Key Takeaways
- Measuring Grove’s value goes beyond time saved to compliance, retention, and outcomes.
- Track time-based metrics like investigation timeliness and home visit completion rates.
- Evaluate compliance gains because consistent casework directly correlates with permanency outcomes.
- Factor in retention, as staff turnover carries steep financial and human costs.
- Key evaluation questions include time returned, families served, morale, and compliance improved.
If you’re like most health and human services leaders, you’re constantly being asked to do more with less.
Budgets are tight, caseloads are growing, and your workforce is stretched thin. When every dollar matters, deciding to invest in something new—like Grove (formerly Case Aide Services)—comes with an important question:
How do you measure the value?
At Northwoods, we get this question often. And the truth is that you can measure managed services like ours in more ways than one. Whether it’s time back in your workers’ day, improved compliance, or even reduced turnover, the impact can be both immediate and long-term.
See how Northwoods helps your agency navigate the buying journey.
Time: The First—and Most Visible—Impact
One of the clearest ways agencies see Grove’s value is in the hours they get back.
Child welfare workers spend up to 70% of their time on paperwork instead of with families, according to the George Washington University Health Workforce Institute. That imbalance is a major driver of stress, burnout, and eventually turnover.
Grove support steps in to take on time-consuming tasks—like records requests, referrals, and case documentation—freeing up time for caseworkers to focus on the heart of their job: serving children and families.
In Jackson County, Ohio, workers completed 96% of investigations on time, up from 65% before adopting Grove, even as caseloads increased by 26%. Home visit completion rates jumped from 48% to 86% in just one year.
When workers aren’t buried in paperwork, they can be present where they are needed most.
Better Compliance, Better Outcomes
Time savings also translate into stronger compliance and performance metrics. Agencies using Grove have seen impressive results:
- 44% improvement in investigation timeliness
- 31.5% increase in meeting mandated timelines
- More complete and accurate case documentation
This matters not only for state and federal compliance but also for achieving better outcomes for the children and families you serve.
In fact, consistency in casework correlates directly to permanency outcomes. A Milwaukee County study found that when children had one consistent caseworker, they achieved permanency 74.5% of the time.
When that number rose to two caseworkers, permanency dropped to 17.5%—and fell to 0.1% for children with six or seven caseworkers.
See how Grove affects the metrics that matter most for health and human services agencies.
Grove By the Numbers
Across the agencies we support, Grove has delivered real, measurable results:
- Supported 213 caseload-carrying staff
- Completed 14,030 tickets, totaling more than 9,000 hours of work
- Completed 767 high-value assessment tickets (including safety assessments, family assessments, and SARs)
- Completed 5,556 document and data processing tickets, ensuring timely, accurate updates in Traverse and SACWIS
In Clermont County, where workers weren’t completing SARs, we’ve helped the agency complete more than 200 SARs, improving compliance and service delivery.
Read caseworkers’ thoughts about managed services.
Retention: The Long Game
The human cost of turnover in child welfare is staggering—not to mention the financial cost. A 2024 analysis estimated the annual cost of turnover at $22 billion nationally, with more than 181,000 children spending longer in care because of workforce instability.
Agencies that use Grove consistently report that their staff feel more supported, less stressed, and better equipped to stay in the field.
Better retention means real agency benefits:
- Less time and money spent on constant recruitment and training
- More consistency for families
- A stronger organizational culture
Read stories from health and human services agencies that count on Northwoods.
The Questions That Actually Measure Value
When thinking about measuring the value of managed services, the question isn’t just “How much will this cost?” Many more questions arise:
- How much time will this give back to my team?
- How many more families can we serve?
- How will this impact retention and morale?
- How will this improve our compliance and outcomes?
For many agencies, Grove becomes the key to not only keeping up but moving forward.
Let’s Measure What’s Possible for Your Team
Every agency’s numbers look a little different, but the questions are usually the same: more time, better compliance, stronger retention.
Get in touch with us at Northwoods if you’re ready to see what those numbers could look like for your teams.
