How Alternatives Fills Shifts in as Little as 30 Seconds with Clipboard

Alternatives, Inc. is a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization that has provided services to adults with intellectual disabilities for more than 30 years. Offering 24-hour residential programs as well as community-based day services, the organization supports individuals with a wide range of needs, including many who are medically fragile and require comprehensive daily care.

Filling Urgent Staffing Needs Without Disrupting Continuity of Care

Over the past three decades, Alternatives, Inc. has become a trusted source of support for adults with intellectual disabilities throughout Connecticut. The individuals they work with depend on caregivers who understand their routines, preferences, and medical needs. Many participants have remained with the nonprofit for decades, reflecting the trust, familiarity, and continuity that Alternatives strives to provide.

In the years following COVID-19, however, many care workers left the industry or burned out during the pandemic. This created a smaller staffing pool made up of workers who prize flexibility and choice.

With demand for services remaining high, Alternatives’ Executive Director Kelly Callahan found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff to maintain consistency. “Needs can come up at the very last minute,” Kelly says. “Managers were getting callouts just 15 minutes before a 7 a.m. shift. It gets really stressful.”

As a result, Alternatives’ six managers spent hours piecing together coverage from a variety of sources, including staffing agencies, referrals, overtime work, and per diem staff. In some cases, according to Beth Jezierny, who manages Alternatives’ adult day program, individuals had to remain at home, unable to participate in day programs because safe staffing ratios could not be maintained.

Even when successful, this patchwork method was manual and time-consuming, requiring multiple phone calls or emails. It also offered no standardized way to verify workers’ credentials, align on workplace expectations before arrival, or build the kind of recurring caregiver relationships that are critical to patient wellbeing.

For an organization built around inclusion, community engagement, and quality of life, it became clear that a more reliable and scalable staffing solution was needed. Because of the high-stakes nature of the work, any new approach had to be:

• Straightforward enough for managers to adopt quickly
• Rigorous about verifying worker qualifications and credentials
• Clear about job expectations before a professional arrives on site

That’s when the Alternatives team discovered Clipboard through an online search. The platform’s ability to rapidly connect the organization with qualified professionals immediately stood out. Within a day, they decided to move forward with Clipboard.

A Stress-Reducing Staffing Marketplace that Builds Trust

Alternatives quickly integrated Clipboard across both their residential programs and day services, with managers posting shifts almost immediately after onboarding.

Instead of spending hours calling agencies, Kelly’s managers now log into the platform as needed to monitor schedules. They post shifts directly to Clipboard’s marketplace — specifying the role, timing, and any program-specific requirements — and Clipboard automatically shares the posting with qualified workers.

Before confirming coverage, managers review each worker’s Clipboard profile, including verified credentials, training, and work history. If someone cancels at the last minute, Clipboard automatically reposts the shift as urgent, saving managers the stress of filling surprise coverage gaps.

“Clipboard is very easy to understand,” Beth shares. “The first time we used it, we filled a shift in 30 seconds. It was such a relief.”

Beth also uses the Workplace Rules feature to ensure expectations are clear before arrival. She defines important facility guidelines such as dress code requirements and program procedures, which workers then review directly on the platform. “I don’t have to turn a worker away because, for example, their shoes aren’t in compliance,” she adds. “That’s a huge benefit.”

Clipboard has also become a valuable recruiting tool, enabling Kelly to evaluate professionals on the job before making full-time offers. Over time, her team has built a network of trusted caregivers and identified strong candidates for permanent roles through Clipboard.

“We care very deeply for the people that we support. Seeing the same faces showing up to provide care is really reassuring,” Kelly says.

By using Clipboard, Kelly and her team now have a more reliable staffing foundation, helping managers spend less time filling shifts and more time supporting participants, employees, and program quality. With greater confidence in staffing stability, Kelly can focus on extending Alternatives’ services without sacrificing quality of care.

Alternatives Saves $20,000 By Reducing Overtime

With Clipboard, Kelly has built a more resilient organization while ensuring Alternatives’ high-quality support is reaching people in need. Managers spend less time assembling coverage, permanent staff take on less overtime, and participants see familiar faces on the vast majority of shifts.

Looking ahead, Alternatives plans to continue using Clipboard to strengthen staffing coverage while also exploring additional integrations with the platform to streamline their entire administrative services.

“Clipboard has taken one of the most stressful parts of our managers’ jobs and made it dramatically easier.”