LeraarLink: from 20% to 2% no-shows

We visited our client LeraarLink in the beautiful outskirts of Utrecht to interview the owners of the company, Mathijs and Koen. Our CCO Arnoud took advantage of the opportunity not only to inquire about how the company experiences clevergig but also to discuss our plans for the coming year and seek feedback. LeraarLink has an exceptional growth story with our software which we'd like to share with you in this blog post.

About LeraarLink

LeraarLink is an intermediary agency that supports schools and teachers with tutoring, exam training, Spring and Summer schools, and transition programs. Everyone at the company has teaching experience, and with a pool of 350 teachers, they can provide excellent professionals to secondary (and sometimes primary) education. LeraarLink currently employs 8 full-time office staff and one freelance developer.

Can you tell us about LeraarLink's recent years?

Mathijs speaks up:

We've experienced rapid growth in recent years. At one point, I started focusing on sales and the operational part of the business. That's when the growth escalated. One of the reasons was COVID-19. Ultimately, it worked out well for us because schools wanted to address learning gaps. We went from having 10 to around 40 clients. One of our pain points at that time was scheduling. Between 2 and 3 employees were involved in finalising our assignments: messaging, setting appointments, putting them in Excel, and then hoping the teachers would show up.

Excel, messaging, fingers crossed. That doesn't sound really scalable, how did you manage?

No, we faced difficulties. Then we thought of a third partner, specialised in digitisation. We initially tried to set up a system ourselves, but it wasn't progressing fast enough. Coincidentally, we found you through an applicant. We had a demo, and 90% of what we were looking for aligned with your solution. What we see is that it brings a lot of calmness to our operations. It reduces the need for more people in scheduling. There are fewer instances of staff calling in sick, which is an added benefit. Everything is in the clevergig app now, instead of in a WhatsApp message: time, service, location.

Can you tell us more about the sick reports?

Koen explains:

Last year, we faced many problems. 20% didn't show up or reported sick on the morning of their shift. It was nerve-wracking every morning, wondering who would or wouldn't show up. We managed to reduce this from 20% to 2%. When we had people managing the schedule, we couldn't maintain oversight. Employees had no idea whom they had messaged. For example, if there was a cancellation, it wasn't registered or not properly managed. That's where clevergig came in handy. When you remove someone from a shift, it becomes available, and you can easily re-invite everyone. With just one button, you can find the right people for the service. It's beneficial for all parties involved, a definite improvement. The most significant advantage is that it saves us a lot of time and energy.

Are there any other unexpected benefits?

Well, often when you invite someone for a shift, you also need materials, information, confirmations. Frequently, something went wrong in these steps. For instance, someone might have an exam training the next day but hasn't received the materials yet. Now, you can simply add a link to the materials in clevergig beforehand, and when people click on the shift, they immediately have access to the materials. So, all those intermediate steps and aftercare have been eliminated.

Invoicing is also a significant addition. We used to have teachers fill in forms for their worked hours, and then we had to cross-verify it all in Excel. We spent days on this. Then we had to calculate payments, which delayed the process further. With clevergig, we can extract the services and know exactly who worked on what.

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For you, Clevergig seems quite multifunctional. Are there other functions you use in a unique way?

For the rest of the year, we also use Clevergig for another task we have: recruitment. Last year, we initiated LeraarLink Flex. Schools struggle to find staff, and often, they lack recruitment experience, so we aim to assist. Some clients might not immediately want our exam training but often need to advertise vacancies. It's challenging for us to make direct matches, but we have a lot of people employed who they wouldn't reach otherwise.

How do you use clevergig for this purpose?

We post a vacancy as a service. If someone responds to that service, we approach them to see if it works out. It's not perfect, but it's a way to get it done. We've managed to make some matches like this, so it's a positive outcome for us in that sense.

If you have 20 successes a month, that's not bad, right? :)

Exactly, it works both ways. We can also schedule a recurring shift in Clevergig, so we don't have to do anything except for payments.

So... We closed an entire planning department, went from 20% to 2% in sick reports and no-shows. Teachers are now informed on time, and the time registration runs smoothly. Additionally, we were able to build many systems around Clevergig. The unrest has been replaced by overview. Is that a good summary?

That's indeed a fair summary! Thank you, Mathijs and Koen, for your time and detailed feedback, which we discussed after the interview. We aim to make product improvements that are relevant for LeraarLink and elevate your satisfaction from 90% to 100%.