Journal of Technology in Human Services

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The development and implementation of a mobile

application in human services

Somaya Ben Allouch & Judith Boonstra

To cite this article: Somaya Ben Allouch & Judith Boonstra (2019) The development and
implementation of a mobile application in human services, Journal of Technology in Human
Services, 37:2-3, 159-183, DOI: 10.1080/15228835.2019.1626788

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Published online: 27 Jun 2019.

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JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES
2019, VOL. 37, NOS. 2–3, 159–183
https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2019.1626788

The development and implementation of a mobile

application in human services
Somaya Ben Alloucha and Judith Boonstrab
a
Digital Life Research Group, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands; bSaxion University of Applied Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) in human Received 27 July 2018
services are on the rise and raise concerns about their place Accepted 30 May 2019
and impact on the daily activities of professionals and clients.
KEYWORDS
This article describes a study in which a social mobile applica-
Mobile technology; esocial
tion was developed for job coaches and employees and work; mobile human
implemented in a pilot phase. The aim of the mobile applica- services; digital human
tion was to provide a better communication between employ- services; information and
ees and their job coaches and to provide more up-to-date communication technology;
information about the organization. The application consisted mobile computing;
of a personal web environment and app with vacancies, per- technology training
sonal news, events, tips, and promotions. A qualitative meth-
odology was used in the form of focus groups and in-depth
interviews. The results of this study show that the participants
are partly positive about the social mobile application. It can
be concluded that the use of mobile technologies can be
beneficial in a range of human services practice settings for
both professionals and clients and, therefore, requires more
attention from the academic field to focus on this relatively
new but promising theme.

Introduction
More and more mobile applications and online interventions are available
for social workers. The potential of information and communications tech-
nology (ICT) and, thus, also mobile technology, creates unforeseen oppor-
tunities for the social work practice, both for social workers as for their
clients. The ever-expanding facilities for communication via a mobile
phone have become, as Wei (2001) stated, more than just a talking device
on the move. It represents a converged new communication and informa-
tion technology with a variety of extensive interpersonal and mass commu-
nication services such as voicemail, news updates, e-mail, and Internet
access. Nowadays, all kinds of applications can be downloaded and run on
our smart phone devices which means that the smart phone is being used

CONTACT Somaya Ben Allouch [email protected] Digital Life Research Group, Amsterdam University
of Applied Sciences, Wibautstraat 2-4, Amsterdam, 1091 GM, The Netherlands.
ß 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
160 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

less and less as a traditional phone but more and more as a laptop on
the go.
However, the adoption and implementation process of these mobile tech-
nologies is still a complex undertaking not only in the academic debate but
also among practitioners. In this article, we will describe the implementa-
tion of a newly developed mobile application aimed to enhance the support
of both clients and their social workers in a Dutch employment program.

Theoretical background
From the 1990s on, there is an academic debate going on about the domin-
ance of what is called “managerialism of ICT use” (Garrett, 2004; Parton,
2006; Parrott & Madoc-Jones, 2008). This debate has been partly instigated
by the complex development and use of ICT in social work which has been
proven to be complex and slow (Carrilio, 2005). Reamer (2013) provides
an overview in which he discusses the ethical and risk issues many social
workers encounter when using ICTs during their daily practice. What is
interesting to note is that in many studies concerning ICT and social work,
the predominant view is on social media (Ben Allouch & Boonstra, 2017).
Chan (2016, p. 263) also emphasizes this “In social work, the dominant
research concern in social media is more about professional ethics than
their application in intervention.” Goldkind, Wolf, and Jones (2016) notes
that social work as a field has an “uncertain attitude towards technology”
which elicits that digitalization is not seen as a part of the social work
professionalization.
In the health care domain, the use of a wider range of ICTs is noticeable
and is still growing rapidly. In the social work domain, there seems to be a
stronger preference and usage of social media above other types of ICTs to
be used as part of an intervention. Specifically, the use of innovative mobile
applications to address health issues has seen a rise in the last decade. This
has evolved in a new field of mobile health applications or m-health. The
World Health Organization defines m-health as medical and public health
practice supported by mobile devices, patient monitoring devices, personal
digital assistants, and other wireless devices (World Health Organization,
2011). A growing body of literature concerning various types of mHealth
applications is being established, which results in several classifications and
taxonomies (Gagnon, Ngangue, Payne-Gagnon, & Desmartis, 2016;
Ozdalga, Ozdalga, & Ahuja, 2012; Plachkinova, Andres & Chatterjee, 2015).
These mobile health applications are nowadays more and more embraced
as part of an intervention to treat people and evidence is needed on how
well these interventions actually work (Baskerville et al., 2015; Fuller-
Tyszkiewicz et al., 2018, Leung et al., 2016). However, even though in the
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 161

medical field we see a rise of mobile applications, this trend is not clearly
visible in the human services domain and it seems as if the professionals
are not swiftly translating one of the biggest changes in societies, namely
the digitalization of our society, into their daily work practices. This could
mean that the multiple worlds, in which their clients operate, namely both
online and offline, are not adequately addressed by professionals. The cur-
rent state-of-the art regarding ICT use in human services prompts the need
for more clarification about the whats, whys, and hows regarding the digit-
alization of human services and the potential shifts this causes. This is not
only important for the professionals working in the human services domain
but also for their clients.
The aim of this article is to shed more insight on how social workers
adopt, implement, and use a mobile application which supports them and
their clients in an employment program. We used a social constructivists
approach (or mutual shaping perspective) in this study in which social
processes are understood to mutually influence and shape technology and
technology influences and shapes social structures and actors.

Information and communication technologies in human services

In the field of social work, Hutchby (2001, 2003) investigated why social
workers take up specific aspects of technologies and how these aspects can
be aligned with their work practice. It is important to include the work
context when studying ICTs, especially for social workers who can have a
diversity of work contexts.
With regard to the usage of mobile applications by social workers, tech-
nologies need to be adopted and implemented in specific contexts for
effects both desired and undesired to happen and become visible. From a
technology acceptance perspective (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989; Yi,
Jackson, Park, & Probst, 2006) different factors are known to influence the
technology acceptance process of individuals in different contexts. Zhang
and Gutierrez (2007) have adapted these factors specifically for the use of
ICT in human services settings. These factors are: (a) the “attitudes of
practitioners” which encompasses the personal usefulness of the ICT, the
organizational usefulness of the technology and the benefits brought to ser-
vice users; (b) “subjective norms,” or social pressure to use ICT by people
of influence in welfare agencies such as peers and management staff, and
(c) “perceived behavioral control,” which is defined as the worker’s confi-
dence in the feasibility of ICT implementation. These beliefs are related to
the perception of social workers that they have the competency, time,
funds, equipment, technological support, and training to use ICT.
162 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

Scholars such as White, Hall, and Peckover (2009) who also embrace the
social shaping of technology perspectives, describe how professionals make
their own strategic and moral decisions concerning ICT implementations
based on their competence and domain specific knowledge. Recent work
from Tregeagle (2016) also supports this line of thinking and has applied
this idea specifically to the field of child welfare. She affirms the import-
ance of the social shaping of technology, but she also stresses that factors
such as the organizational supports and a shared language between ICT
professionals and practitioners are needed.
The mobile application in this study aimed to specifically complement
the face-to-face contact between job coaches and employees and to
empower employees and facilitate job coaches in their daily work activities.
In order to be able to take the end-users’ experiences into account, in this
case both the job coaches and the employees, the development of the
mobile application was divided into different development phases. This was
to ensure that the developers and end-users created a more shared language
with regard to the mobile application. The step-wise development process
also supported a better understanding of each other’s needs, wishes, and
roles as two different user groups used the same mobile application.
Based on the previous literature review, the main research questions of
this study were twofold. The first one was concerned with what the imple-
mentation process of a newly developed mobile application in a Dutch
social work context looked like and how it developed over time within this
specific context. The second research question was focused on the initial
user experiences of the job coaches and the employees with regard to the
mobile application specifically designed for a social work context. A “job
coach” in the Netherlands (also known as a work coach or work super-
visor) is a social worker who provides support in finding work for people
with disabilities. The objective is always to find and keep a suitable job
depending on the specific needs and capabilities of the client.
This article describes the pilot study in which a mobile application for a
social work organization was developed and tested by a small group of peo-
ple within the organization with the possibility that positive results would
lead to a broader implementation of the mobile application in the rest of
the organization.

Method
Research design
To study the implementation process of the mobile application in the sup-
porting employment program, a phenomenographic approach was chosen
(Marton, 1981). The aim of following this approach was to describe the
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 163

qualitatively different ways people perceive, experience, and understand the

same phenomena in the world of which they are part. In order to grasp the
variation in how the job coaches and employees experience the use of the
mobile application in the pilot phase, we wanted to study their differences
in experiences. From a phenomenographical standpoint, there are two per-
spectives to perceive reality, the first-order describes what something is and
the second-order focuses on how something is perceived to be. In this
study we will follow the second-order perspective and focus on the descrip-
tion of the individual’s manner to perceive any aspect of the world
(Marton, 1981).
It is important to note that prior to this pilot study, the developer of the
mobile application held a number of exploratory talks with a number of
social workers of the specific Dutch social work organization in order to
obtain their input for the mobile application. The pilot started in April
2017. A kickoff event was organized by the app developer in collaboration
with the job coaches, for participants and social workers. During this event
an information meeting was held to launch the app and install it on the
mobile devices of a group of preselected participants consisting of employ-
ees (n ¼ 18) in the pilot group. The participants of the pilot group were
selected via the innovation/communication department of the social work
organization.
Five social workers participated in this study and were selected based on
being part of the pilot work group within the organization. The idea was
that first a small number of social workers and employees would be intro-
duced to the mobile application and after the pilot study a broader imple-
mentation would take place within the organization.
The social workers selected the employees (n ¼ 18) who participated in
this study. Their choice was mainly drive by pragmatic reasons. All social
workers have a group of employees for whom they are the main reference
point. These employees can work at different locations in the region,
depending on the sort of work they perform. In this study, the employees
were working as mail carriers for a postal company and employees working
at a metals company. The job coaches asked their employees who was will-
ing to participate in the study and then they could register. The coaches
also specifically asked employees who were available at the end of the day
and location of work setting. The authors of this study were not involved
in the selection of the participants. Information via the mobile application
was sent to the employees at least weekly (one app message).
This pilot study consisted of three phases. The first phase focused mainly
on the deployment of the app, informing the employees and social workers
about the long term, iterative study design, and about the possibility to use
the mobile application as a means to improve communication between the
164 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

social workers and employees. The second phase was labeled “initial use and
preliminary evaluation,” which was focused on the usability of the applica-
tion and whether the initial expectations of the employees were met by the
mobile application. Finally, the third phase was the “extended use, (re)design,
and evaluation” phase which consisted among other things of adding mul-
tiple functionalities such as two-way communication (see Table 1).

Data collection
Focus group interviews and individual in-depth interviews were held with
both the social workers and employees. The semistructured interviews were
recorded on video and audio, after having received a declaration of
informed consent of the social workers and employees. The topics which
were covered during the first round of focus groups and in-depth inter-
views consisted of current mode of communication between social workers
and employees, between the organization and employees and initial expecta-
tions, needs, and wishes of the employees towards the mobile application.
The topics of the subsequent rounds involved current user experience and
usability of the functionalities, content of the app, and barriers and
opportunities.
The interviews lasted on average between 30 and 90 min. Table 1 shows
the characteristics of the data collection phases during the pilot.
Table 1 also shows the characteristics of the participants and their work
setting. The age of the participants, for both the job coaches and for the
employees varied between 18 and 67 years.

Data analysis
All interviews were transcribed, and a mixed-method coding approach was
applied, meaning that some of the themes were based on prior knowledge

Table 1. Overview of data collection rounds and participants.

Data collection Method and participants
First phase ¼ deployment of app Three focus groups with employees (n ¼ 18; 11 female
April 18–21 and 7 male). From n ¼ 18, 6 employees are
seconded at company A (2 male and 4 female), 3 at
company B (1 male, 2 female), and 9 at company C
(4 male and 5 female). Five in-depth interviews with
the job coaches (n ¼ 5; 3 male and 2 female)
Second phase ¼ initial use and preliminary evaluation Three focus groups with employees (n ¼ 14; 10 female
May 1–5 and 4 male)
four in-depth interviews with the job coaches
(n ¼ 4; 3 male and 1 female)
Third phase ¼ extended use, (re)design and evaluation Three focus groups with the employees (n ¼ 9; 4
June 19–23 female and 5 male)
three in-depth interviews with the job coaches
(n ¼ 3: 2 male and 1 female)
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 165

from literature (deductive approach) and some themes emerged directly

from the participants’ narratives (inductive approach; Ryan & Bernhard,
2003). Following the constant comparative method, we performed several
rounds of coding to compare new codes to previous assigned codes to
make sure the identified themes remained valid and to derive the final set
of themes (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Results
Before we provide the results of the three phases, first a description of the
mobile application and its content will be given to better understand the
results in this light.

Mobile application and supportive job placement

The development of the mobile application was stimulated by the introduc-
tion of the Dutch Participation Act, which was introduced in the
Netherlands in 2015. It presumes that every Dutch citizen has to make a
contribution in the participatory society. The Participation Act describes
aspects concerning income support, labor market (re)integration, and com-
pulsory activities in return for income and benefits. The municipalities are
mainly responsible for carrying out this Act. The municipalities have the
imperative of helping their residents to achieve an independent (working)
life as much as possible. Private employment agencies are contracted by
municipalities to support them to find a fitting job for job-seeking citizens
(with and without disabilities) on their path to paid employment. This can
be realized by offering (sheltered) work and learning pathways to citizens
who need this support. The cause of the need for this support can have
many different reasons. This can be lack of the right education and training
to perform a regular job or mental and physical disabilities which are caus-
ing a regular job to be too challenging. Offering job coaching at the work-
place by social workers and, if necessary, a protected working environment
can be an outcome to support citizens in their job reintegration process.
Recent figures from the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency shows what
labor market participation looks like for the group of people with a disabil-
ity. Within the group with a work-limiting disability, 33.8% has a job or is
actively looking for work. This group of people can make use of three types
of facilities: organizational (including job coaching, transport facilities),
physical (facilities that are necessary to perform the work optimally such as
computers or other resources), and financial provisions (such as wage dis-
pensation). Every year municipalities finance 75,000–100,000 facilities for
people with an occupational disability (Jongen, 2017).
166 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

The developed social mobile application aims to enhance the support of

the employees who are working in these facilitated jobs. The social workers
are part of the main organization where the employees are clients of a sup-
porting employment program. The organization where the social workers
are employed is actually one of the subcontractors of the municipalities to
provide different forms of job supportiveness for the different groups of
job-seeking citizens.

Content of the mobile application

The mobile application consists of a personal web environment and content
about vacancies, personal news, events, tips and action, and promotions.
The users go through an application program, consisting of themes and
actions that help users to find a suitable job in a structured way. The social
workers monitor all the actions of the users directly via their own environ-
ment. In addition, a profiling system is used to record a profile of the user
with the aim of providing personalized content. Users can sign up for off-
line events, such as a photo shoot, “Pimp your CV,” “How to show
yourself,” and so forth. The collected data via the application is used to
detect usage patterns to make predictions about the users’ behav-
ior possible.

Results first phase—Deployment mobile application

The first phase of the pilot study provides insight into the current commu-
nication structure and channels of the organization and how the employees
and job coaches experience the (digital) communication prior to the start
of the pilot and the expectations both have with regard to the app prior to
the launch of the app. A total of 18 employees and five job coaches,
respectively, participated in this round. First the results of the employees
will be discussed, followed by the results of the job coaches.

Current mode of contact

Most participants (n ¼ 15) indicate that they can contact their job coach or
make an appointment with the job coach at any time. This happens on the
shop floor, when the job coach is walking around, or they use telephone
(calling) and WhatsApp, mail to make contact, and possibly a face-to-face
appointment. A small number of the participants (n ¼ 3) are dissatisfied
with the accessibility of the job coach (“it takes three days for the job coach
to answer”). A number of employees (n ¼ 3) indicate that they usually call
because they find that the easiest thing to do “you can then indicate in
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 167

advance what the conversation will be about.” One participant mentions

“sick leave” as a reason to call the job coach. Most participants (n ¼ 15)
indicate that they regularly speak face-to-face with their job coach (at
least once a week). Two participants indicate that they prefer this as well,
at a location of the organization because it is more private than
the workplace.
Two participants indicate that they are sending an e-mail to the job
coach. The subject is, for example, the discussion of leave hours. According
to the participants (n ¼ 18) there are no rules or agreements that indicate
how often or in what way the contact should take place. Participants
(n ¼ 5) also indicate that one job coach can reach up to half a dozen
employees by telephone in the evening and request a call for the next day.
This can be done (by phone) with the other job coach up to half past five
in the afternoon. After these times, according to participants, a WhatsApp
message can be sent or a voicemail, after which the job coach may contact
them after “working hours.” A number of participants (n ¼ 3) indicated
that their job coach could no longer be reached after “office hours” (“could
be reached with the previous job coach”).

Current use of mobile applications

Various applications are being used by the participants in their private
lives. WhatsApp (n ¼ 18) was mentioned by everyone as a mean of estab-
lishing contact with family and friends. In addition, also applications as
were mentioned: YouTube, skype, Facebook, GPS/navigation, various radio
stations, PSV, Instagram, Snapchat, CandyCrush, Wordfeud, Messenger,
games. Also, applications which were used specifically in a work setting
such as weather radar and ANWB (Dutch road assistance)
were mentioned.

Involvement in deployment phase of the social mobile application

Participants (n ¼ 9) indicated that they have been informed in varying
degrees about the arrival of the app: during a work meeting and via an
information sheet. Three participants (n ¼ 3) had not been informed or
had not been informed until just before the app was installed. The informa-
tion session was somewhat a disappointing experience by participants
(n ¼ 6): It was experienced as too short and little information about the
app was given (“what you can actually do with it”). Some of the partici-
pants (n ¼ 3) had not yet had an information meeting. This concerned the
extra focus group added, the information meeting was planned after the
interviews with the other groups.
168 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

Expectations regarding the social mobile application

Many participants (n ¼ 9) indicated that they expected it to be an inform-
ative app. That the app provides more information about the main organ-
ization, “that you learn a little more about < name organization>,” is what
one participant (n ¼ 1) calls information about the merger. They also
expect the app to ensure that they receive information more quickly. The
individual participants on secondment (n ¼ 5) indicated that they are some-
what disappointed with the possibilities offered by the app: “the app is for-
< name organization and not for employees,” “the job coach can do
anything in the next two weeks, and we have to wait.” The expectation was
that employees would also be able to communicate with the job coach via
the app at this stage.
Participants also mentioned the following concrete ideas to be included
in the app: Pay slips via app, information about the main organization, the
newsletter, personal information about colleagues such as birthdays and
death (with photo added because: “Imagine that you die and put them
(official name) in it yes then I don’t know who that is because I only know
you as (nickname), then I don’t even come at your funeral”), news from
the Works Council, information about holidays, days off and leave,
and vacancies.

Results social workers first phase—Deployment mobile application

Also, in the first phase of the pilot study, five social workers provided their
needs and expectations with regard to the mobile social work app specific-
ally developed for their organization.

Current mode of contact

In general, the professionals indicate that they can always be reached by
different communication channels, especially via smartphone (calling, text-
ing and/or WhatsApp). In addition to the accessibility within office hours,
most of them indicate that they can also be reached outside office hours.
There are no rules or organizational policies regarding contact modes with
employees. If participants contact us too often outside office hours, then
they will discuss the issue with the specific employee, for example, “a ques-
tion of raising children.” The majority of the social workers also responds
to serious and urgent matters outside office hours, one job coach consist-
ently does not with the reason “I am not a 24-hour shift, participants have
a supervisor for that.” One job coach mentions that the participants some-
times use the telephone to stay attached to their work, for example, “some
of them can’t cope with that freedom.”
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 169

In addition to the fact that the social workers also visit the workplace on
a weekly or sometimes daily basis (face-to-face contact), most social work-
ers make contact by telephone by calling (n ¼ 5), texting (n ¼ 2), using
WhatsApp (n ¼ 4), and e-mailing (n ¼ 5) with their participants. Four job
coaches express a preference for face-to-face above calling, for example,
“more personal,” “see how someone is in his skin,” and “I have to look
them in the eyes, do you speak the truth or not.”
One person calls it useful to send general information by e-mail or app
so that everyone is reached (as a group secondment). WhatsApp is seen by
social workers as an easy way to have a quick and short contact moment
(“a joke,” “how’s it going”) and to maintain contact or to make appoint-
ments, confirm, or cancel. Just one professional uses text or e-mail for
this purpose.

Involvement in pilot group

The involvement of the social workers in the pilot group within the organ-
ization regarding the development and implementation of the mobile app
differs. Two of them were asked to replace other social workers in the
workgroup, one of which was not called in until after the start of the pilot.
Three social workers mentioned being busy with other things at the
moment and are “added” to the launch of the app. One indicated that there
is little interest in the app and another one that they did not have time to
go through everything properly. One indicated specifically that he is enthu-
siastic about taking part in the pilot.
The job coaches indicate that the information meeting did not meet their
expectations. They missed structure, there was too little information about
the app, and the connection of the developer with the participants (their
employees) was mediocre. One job coach illustrated it as follows: “You
have to make it a little fun for the people, it’s a favor that they participate
in the pilot.”

Expectation towards the social mobile application

All social workers expect to inform the participants faster and to communi-
cate more information from the main organization to their team members,
such as new developments (e.g., the bicycle plan). A job coach indicated
that lack of information often raises questions and also means more work
for the job coach. Another one indicated precisely that reporting via the
app would ease the workload because the job coach would no longer have
to “alert and inform the participants about the Christmas package.” In
addition, one mentioned that more regular contact can be maintained with
170 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

the participant. Ideas mentioned by social workers for the content of the
social app are communicating new developments within the organization,
information about collective labor agreement increases, changes in rules,
entertainment (videos, etc.). Also, advice on lifestyle or information about
health and sports clubs were mentioned.

Current use of mobile applications

A number of job coaches (social workers) described themselves as “not
so active,” “I am not so digital,” “I let it come to me.” The following
applications are used privately: WhatsApp, sports applications, a spirit
level app, GPS/navigation, trip planner, rain radar, televisions and radio
applications, and marketplace. One social worker tweets and uses
Facebook, although not very active and one noted that “They are time
takers” who distract you from the work.

Conclusion of first phase

In general, the participants are satisfied with the current channels of getting
in touch with their social workers (calling, WhatsApp, e-mail). Participants
are less satisfied with the amount of face-to-face time with their job coach.
There is also dissatisfaction regarding communication, specifically general
information from the main organization.
The social workers indicate that they experience a lack of time in
their communication contact with the participants: caseload is large,
face-to-face contact is minimal, difficult to keep equally well in touch
with everyone. WhatsApp is experienced as a pleasant mean of contact.
The social workers express a preference for face-to-face. There is regular
contact with participants via WhatsApp, telephone or mail and this is
experienced as a pleasant means of communication. In addition, accessi-
bility is an issue, as is the demarcation between work and home:
whether or not to contact participants outside working hours? Job
coaches also mention the fact that participants experience a lack of
information (newsletter) and/or that reporting from the main organiza-
tion is slow.

Table 2. Total study participants second phase.

Round Participants (employees) Participants (job coaches)
Two Focus group 1: n ¼ 6; 4 female and 2 male n ¼ 4; 1 female and 3 male
Focus group 2: n ¼ 3; 2 female and 1 male
Focus group 3: n ¼ 5; 4 female and 1 male
Total 14 4
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 171

Results of second phase—Initial use and preliminary evaluation

The second round of data collection took place 2 weeks after the informa-
tion meeting and the request to install the social app on the phones of the
participants. Table 2 shows the composition of the total participants in this
round. These are the same participants (employees) which were also
involved in the first phase. From the 14 participants included in the focus
groups of the second phase, eight people installed the app on their phone.
Of these, seven participants regularly reviewed the app. One participant did
not use the app because the app icon could not be found on the smart-
phone. Reasons for not installing the app of the other six participants were:
no motivation (meaning no interest, no will not try), no time (n ¼ 1), and
not having a suitable smartphone (n ¼ 3).
In this stage of the usage of the mobile application, only unilateral com-
munication—job coaches have the possibility to send messages to their
team members—and messages from the main organization can be sent to
the participants. First the results of the participants, in this case the
employees, will be presented followed by the results of the social workers.

User experience mobile app

Participants experienced that the app provides more information from the
main organization (n ¼ 6) and provides faster information (n ¼ 2).
Previously, they had to wait for the job coach to come along, “you no lon-
ger have to follow it yourself.” Participants indicate that it is useful (n ¼ 2)
to get messages through the app, such as information about a day off.
Participants also mentioned that they like it that they are not “forgotten,”
referring to the information that they now receive.
Out of the eight participants, two participants who have installed the app
indicated having no added value in using the app “I get the information
through other channels as well,” and “I can reach the job coach well
through WhatsApp.”

Ease of use and the appearance of the app

Individually seconded users experience the app as simple and easy to oper-
ate (n ¼ 3).
A number of participants experience little ease of use because they have
to scroll too much through the app (n ¼ 2). They also mention the disad-
vantage that messages cannot be deleted and logging is cumbersome: “ …
still more than half an hour each time the user name and password must
be entered.” Participants indicate that they find the icon difficult to
find (n ¼ 2).
172 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

Functionalities and content of the app

News items are viewed the most, where participants (n ¼ 5) notice that
nothing is written at events and messages. In terms of content, participants
experience the film about the theme “respect” as childish “we also have
brains,” does not meet the expectation “it has to be about work, if I want
yoga then I look it up myself.” In addition, the lifestyle message is not con-
sistent (n ¼ 3): “we do enough cycling and walking to deliver mail.” Only
one participant is concerned about privacy when messages are sent by the
job coach (“does everyone see this?”). The participants (n ¼ 8) indicate that
they are (still) communicating with the job coach via WhatsApp and not
via the app.

Barriers regarding social mobile application

Participants indicated the following barriers for not using the app. These
were: no WIFI at home, old mobile phones on which you cannot install an
app, too little memory on the phone, login codes are cumbersome,
unattractive because there is not a lot of content in the app, only one-sided
communication is available, WhatsApp is experienced as a good app
(n ¼ 14) for communication with the job coach, existing health applications
which are already on the phone of some participants (“so why look at the
app”), not having an e-mail address, and having preference for face-to-face
contact with the job coach.
Having experienced these barriers, the participants also had a couple of
recommendations for the app such as being able to respond to the mes-
sages again; receive more messages from the social worker but “if he has
nothing meaningful to say then it doesn’t have to be,” login codes valid for
more than half an hour, simpler login code, work information, agenda of
events not related to work, ideas for content, and anniversaries of partici-
pants in the app. Many of these recommendations have been added to the
mobile application so that the participants could test how the improved
version would work.

User experience social workers

Two of the five social workers had installed the app on their phone, one of
them indicated that the content is only partially visible, which means that
the job coaches viewed the app via the laptop/computer just like the two
other social workers. Due to problems installing the app on the phone,
they also looked at the app via their laptop/computer. Most of the social
workers indicate that they are still searching and that they experience a
lack of time to try out the app, that they indicate that there is no support
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 173

(in the form of time) from their organization, and that the pilot must be
run alongside the ongoing activities.

Ease of use and the appearance of the app

None of the social workers experienced added value in the app because
WhatsApp is experienced as easier, more convenient, and as a quicker con-
tact “with those check marks you know they have read it.” Or because the
participants are visited every day at the workplace, which casts doubt on
the usefulness of the app. Most of them also encountered technical prob-
lems. The app could not be opened, or the content is half displayed on the
screen (n ¼ 1), which is perceived as a disadvantage. Social workers also
indicated that the login is cumbersome “that keeps me from starting it up
every time.” The appearance of the app is rated as boring “I would have
preferred it to be a little more cheerful.” The items are easy to find and the
app is basic/easy and clear which according to one job coach is an advan-
tage for her team members.

New functionalities and content of the app

All social workers indicate that it is important to communicate news items
via the app (“because that gives me time”) but these messages must be cor-
rect for every participant. A message which was sent centrally to all partici-
pants, caused confusion. As a result of which the job coaches lost time in
correcting the information and answering questions from participants.
According to one job coach it is important for certain participants that the
information is presented more visually (images or icons) and less text.
Sending messages to participants is not done (for the reason that
WhatsApp is more convenient as mentioned previously).

Barriers regarding social mobile application

The job coaches mentioned a couple of barriers with regard to the app,
such as the availability of the app. One job coach also wants to keep in
touch on the road in the car, but that is not possible via the current ver-
sion since you have to download it via the laptop, this is experienced as a
disadvantage. In addition to the app, most social workers (n ¼ 4) would
like to continue using WhatsApp. It is also mentioned that it is a disadvan-
tage that different information flows run alongside each other (his own
mail contact and the new app). A job coach indicates that the app is not
suitable for all employees because they have an older mobile phone and the
inability to cope with the stimuli provided by the app (e.g., beeps
at reports).
174 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

The social workers also provided a couple of recommendations such as

providing participants with correct, accurate information quickly and
immediately (with a check by job coaches); the possibility of “customized”
messages, sent centrally from the main organization, aimed at part of the
participants (e.g., events that are linked to the participant’s environment
such as location of the participant); and the last one refers to adding more
visual information instead of textual information, this fits better with the
participants. Some of the recommendations were added to the mobile
application.

Results of third phase—Extended use, (re)design, and evaluation

The final round took place approximately 2 months after the start of the
pilot study (the information meeting). In this round fewer employees par-
ticipated in the focus groups, nine in total (instead of the 14 intended) and
three (instead of the five intended) social workers.

Employees’ experience mobile app

Of the five participants who had installed the app on their telephone, four
of them used the app. The main reason for using the app is that the partic-
ipants indicated that they regularly view the app because they are curious
about the messages, and because you can play games. One participant
rarely looks (no relevant news, no time) at the app and one participant no
longer looked at it after the installation of the app. This technical problem
was solved during the pilot project.

Ease of use and the appearance of the app

After 2 months of use of the social mobile app, the main advantage of the
app is, according to four participants, that it is nice to be kept informed
about issues regarding their main organization. This is something which
they always missed. An added value would be that the paper newsletter
would be replaced by the app. However, three participants still preferred to
use WhatsApp “when it comes to the coach, I prefer to app.” According to
one participant it is not easier to get in touch with the job coach. Some
participants indicate that the app does not yet have any added value, not
even in the contact with the job coach, “after the pilot, the app will soon
be off my phone” and that the provided news items are not interesting or
relevant to them personally.
The usability of the app is not very high according to most participants,
they find it “annoying” that you have to scroll through down all the news
items and that old messages remain. Also forgetting your password is not
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 175

that easily fixed in this pilot phase. According to the participants, the app
must function well, and the job coach must also be able to handle the app
well, however, it is experienced that the app “is still in its infancy today.”
One of the participants s worried about “people in green” who cannot read
and write, that they are left out when the app becomes the main mode of
communication.

New functionalities and content of the app

The overall idea is still, also after 2 months of reading the content of app,
that the news items are experienced as childish or superficial “they do not
always know what to put on it.” Also, the functionality or information does
not always match with the employees “I am not waiting for a puzzle if you
have just worked in the heat.” The main content of interest is specific
work-related information: holidays and days off and, for example, weather
and outdoor working tips. One participant indicates that he clicks on the
news items just to have it signed as read in the app.
The main disadvantages are also still that the communication with their
job coaches is not run smoothly. The “send messages” functionality does
not seem to be working properly yet. It also seems that the messages from
the job coach are standard and not aimed at specific communication “that
way we can keep in touch via the app.” Two participants indicated that the
job coach himself does not seem to know very well how to use the
app either.
One participant experienced the app as friendly “they speak to you with
your name,” which creates motivation to start viewing the app.
The main recommendations after the pilot phase the participants have
for the app concern the following: a button with which you can reply to
messages from job coach; to be able delete older messages; no more car-
toons, just important things such as work-related matters (collective bar-
gaining, days off, etc.); discussing important themes which happen on the
work floor such as bullying, since the job coach does not currently have
time to discuss these matters; and not bringing a new theme everyday but
maybe once a week or once in 2 weeks so that a theme can be discussed
more in-depth.

Conclusion use of social mobile application employees

The motivation for participating in the pilot seems to have diminished
among the participants after 2 months. Participants are somewhat disap-
pointed with the possibilities of the app, especially communication with the
social worker (Participants expected to be able to communicate directly
176 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

with the social worker.). It is also striking that the content of the news
items does not always match well. On the other hand, participants do also
indicate that they appreciate the work-related information on collective
agreements and days off. The added value of the app is not yet clear to the
majority of participants WhatsApp and other contact devices such as calls,
and face-to-face contact are experienced as easier.

Social workers’ experience mobile app

It was interesting to see that the results regarding the use of the mobile
application did not change for the job coaches during the 2-month pilot.
What was emphasized still was the lack of time to actually use the app.
They experienced a very high work load and that this reason caused them
to not yet having embraced the app.

Final conclusions
The aim of this study was to gain insights in the pilot implementation of a
social mobile app in a supporting employment program before the app will
be implemented on a broader scale in the organization. We also gained
insight into how a social work organization adopts a mobile application in
practice. It provides general lessons for implementation processes technol-
ogy in the social domain/human services. Several main conclusions can be
drawn based on the results and these concerns the resistance and motiv-
ation toward the mobile app, interest of the target group toward the app,
and opportunities and constraints.

Attitude, resistance, and motivation

It is important to pay attention to the resistance which appears to exist in
relation to the use of the app. During the interviews, the picture emerges
that all study participants, both employees and social workers can influence
each other negatively when it comes to interest in and use of the app. For
the potential roll-out of the app regarding the employees, the social work-
ers can play a stimulating motivating role here and be used as key figures
in the group of participants who can take a leading role in making their
employees enthusiastic for using the app.
Social workers can play a pioneering role in using the app, but foremost
they must also want to do this themselves and experience its usefulness, be
given time and space and be able to use and deploy the app properly them-
selves. The organization should be very keen to facilitate their professionals
otherwise the implementation of the app is not going to be a success-
ful one.
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 177

Paying close attention to existing communication structures and prefer-

ences of people is also very important. These were insufficiently taken into
account as a starting point at the start of the pilot project.

Interest of the target group

This study shows that employees have their own ideas about which themes
they would like to see as content in the app. Only the social workers were
asked about which themes they think their employees would prefer and not
the employees themselves. From a user perspective it is much more valu-
able to ask the target group directly and, thus, to involve this target group
also more closely in developing and choosing the content of the app. This
can result in a better alignment of news, events, and themes included in
the app. Halfway during the pilot the developer already used the input of
the interviews to improve the app for the employees. Vigilance is required
to ensure that the content does not become too childish for this specific
target group.

Facilitating conditions
Support from the organization during the pilot period consisted of appoint-
ing a working group and information meetings for participants and social
workers. In addition, a technical consultation was possible during the pilot
period for questions about the app. The organization made devices avail-
able (smartphone, tablet, laptop) for social workers. What was missing
according to the social workers was specific time allocation to learn how
the application worked and to understand how the clients experience the
new application. The social workers had to realize the pilot within their
current working hours, which caused resistance. Participants do not all
have good smartphones or outdated mobile phones on which the app could
not be installed and/or do not have Wi-Fi at their disposal on the shop
floor. Participants indicate that they do not have the money for a new
smartphone (which is not surprising since this is a target group that lives
on the level of assistance). It is important to gain a better understanding of
the mental and physical abilities and limitations of participants (reading,
ICT skills). There are opportunities for the organization to facilitate the
resources and training of ICT skills of both the social workers and
the employees.
Based on these conclusions, we would recommend in general that when
developing mobile applications for the human services domain close atten-
tion needs to be paid to the specific target group the app is intended for.
As we have seen in this study, clients in human services can have their
178 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

specific needs and wishes (e.g., ICT skills, mental capability) and only by
carefully translating these needs and wishes into specific requirements for a
mobile app a successful usage for the long-term can be achieved. On the
side of the professionals, we would recommend that their specific work
context is very important to consider when introducing mobile applications
and that the professionals experience a direct advantage of the usage of the
mobile app for their daily work activities. As this study shows, the mobile
app was not really embraced by the social workers because they were too
busy with their daily tasks which did not necessarily require the usage of
the app.
In conclusion, the aim of the organization was to develop a mobile appli-
cation with the assumption that the mobile app will support the well-being
of employees, which in the long-term would have a positive effect on labor
participation. The pilot phase (April to July 2017) was a very valuable
period in which the social mobile app could be implemented on a small
scale among important stakeholders, namely the users: the employees and
social workers. By implementing the app on a larger scale within the organ-
ization in the future, new insights can be gained that can ensure a more
successful uptake and sustainable use of the app due to the involvement of
all stakeholders in various phases of the development and implementation
of the app. Even though in this small pilot phase there was no room for an
effect study, based on the results it can be concluded that the majority of
the participants at least feel more involved and recognized by their organ-
ization because they receive more information about the organization. This
is a first step in supporting the well-being of citizens when aiming for a
reintegration process in the work force.

Study limitations
Despite the results indicating that the majority of the employees and social
workers are reasonably positive about the implementation and usage of
the mobile application, also some limitations of the study can be men-
tioned. First, the employees were chosen by the job coaches and were
asked to participate in a pilot study. Second, we do not know how repre-
sentative the social workers are who participated in this study with regard
to the overall pool of social workers working in the organization. We
were told that the specific social workers were chosen based on pragmatic
reasons, e.g., availability, location, and so forth. Third, in the last phase of
the study only nine of the initial 18 employees participated and three of
the initial five social workers. The main reason for not attending was that
it did not fit their schedule, however, this does mean that half of the
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 179

participant’s information could not be taken into account into this last
round of evaluation.

Discussion
The set-up of this pilot implementation of a social mobile application tar-
geted at a specific and complex user group with the aim to have an organ-
ization-wide implementation of the app showed that not everything is in
place yet for this broader implementation. Goldkind and collegues (2016)
noted that social work as a field has an “uncertain attitude towards tech-
nology.” Digitalization is not seen as a part of the social work professional-
ization and it is also not (yet) progressively being taken into account from
a professional perspective.
Social work as a field seems to be not embracing the reflective nature it
usually has regarding all kinds of other issues it is actively involved in.
Social work is “staying behind” if we look at the reflection on ICT use on
both an individual level of the professional, specifically also reflection on
which technology is suitable for their clients and on a broader organization
level, thus both on a microlevel and meso-level. The conducted study also
shows this very clearly: job coaches are not actively taking up their role as
advocates or pioneers in this pilot of the social mobile application and the
organization wants to use a technology to be seen in the external world (in
this case specifically, the organization wants to show it to the municipalities
which they are hired by) as an organization which is “innovative,” but lacks
the proper creation of the right conditions for the job coaches. The results
also showed that there are no consistent policies or guidelines regarding
the use of e-communication from the organization and that there are con-
cerns among job coaches about the blurring of boundaries between work
and private life. Ryan and Garret (2018) call this “the gains may be at the
cost of blurring professional boundaries.” This blurring of boundaries is of
course not only specific to social workers but to many professionals now-
adays which are all struggling with the boundaries between a healthy work-
life balance.
Reamer (2013) mentions risks and advantages of using e-communication
and mentions the advantage that clients who need help outside office hours
can contact the care provider more easily (in this study the job coach).
According to Reamer, a risk in online communication is miscommunica-
tion due to the loss of nonverbal information. This is clearly reflected in
this study: job coaches in particular and some of the employees prefer face-
to-face contact above electronic contact via the app or other electronic
communication.
180 S. BEN ALLOUCH AND J. BOONSTRA

However, a difference is also visible here between participants. Reamer

specifically mentions clients with mental disabilities who may not be able
to be served properly when a social worker provides help remotely. This
can also be seen with some of the employees in this study. Because too lit-
tle attention was paid to the characteristics of the target group (the nature
and severity of the occupational disability varied), we see that the pilot
partly failed because of the simple fact that there were participants who did
not have a mobile phone which supports the use of applications. In add-
ition, it was decided from an organizational level (HR department in col-
laboration with the job coaches) which health themes would be introduced
via the app. The information in the app was not properly aligned to the
thinking and reading level of the participants. Only involving end users in
the pilot phase of the app can be regarded as insufficient, end users should
be involved in the development of a technological development from the
start (Ben Allouch, van Dijk, & Peters, 2009).
This study also showed that a longer-term pilot phase is very usable to
show different patterns in the expectations and usages regarding the social
mobile application. Palen, Salzman, and Youngs (2001) showed that novice
users tend to rapidly modify their perceptions of social appropriateness
around mobile phone use, and that actual nature of use frequently differs
from initial predictions. They closely tracked new mobile phone users for
the first 6 weeks after service acquisition. Leung and Wei (2000) found that
instrumental uses of the mobile phone are more frequent and instrumental
motives are much stronger than the social or intrinsic uses of the mobile
phone. Their result is in line with the results of the current study in which
the participants clearly stated that they wanted work-related information
and news.
Furthermore, it is important to create awareness that when investigating
the use and implementation of a social mobile application, that at the same
time you should not lose sight of the ethical side of these pilot studies. In
this study too much emphasis was placed on the implementation of the
app while not taking into account what the implementation meant for the
participants not only in the short term, but also in the medium term and
even in the long term. Whether the organization is indeed doing well by
putting the mobile app in a new communication structure and supply while
the current communication structures seem to work for the participants is
an important question. Another important question is, whether it is ethic-
ally justified to present participants with self-conceived themes from job
coaches and managers which are regarded as childish by the specific end
users themselves. Ryan and Garrett (2018) call it an “unsteady and con-
stantly shifting ethical terrain.” We would advocate for a constant monitor-
ing and assisting or translating between the perspectives of the important
 JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN SERVICES 181

stakeholders and especially monitoring and translating needs, wishes, and

the perspective of (vulnerable) groups in human services with regard to the
development, implementation, and use of (mobile) innovative technologies.
Even though the pilot implementation of the social mobile application
can be regarded as only partly successful, this study showed that mobile
applications can support human services professionals and their clients in
their own specific way with increased opportunities and independence.
Furthermore, this study showed that before an organization-wide imple-
mentation of a mobile app for human services purposes will be successful,
more sensitivity from the organization should be developed among its key
stakeholders. The use of mobile technologies can be beneficial in a range of
human services practice settings for both professionals and clients and,
therefore, requires more attention from the academic field to focus on this
relatively new but promising theme of mobile social work (m-
Social Work).

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