Questions to ask when choosing a matching platform

Support worker matching platforms allow you to find and engage individual support workers. Many people like this option because it gives them more control to choose the right person for their needs.

But before you even get to choosing support workers, you need to choose which platform you’ll use. There are a few matching platforms available, so let’s look at what to consider and questions to ask to help you choose the best one for your needs.

Five key things to look at: 

• Platform options
• Money management
• Care management
• Booking & payment integration
• Safety

Platform options

There are a few matching platforms available for you to use, or look at further. Some major ones you might already be familiar with include:

• Mable connects you with independent contractors
• HireUp is an NDIS registered provider which means all workers that are listed on HireUp are employees. This ensures compliance and oversight.
• mobility connects you with independent contractors AND registered providers. 

Money management

Key questions to ask:

• Does the matching platform allow you to book AND pay for care?
• Are there budgeting tools to help you manage your spending, decreasing the risk of over-spending? 
• Can you keep track of invoices and payments all in one place?
• Is there a secure way to pay for services from within the app? And does it work with different types of funding: self-managed, plan-managed, agency-managed?  

All platforms provide the ability to pay for care, but they work in slightly different ways with varying levels of automation, admin and steps involved. For example, they differ greatly around how easy it is to keep track of invoices and payments. 

The in-app budgeting tools and a secure digital wallet are harder to come by but really useful so worth looking into.

Care management

If you use more than one person to meet your care needs, then you’ll need a matching platform that makes it easy to coordinate. Look into whether the matching platform offers:

• Team management tools for recurring care schedules
• Collaborative calendar management
• Coordination of support worker team member shifts.

Booking and payment integration

This is a big one. The admin that goes with booking, managing and paying for support can be difficult. It’s worth looking into whether the matching platform allows you to:

• search for a carer;
• make bookings instantly; and
• pay for care.

All platforms have great browse and search functionality yet differ when it comes to ease of booking. Mable’s website is particularly user-friendly. Some platforms don’t have workers’ availability, meaning that making a booking isn’t instant.

When it comes to payment, you might like to ask:

• Can I pay directly from personal funds using a credit card?
• Can I pay using my NDIS funding?
• Does the platform support payment through NDIS self-managed, plan-managed and agency-managed plans? 

Mobility has some helpful features such as automatically-calculated timesheets and the ability to see when workers are on their way to you.

Safety

Last, but not least - do your research and learn about all the safety features the matching platform offers.

• How are workers verified?
• What safety checks are there?
• Does it offer real-time ‘Uber-style’ location tracking?
• Can workers clock on and off in the app? This ensures there are no discrepancies around pay. 
• What training is provided to workers?
• Are workers being paid correctly?

The choice is yours

At My Plan Manager, we like to keep the choice and control firmly in the hands of our clients, so it’s important to research a platform to make sure it meets your needs and expectations.