2023 – Year in Review
Refreshed from 2022, our SASCO Home rode the final months of 2023, having traversed a hectic but fulfilling year, with a sense of equanimity. And we were able to maintain this poise, only because of what we had aimed for and accomplished in the year 2023.
We were on our organisational excellence journey, rolling out our Mid-Term Plans – 16 initiatives in all, straddled across four strategic thrusts of Holistic and Person-Centred Programmes, Increased Presence in Sector, Service Culture and a Process-Excellent Organisation.
Health Check – OHFSS
We embarked on the OHFSS in 2021, and as one of the 16 MTP initiatives; and so we measured ourselves in September 2023. We improved – from pink to green and from 61.1% (2021, Fair) to 73.1% (Good).
Financial Health
Fundraising
Starting with LadderPro in October 2022 gave us an ideal runway that sprung us from the month of January 2023 itself. Our partner 3rd party fundraiser, with their dauntless brand ambassadors from LadderPro, were relentless, toiling the streets, winning hearts and pockets. We climbed to a season high, surpassing the $800k mark for December 2023 alone.
The Organisational Excellence Journey
In continuing our pursuit of excellence, we needed to make our way to ‘good’ before reaching ‘great’. We had a good look and we were on the way.
MTP – Quarterly Updates
As we implemented and monitored our initiatives, we kept regular tabs on ourselves; on our projects; on the processes.
We met every quarter by looking though with varying lenses but ensuring and maintaining the common vision. We made sure that we did not lose sight of our original vision.
Our parent-body, SASCO Limited and our BOARD, SASCO Home were kept abreast each month; they kept pace with us each step of the way.
Management Summit
Dates: 10 – 16 Aug 2023
Venue: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Participants:
– Total Pax = 14
– SASCO Ltd COM Members (6)
– SASCO Home COM Members (4 + 1)
– CEO & 3 Staff
We needed that dedicated time again – the time to huddle and review our plans – what worked; what did not work.
We decided to make our way to Sri Lanka this time, from 10 – 16 Aug 2023. Almost all of SASCO Limited COM members, together with our Board members, CEO and key personnel participated in the Summit.
We returned from the Summit with:
• Our MTP reviewed – from 16 initiatives to 13 initiatives and adding another 4 initiatives.
• Some initiatives were able to resume as normal operations.
• Some others were added, with further scouring of the horizon.
This time, in reviewing the initiatives, it was more challenging to ‘separate the trees in the forest’. It is one thing to remain optimistic and maintain the hopes of achieving the intended results; it is another to decide that we need to look for alternative solutions or to abandon the initiative altogether.
Project Mid-Term Plan (MTP), as it was coined, provided further necessary changes in response to evolving needs and eldercare landscape.
Hence, Centre Management revised its structure to encompass the impending developments.
The Donor Management System and the Volunteer Management System found themselves a compatible and seemingly sustainable system via Charitas, a local set-up with vast experience in starting up for charity organisations.
Another key operation was the Human Resource/Payroll and Appraisal System. Towards the last quarter of the year, the eventual system was found and work began immediately. The target was to have the whole system up and ready by the beginning of 2024.
These digitalisation efforts were also consolidated in a Digital Masterplan for SASCO Home. It was also one of the MTP initiatives.
Having obtained our NCSS’ Digital Accelerator Index (DAI) in 2021, we then set the target for ourselves to move from ‘Starter’ (on the DAI) to ‘Performer’. In late 2023, we participated in the DAI again – we scaled to the index score of ‘59’ which put us in the ‘performer’ category.
Data Protection Trust Mark (DPTM) – Maintenance
We received our certification on 14 December 2022.
In 2023, we ‘kept our foot on the pedal’. MSF came up further with their Data Security Instructions (DSI) and requiring all social service agencies to comply by June 2024.
We made our submissions and SASCO Home managed to check all the requirement boxes and more.
Healthcheck – Organisational Health Framework for Social Services (OHFSS)
We were among the first social service agencies to take our health check using the OHFSS. We attained a score of ‘Fair’ at 61.1% (consolidated by NCSS). But it was the way we approached the need to check our organisational health – NCSS made us their ‘OHFSS Ambassador’ as we helped more SSAs to understand the OHFSS and to come on board and check their organisational health, using the OHFSS.
Following our mid-year strategic planning review in August 2023, we checked ourselves again – 73.1%; from ‘pink of health’(fair) to a luscious green (good) for most of the seven (7) domains and thirty-two (32) sub-domains, respectively.
Corporate Branding / Corporate Identity
It all lies in the weaving of the organisational fabric – as we move along, the ‘transformation’ has to spread in all the areas, that surely must be covered, with time. It proliferates itself.
Refreshed from 2022; we started to be more visible and conspicuous; we started to be noticed more. We brandished ourselves on the social media front – Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Our ‘colours’, in being deliberate, were helpful – we were beginning to inspire (- dash of orange).
And we completed the renovations of our senior care centres in 2023 – they exuded a vibrant yet nostalgic, exhilarating yet welcoming, refreshing yet peaceful look.
What we have done:
Developed our ‘brand book’
Revamped for website
Produced our Corporate Video
Rebuilt our Corporate Video
Made a video for Fundraising
Built on our Collaterals Business Stationery Marketing Collaterals
Transport Vans Vision Mission Walls Vision Mission Cards Donation Boxes Signages
The signages at our senior care centre at Jurong West and our active ageing centre at West Coast were also updated with lightbox signages. Our vans were also refreshed.
Progressive Employer
The Tripartite Standards (TS) is a ‘set of good employment practices that all employers should implement at their workplaces’. There are ten (10) standards and they each cover various aspects of employment areas such as fair recruitment practices, flexible work arrangements, grievance handling processes, age management and more.
By end 2023, we had attained four (4) of those TS badges:
New Additions
We included a sit and shower facility at our Jurong West senior care centre, patient lifters at all our centres and also acquired a Silver&Fit healthy ageing and exercise programme for all our centres.
