulting tailored to an organization’s needs. The program includes strategies training, program (re)design, change management support, and impact assessments that help leadership teams understand and implement proven, cost-saving approaches.

GoodLife U’s curriculum includes:

• Site reviews & benchmarking
• Program design
• Pivot planning
• Payroll performance & scheduling
• Grant funding support & partnership
• DSP-focused benefits review, plans, and management
• Strategic planning
• Strategies & service models for:
  • Schedule & pay
  • Workforce management
  • Hiring
  • Coaching & supervision
  • Direct support marketing
  • Developing strategic partnerships
  • Continuous improvement

GoodLife U usually starts with Workforce 101, a personalized, two-hour presentation that outlines the workforce schedule and pay strategies that will put more margin in your mission. Based on the needs and goals of an organization, the GoodLife U team conducts a site review to learn an organization’s current system and provide an initial analysis. From there, an impact reveal details a recommended set of strategies that have quantifiable, identifiable, and measurable influence. After collaborative feedback with the organization, the team develops an implementation plan across the organization, adjusting the plan based on the needs of specific homes or sites.

GoodLife fully embraces technology as a tool for delivering next-generation services, using iLink Technologies as its infrastructure solution. GoodLife U helps organizations redesign service models, better leveraging technology to deploy staff more effectively, provide a layer of quality assurance, conduct ongoing in-home training, remotely support independence, deliver remote behavioral/health services, and more.

A Shared Mission

GoodLife U’s unique goal is to equip organizations to become progressively independent throughout the implementation. Through a university-style curriculum and approach, GoodLife U empowers providers with the skills, tools, resources, and knowledge base to take what they learn and replicate GoodLife U’s strategies across their agency with increasing efficacy and autonomy.

The GoodLife U research team analyzed the results of implementing its labor strategies in a study across 15 organizations, impacting 220 homes and more than 950 individuals served. The outcomes are profound:

• Reduced reliance on part-time positions by 280%.
• Raised hourly DSP wages by $1.68, not including additional PTO savings, which can add another $.50/hr in most cases.
• Saved more than $1.5 million in annual payroll costs.
• Reduced overtime by more than 15%.
• Improved DSPs capacity to work 91,208 extra shifts annually