CLIENT
NHO Service og Handel, The industry of Health and Welfare
TYPE OF PROCESS
– Design thinking in development
– Reputation
– Digital interaction
OUTCOME
– Qualitative insight
– Direction for further development
– Member anchoring
“We wanted someone to see us from the outside and involve the members in a project they could get a ownership to. [...] We can highly recommend Brand Valley to other companies with similar challenges, processes and tasks they want to solve.”
An industry standard for health and welfare
Client
The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) is Norway's largest main organization for employers.NHO Service og Handel (NHOSH) is a national association in NHO and includes several industries. Our assignment included the Health and Welfare industry. This is composed of rehabilitation, nursing homes, children and young people, mental health, asylum reception, user-controlled personal assistant (BPA) and occupational health services. Member companies provide statutory health and care services to both the municipal health service and specialist health services.Through membership in NHOSH, the member companies get access to a large support system and many benefits. In addition, NHOSH is an active political driving force for its member companies.
Objective
Assist in anchoring an industry-standardisation project for health and welfare activities. The purpose of the industry standard is to contribute to increased credibility and to make visible the important social mission the industry Health and Welfare has in NHO Service og Handel.
Context
Member companies in NHO Service og Handel have within the Industry of Health and Welfare are subjects to regulations and legislation. This applies to both private and public enterprises that provide health and welfare services, both of which are publicly funded. Nevertheless, it has been desirable from the Industry Health and Welfare to discuss an industry standard. This is due to the fact that the industry has been challenged politically in recent years, which has especially narrowed the framework conditions for the private companies that are members of NHO Service og Handel.
The project engagement lasted from March and June 2020, which gave a somewhat different angle to the project than we are used to. Due to the corona pandemic (Covid-19), large parts of the process were carried out digitally.
Approach
The work towards an industry standard was structured in three parts; exploration, idea workshop and handover (figure 1).
Figure 1: De three phases in the project
The first phase involved understanding the issues the industry was facing. We acquired this insight through interviews and data collection provided through group interviews with member companies. Furthermore, we wanted to the opinions and perspectives from users, relatives and employees in the health and welfare industry. We therefore invited representatives from the Relatives Alliance, the Norwegian Handicap Association and the Handicap Trade Union to interviews. Furthermore, we mapped the member companies' websites to see what value words they used to describe themselves (Figure 2). This provided valuable information about which associations the members themselves want related to them from the society. Together with an analysis of the drivers of society, the information from the interviews and the website mapping built the foundation for an idea development process in accordance with the needs of the Health and Welfare industry.
Figure 2: Exploration of value words and associations to the various sub-industries
Previously, Brand Valley's workshops has been arranged physically. However, the corona pandemic required us to rethink. The idea workshop was thus transformed to a digital format. This also had positive consequences in the form of more members now having the opportunity to participate, regardless of geography. In a process dived in three parts, the workshop was conducted in digital seminars: a kick-off, an idea seminar and a closing seminar (Figure 3). At the digital kick-off, a draft of a standard was first presented and some parties were allowed to give feedback (Figure 4). The members were then divided into six different idea groups in their respective digital meeting rooms. Here they got to discuss and come up with their own input to the industry standard. In order to have a structured discussion, the development was set up in three dimensions: content, format and handling (Figure 5). For each of the topics, a brief introduction and some main questions were given.
Finally, the work was compiled in a report where, based on the exploration and the idea workshop, we gave recommendations for further development of the industry standard for Health and Welfare. The report was presented and discussed at the final seminar for NHO Service og Handel, the Health and Welfare industry.
Figure 3: Due to COVID-19, the seminar had to be set up as a digital session
Figure 4: NHO Service og Handel in discussion of new industry standard
Figure 5: The discussion structured in three areas
Outcome
Through the process and work with the industry Health and Welfare in NHO Service and Trade, our focus has been on creating a standard that the industry itself believes will be helpful to them. The development should be in line with the members' desires. This has meant that we have had a broad discussion among the members, and that NHOSH has received confirmation that the industry wants a standard. At the same time, the organization has received a good indication of what the industry standard should contain, what format it should have and guidelines for handling. In the process, the members agreed that the standard should contribute to an industry that is customer-oriented, knowledge-driven, professional, innovative and efficient. In addition, the relevance and importance of the preparatory work that has been done has been confirmed. We also shed light on some important issues about how general or specific such an industry standard should be. According to NHO Service og Handel, the process has contributed to:
“We wanted someone to see us from the outside and involve the members in a project they could get an ownership to. Brand Valley contributed with an idea concept to facilitate kickoffs and workshops for the members, became well acquainted with our industries and issues and made a thorough preparation. They engaged many of our members, and provided us with overall findings and results of the members’ contributions, summaries and conclusions. The process and Brand Valley’s work for us, has given us a member-based process, and clearly signals what the members are interested in in the further development.”
We thank the industry Health and Welfare in NHO Service og Handel for an incredibly exciting project. We are especially grateful that we were able to carry out this project at a time where everyday life was turned upside down for all of us. This was in particular challenging for the members of the industry Health and Welfare in NHO Service and Trade. Having a client with such a complex issue and with members distributed throughout the country, gave us a unique opportunity to develop an innovative our workshop format. The new format was developed for the corona situation, but it also proved to give the members an effective way to develop something jointly. This has meant that we now have digital tools that we otherwise would not have developed, but which could be used by both NHOSH and others in the future. We have learned that it can be effective with more, short sessions than one full-day workshop and have had the opportunity to involve people throughout our geographically comprehensive country. Thank you so much for allowing us to explore, develop and test a new way of collaborating with you!