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Readers, rejoice!

It’s that time of year where we recap the can’t-miss blog posts of the last 365 days.

Whether you’re looking for customer success stories, technology adoption tips, or inspiration to keep on file for the days when you need to recharge, this list has got you covered.

So grab your reading glasses, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and catch up on the top 6 Northwoods blog posts of 2016. Happy reading!

'Tis the season to celebrate and say thank you to the social workers in your life.

Whether you're shopping for a friend, family member or colleague, we've curated 50 gift ideas designed with social workers in mind.

Check out our Pinterest board, A Holiday Gift Guide for Human Services, for more inspiration, or keep reading for a sampling of ideas to get you started. Happy holidays!

Human services agencies today are stretched for time and resources in almost every capacity. To really maximize efficiency, you need data. You need to be able to manage your workers’ caseloads, see how the tools you provide them are being used, and understand what services your community utilizes most.

Good news: you can now get the data you need through Compass® Reports for Compass® Pilot and Compass® CoPilot.

Imagine for a second how much more you could accomplish each day if you were able to put the hour or two that you usually spent doing paperwork toward actually doing your job.

Oh, the possibilities!

For Lenoir County Department of Social Services’ (DSS) Adult and Family Services social workers, the ability to repurpose hours previously spent on documentation means more time to focus on engaging clients, building trust, and delivering more holistic, quality service. Even better? Their documentation is still up to date and accurate too.

Type. Print. Cut. Paste. Print again. Repeat.
Type. Print. Cut. Paste. Print again. Repeat.

For child support caseworkers at Lenoir County Department of Social Services (DSS), creating court orders and motions was a tedious, paper-heavy, and time-consuming process.

For many human services agencies, important documents and case information are long gone as soon as they’re filed in the system.

Think about it this way: most basic document and content management systems force workers to wait until the end of a case to scan and file their documents, which means they don’t have access to information when they really need it—while working the case. It’s hard for supervisors to coach and advise workers when they don’t have instant access to information either.

By the time critical information becomes available in the system, the case is already closed.

Within the next four years, the elderly population in the United States is expected to increase to 54.6 million—meaning nearly 8 million more people over the age of 65 in 2020 than there are today.

And what does this aging population mean for your program? You guessed it: Even. More. Paperwork.

Over the past few months, we’ve discussed a handful of factors that can make or break your human services technology implementation. Maybe you’ve read and bookmarked every post, or maybe this is your first time even realizing that this blog exists (in that case, hello!).

Either way, we thought it would be helpful to recap all the handy tips and tricks we’ve shared in an infographic – The Do’s and Don’ts of Human Services Technology Implementation.

Have you ever had to sit in a room for hours upon hours listening to someone explain how a new technology is going to work, and then by the time you get back to your computer and try to start using the tool, you completely forget what you were supposed to do? So. Incredibly. Frustrating.

Not only is it frustrating, but it’s inefficient too. In fact, research has shown that students only retain 20% of information they learn by sitting and listening passively in a lecture-style environment.