September 3, 2023 • 19 mins
Ready to revolutionize your frontline operations? Strap in as we journey with
Mark Williams, Managing Director of WorkJam EMEA, exploring the challenges businesses face in effectively conveying crucial information to their frontline workers, and how WorkJam can bridge this communication gap. This enlightening episode is a deep-dive into how WorkJam can be the catalyst for your organization's digital transformation, enhancing competitiveness, boosting productivity, and ensuring the successful management of ongoing change.
#theproductivityexperts
Register for the 2025 Productivity Forum
Find us in the Top 50 Productivity Podcasts
Connect to Simon on LinkedIn
Follow ReThink on LinkedIn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Productivity podcast.
This is the first in a seriesof three episodes with our
friends at Work Jam, and todayI'm delighted to be joined by
Mark Williams, managing Directorfor Work Jam, and Mia.
Hi, mark, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm good.
Thank you very much, Simon.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Coming to the end of the summer holidays, as we
record, so everybody's gettingback on off holiday.
I think you've just got back,I'm just about to go, so that's
good, that's good.
But today is all about Work Jam.
We're going to talk abouttransformation, we're going to
talk about value, we're going totalk about change and then all
the ways that potentially, workJam and your team there can help
(00:39):
support.
But before we dive in, mark, doyou want to tell us a bit about
yourself, your kind of careerbackground, and then we'll find
out a little bit more about WorkJam.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Sure, thank you.
Yeah, so I've spent the lastcouple of years leading and
setting up the Work Jam IMEAbusiness here in London, but
probably a little bit morerelevant is my past 16 years
leading frontline digitaltransformation for Shell
globally across their retailbusiness.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And in terms of Work Jam, do you want to give the
listeners for those that maybearen't familiar with a bit of a
flavour about some of the areaswhere you support organisations?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, indeed.
So Work Jam is, and remains,the leading frontline
orchestration platform, and whenI say that, I listen back to
myself and I think frontlineorchestration, I like to think
of us as the glue.
We stick a lot of thingstogether and deliver them in a
(01:39):
really targeted, clean way to alarge enterprise frontline
workers, whether that be in anyindustry segment, whether that
be in retail, whether that be inhospitality and when you look
at our portfolio of fantasticcustomers, you can see how we
are really transforming andconnecting their businesses
(02:00):
right the way down from headoffice to those frontline
workers, and doing that in a waythat really drives value and
productivity.
And I'm sure we'll come on tothat, simon, as we go through
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Absolutely so.
Just to be clear, this is kindof aimed at all those employees
and organisations that I've gota laptop, don't particularly
reside in an office, that are onthe floor of the warehouse, the
store, the restaurant, face toface with customers and
organisations find it incrediblydifficult to reach those people
(02:30):
directly.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, indeed exactly that, and they tend to fire
information down to acentralized point in a
restaurant or in a hotel or in aretail outlet.
But where does that informationgo once it's been sent down?
How do managers on site thendisseminate that information and
make it really relevant andmeaningful for that frontline
worker to help them with theirday to day tasks and roles and
(02:55):
responsibilities?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm putting my store manager back on from many
years ago in DIY and othersIncredibly difficult because you
get bombarded with informationand I'll show my age, this was
kind of when we used to get lotsof things in a blue bag, so
lots of paper communicationsweekly and then ad hoc stuff by
email.
So there's a big has been a bigreliance on, I suppose, single
(03:20):
points of failure or a couple ofindividuals that could be the
points of failure to disseminatethat information and I mean
some of it is significantlyimportant, whether it be health
and safety, whether it bepersonal information about
appraisals coming up, bonuses,pay rises.
There's the day to day stuffthat happens.
You know products on the shelf,products off, but there's
(03:40):
there's also some reallyimportant stuff for individuals
that historically and I'm guiltyof it myself has probably not
been communicated particularlywell.
Certainly again, when I thinkback to my days of, there'd be
people I might not see for twoor three weeks if I didn't work
a Sunday, because they only workto Sunday.
So I can understand the kind ofpain points that you're trying
(04:03):
to help solve.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think there are two sides to it as well.
There's all of the operationalkind of corporate stuff, but
then there's all of the stuffaround kind of employee
well-being, employee benefits,employee culture, connecting
employees from different outlets, sharing best practice All of
that great stuff comes out aswell and we kind of are the
(04:26):
catalyst and enable all of thatand a really unique way,
exciting stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So I think there's lots of talk about coming out of
lockdown and that kind of stuffstill exists, but we're going
to move on from that.
So moving on, post lockdown, Ithink we've seen lots of
organizations that haveacknowledged the fact that
transformation is almost aconstant now.
So ongoing change if yourbusiness isn't going through
(04:53):
ongoing change and transforming,evolving, that's probably a
warning sign in itself.
So for those organizations thatembrace that, accepted the fact
we're always going to bechanging, how do they get
something in place through WorkJam that really helps support
and facilitate that.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah.
So absolutely, I'll just touchon that and I'll mention that
word sort of lockdown andpandemic kind of just briefly.
I think businesses kind ofreally panicked a little bit
because it highlighted the needto be able to communicate and
kind of push this informationdown in a really clever,
targeted way.
And so we saw enterprise go outthere and try and find stop
(05:36):
gaps or try and very quicklycreate something themselves, and
whilst that worked to a certainextent, I think what it did was
cause quite a little bit ofnoise and confusion.
And what we've been sort ofdiscussing with enterprises is
how now do you kind of peel thatback a little bit, take that
back?
We know there's a need, but howdo we put something in place
(05:57):
that is kind of meaningful andsustainable going forward?
Because what we don't want to dois straight away bombard
frontline workers with newproducts, new platforms, new
places that they need to go tokind of get all of this relevant
information and then help themmap out what that future looks
(06:18):
like over time.
What do we need to do tocontinually digitally transform
and give ourselves an edge inthe employer market as well,
which is something that isreally top of mind at this
moment in time Work Jam.
We really adopt a consultativeapproach around all of this.
(06:39):
Our expertise are deep and rich.
A lot of us come from largeenterprise where we have
actually done this in thosebusinesses, realised the value
and seen the upturn in thingslike net promoter score,
employee sentiment and customersentiment metrics and really
(06:59):
sort of kind of put a foundationin place that is going to
continue to keep thosebusinesses at the fore.
And that's what we're doingkind of day in, day out now
across Europe with our greatcustomer base across Europe.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And from a colleague point of view, what does it look
like?
Is it a new app they get on adevice?
Is it something different?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah.
So Workjam is completelyagnostic of device or channel or
how they consume us.
So you know we have a webversion, so back off his PC it
can easily be accessed throughthere.
But natively our app is wheremost of our customers tend to go
.
The great thing about it is theapp can sit within the current
(07:47):
sort of corporate ecosystem on ashared corporate device, or it
can be downloaded from an appstore and available on personal
devices as well.
And I think that's quite nicebecause it gives the employees
and those frontline workers theability to kind of quickly
(08:08):
reference our product whereverthey are, whatever part of day
they might be in.
And of course we also have theability and capability to kind
of cut all of the noise thatcomes down when they're not at
work as well, to make sure thatwe're fully compliant of labour
laws and regulations around thattoo.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So I've got this repository that I can go to on a
device my device back office,like you say and then the
content that you present to me.
I know there's some kind ofclever ways that you've got of
making sure that's tailored tomy location, job, role, wherever
I sit in the hierarchy.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Correct.
We have a unique andproprietary targeting engine
which allows us to kind of getthat information to an
individual, no matter what rolethey have, no matter what skill
set they have, what trainingthey've done, what experience
and expertise they have, andeven looking forward, you know
(09:06):
where they may want to go.
Do they want to become asupervisor?
Do they want to get on the FastTrack Managerial program?
We can identify all of that andbe very targeted in the
information that we send down toan individual.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So significant value in being able to cut out the
noise.
I think you said before interms of that unique targeting.
You mentioned kind of some ofthe other side benefits.
So colleague retention,colleague satisfaction,
potentially kind of net promotercustomer scores.
What kind of things are yourcustomers telling you about when
(09:41):
they get this in as kind of afoundational piece?
Are they seeing around thoseareas?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah.
So there are a number of thingsI think kind of retention is
absolutely key for them, youknow, managing that employee
churn, reducing all of thosekind of onboarding costs and
retraining costs whichultimately, kind of you know,
they do see a dip in customersatisfaction whilst you know new
(10:10):
members of staff are kind ofgoing through that onboarding.
Increased productivity isanother metric that we look at,
and time liberation as well, andit's about kind of, with that
time liberation, it's about kindof redeploying that for value
add.
So it's about kind of you know,I now have a manager who is
(10:32):
freed up because they'vedisseminated this information.
They're seeing increasedproductivity, they're seeing
their front line and the flow ofwork manage their tasks,
managing their learning, kind of, you know, communicating around
kind of customer sentiment andtherefore they can kind of
redeploy that to, you know, toother growth areas of the
business or other operationalkind of value drivers.
(10:53):
There are a number of more.
We support all our enterpriseswith kind of this value
engineering right the waythrough the piece.
And I think you know, wheneveryou're out there buying software
today, you, you know you reallyneed to think about the return
you're going to get as abusiness.
So you know, we really get intothat with our customers and
prospects.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And you talked there about kind of tasks and I know
you can kind of push tasksthrough Workjam.
You can also link to some ofthe workforce management
solutions as well, can't you?
So people can view schedulesand swap shifts, bid-on shifts
and all those other things thatkind of coexist in there, the
bridge between you and workforcemanagement world.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
And this is where WorkJambecomes absolutely vital for any
business.
We have a number of pre-builtconnectors that can get all of
that schedule and shiftinformation into WorkJam.
And that's when things start tobecome really, really powerful.
When an employee has on theirphone or device a shift that
(11:56):
they're working, they know whothey're working with, they know
the tasks that they have to dowhilst they're on that shift and
they know that the learning issitting nicely alongside all of
that in the same place.
So you've now got a reallyempowered frontline worker who,
in one single app, is managingkind of task execution for
operational gain, managingcustomer sentiment.
(12:18):
They're managing their learningin the flow of work.
They're kind of communicatingand collaborating really
effectively and efficiently withother team members and they
also have that knowledge centreand that repository of
information to help them withanything else they need.
And that's just the work sideof it.
And I think at the start of thepodcast, simon, I mentioned the
softer benefits for thatindividual as well.
(12:41):
So it's managing things liketheir benefits program, their
reward and recognition.
There may even be gamificationaround leaderboards in there as
well.
I mean, when you put all ofthis stuff together in a really
clear, concise way.
For me, that's the sweet spotthat every business should be
kind of looking to achieve fromtheir digital transformation,
and for the frontline workerspecifically.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
And if an organisation islistening to this and thinking
that's all well and good, thatsounds like it's going to be a
really big implementation.
There's loads of stuff we'regoing to have to do to get ready
.
Can you just describe the kindof from somebody saying yes to
process.
Then you go through toimplement the change?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, sure.
So I'm fortunate in my teamacross Europe to have a number
of experienced project managersthat work with me and we can do
as much or as little as anenterprise wants us to do.
So we completely manage in itsentirety kind of the setup, the
deployment and the delivery intomultiple market units in
(13:47):
multiple languages.
Or we can work with internalproject teams inside those
organisations to educate them todo exactly the same thing.
But where we really excel,Simon, is kind of with partners
like yourselves, where kind ofwe bring it all together and
partners are out theresupporting us with the delivery
(14:09):
and kind of the widerimplementations and benefits and
hooks into kind of all of theother frontline systems that may
be already implemented or inthere to date.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
We're not talking big wholesale integrations here.
Months and months of rollout.
We kind of can deploy quicklyand then start to understand the
benefits.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think our record fordeployment was eight days and
that was into one particularshell market right at the start
of the pandemic.
It was into Shell China verycomplex joint venture, a lot of
legalities and regulations towork through, but I think eight
(14:58):
days with a very simple sort ofcomms and task setup into that
marketplace.
Typically we would see a 12 to16 week kind of deployment plan,
depending on the speed that theorganisation we're working with
and the part with can move aswell.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, so a quick speed to deployment and then
kind of ROI return.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Exactly, and we're seeing that return on investment
and we're seeing some verystrong numbers in under one year
.
Which other solutions that I'vebeen involved with?
It tends to be a multi-yearinvestment and it's not until
kind of year two, year three youstart to see that kind of
return on the investment.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So we've got the solution in how do we keep
driving the benefits?
What kind of things internallyyou thinking about to help drive
additional benefits, to keepthat momentum?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah.
So I think when you look at ourroadmap and when we kind of
move to the future, I think it'smaking sure that we continue to
lead, it's making sure that wecontinue on a unification
journey to remove a lot of theother noise that might be coming
down to the frontline workers.
And what I mean in that is, ifthere is a particular element of
(16:23):
task, if there is a particularelement of audit, if there is a
particular element of project,what we want to do is
incorporate that into ourproduct in a way that is sort of
decluttering and really makingit meaningful for that frontline
worker to continue to act.
And that's where all of thisvalue comes from.
(16:46):
It's the ability of thatfrontline worker to kind of act
in a seamless way.
We also have some fantasticcapability around pre-waged,
pre-earned wage access.
So with a number of ourprospects across Europe at the
moment, as we're now lookingforward, dare I say, into
Christmas, a lot of overtime, alot of workers are kind of
(17:08):
wanting to do additional shiftsto help fund their kind of
Christmas, and so we have agreat product called Express Pay
which enables us to look atwages earned at a particular
time and an early drawdown forthe employer on some of those
(17:29):
wages, enabling them to kind ofperhaps buy Christmas presents
or kind of meet that financialneed that they have at that
particular time.
That might have not beenplanned for.
So lots of really exciting andinteresting things kind of
happen to keep us at the front.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Brilliant, so continuing to push the
boundaries, and I think that'sbeen recognised by time, hasn't
it?
Because you've been included inthe 100 most influential
companies 2023.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, correct, simon.
A fantastic accolade and onethat we're very proud of here at
WorkJam, and I would steer anyof the listeners to kind of take
a look at that article from ourCEO, steve Kramer.
It makes quite interestingreading.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And I think there's some other prestigious companies
in there as well, as, I think,does it Tesla?
Did you say before?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, there are.
You know, we are proud to kindof stand up there amongst some
of the world's most influentialand leading companies.
So absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, good, well done to everyone on the team.
So this is episode one.
I think we'll pause there, mark, and then I'll be back in
episode two with David Rogersgetting deeper into the
conversation, and then inepisode three, david will join
me again with a special guestspeaker from Aramark, rachel.
(18:58):
So two more to come, but Iappreciate your time, mark, and
thanks for the insight.
Thanks very much, Simon Thankyou.
Welcome to the Productivity podcast.
This is the first in a seriesof three episodes with our
friends at Work Jam, and todayI'm delighted to be joined by
Mark Williams, managing Directorfor Work Jam, and Mia.
Hi, mark, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm good.
Thank you very much, Simon.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Coming to the end of the summer holidays, as we
record, so everybody's gettingback on off holiday.
I think you've just got back,I'm just about to go, so that's
good, that's good.
But today is all about Work Jam.
We're going to talk abouttransformation, we're going to
talk about value, we're going totalk about change and then all
the ways that potentially, workJam and your team there can help
(00:39):
support.
But before we dive in, mark, doyou want to tell us a bit about
yourself, your kind of careerbackground, and then we'll find
out a little bit more about WorkJam.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Sure, thank you.
Yeah, so I've spent the lastcouple of years leading and
setting up the Work Jam IMEAbusiness here in London, but
probably a little bit morerelevant is my past 16 years
leading frontline digitaltransformation for Shell
globally across their retailbusiness.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And in terms of Work Jam, do you want to give the
listeners for those that maybearen't familiar with a bit of a
flavour about some of the areaswhere you support organisations?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, indeed.
So Work Jam is, and remains,the leading frontline
orchestration platform, and whenI say that, I listen back to
myself and I think frontlineorchestration, I like to think
of us as the glue.
We stick a lot of thingstogether and deliver them in a
(01:39):
really targeted, clean way to alarge enterprise frontline
workers, whether that be in anyindustry segment, whether that
be in retail, whether that be inhospitality and when you look
at our portfolio of fantasticcustomers, you can see how we
are really transforming andconnecting their businesses
(02:00):
right the way down from headoffice to those frontline
workers, and doing that in a waythat really drives value and
productivity.
And I'm sure we'll come on tothat, simon, as we go through
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Absolutely so.
Just to be clear, this is kindof aimed at all those employees
and organisations that I've gota laptop, don't particularly
reside in an office, that are onthe floor of the warehouse, the
store, the restaurant, face toface with customers and
organisations find it incrediblydifficult to reach those people
(02:30):
directly.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, indeed exactly that, and they tend to fire
information down to acentralized point in a
restaurant or in a hotel or in aretail outlet.
But where does that informationgo once it's been sent down?
How do managers on site thendisseminate that information and
make it really relevant andmeaningful for that frontline
worker to help them with theirday to day tasks and roles and
(02:55):
responsibilities?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm putting my store manager back on from many
years ago in DIY and othersIncredibly difficult because you
get bombarded with informationand I'll show my age, this was
kind of when we used to get lotsof things in a blue bag, so
lots of paper communicationsweekly and then ad hoc stuff by
email.
So there's a big has been a bigreliance on, I suppose, single
(03:20):
points of failure or a couple ofindividuals that could be the
points of failure to disseminatethat information and I mean
some of it is significantlyimportant, whether it be health
and safety, whether it bepersonal information about
appraisals coming up, bonuses,pay rises.
There's the day to day stuffthat happens.
You know products on the shelf,products off, but there's
(03:40):
there's also some reallyimportant stuff for individuals
that historically and I'm guiltyof it myself has probably not
been communicated particularlywell.
Certainly again, when I thinkback to my days of, there'd be
people I might not see for twoor three weeks if I didn't work
a Sunday, because they only workto Sunday.
So I can understand the kind ofpain points that you're trying
(04:03):
to help solve.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think there are two sides to it as well.
There's all of the operationalkind of corporate stuff, but
then there's all of the stuffaround kind of employee
well-being, employee benefits,employee culture, connecting
employees from different outlets, sharing best practice All of
that great stuff comes out aswell and we kind of are the
(04:26):
catalyst and enable all of thatand a really unique way,
exciting stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So I think there's lots of talk about coming out of
lockdown and that kind of stuffstill exists, but we're going
to move on from that.
So moving on, post lockdown, Ithink we've seen lots of
organizations that haveacknowledged the fact that
transformation is almost aconstant now.
So ongoing change if yourbusiness isn't going through
(04:53):
ongoing change and transforming,evolving, that's probably a
warning sign in itself.
So for those organizations thatembrace that, accepted the fact
we're always going to bechanging, how do they get
something in place through WorkJam that really helps support
and facilitate that.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah.
So absolutely, I'll just touchon that and I'll mention that
word sort of lockdown andpandemic kind of just briefly.
I think businesses kind ofreally panicked a little bit
because it highlighted the needto be able to communicate and
kind of push this informationdown in a really clever,
targeted way.
And so we saw enterprise go outthere and try and find stop
(05:36):
gaps or try and very quicklycreate something themselves, and
whilst that worked to a certainextent, I think what it did was
cause quite a little bit ofnoise and confusion.
And what we've been sort ofdiscussing with enterprises is
how now do you kind of peel thatback a little bit, take that
back?
We know there's a need, but howdo we put something in place
(05:57):
that is kind of meaningful andsustainable going forward?
Because what we don't want to dois straight away bombard
frontline workers with newproducts, new platforms, new
places that they need to go tokind of get all of this relevant
information and then help themmap out what that future looks
(06:18):
like over time.
What do we need to do tocontinually digitally transform
and give ourselves an edge inthe employer market as well,
which is something that isreally top of mind at this
moment in time Work Jam.
We really adopt a consultativeapproach around all of this.
(06:39):
Our expertise are deep and rich.
A lot of us come from largeenterprise where we have
actually done this in thosebusinesses, realised the value
and seen the upturn in thingslike net promoter score,
employee sentiment and customersentiment metrics and really
(06:59):
sort of kind of put a foundationin place that is going to
continue to keep thosebusinesses at the fore.
And that's what we're doingkind of day in, day out now
across Europe with our greatcustomer base across Europe.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And from a colleague point of view, what does it look
like?
Is it a new app they get on adevice?
Is it something different?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah.
So Workjam is completelyagnostic of device or channel or
how they consume us.
So you know we have a webversion, so back off his PC it
can easily be accessed throughthere.
But natively our app is wheremost of our customers tend to go
.
The great thing about it is theapp can sit within the current
(07:47):
sort of corporate ecosystem on ashared corporate device, or it
can be downloaded from an appstore and available on personal
devices as well.
And I think that's quite nicebecause it gives the employees
and those frontline workers theability to kind of quickly
(08:08):
reference our product whereverthey are, whatever part of day
they might be in.
And of course we also have theability and capability to kind
of cut all of the noise thatcomes down when they're not at
work as well, to make sure thatwe're fully compliant of labour
laws and regulations around thattoo.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So I've got this repository that I can go to on a
device my device back office,like you say and then the
content that you present to me.
I know there's some kind ofclever ways that you've got of
making sure that's tailored tomy location, job, role, wherever
I sit in the hierarchy.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Correct.
We have a unique andproprietary targeting engine
which allows us to kind of getthat information to an
individual, no matter what rolethey have, no matter what skill
set they have, what trainingthey've done, what experience
and expertise they have, andeven looking forward, you know
(09:06):
where they may want to go.
Do they want to become asupervisor?
Do they want to get on the FastTrack Managerial program?
We can identify all of that andbe very targeted in the
information that we send down toan individual.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So significant value in being able to cut out the
noise.
I think you said before interms of that unique targeting.
You mentioned kind of some ofthe other side benefits.
So colleague retention,colleague satisfaction,
potentially kind of net promotercustomer scores.
What kind of things are yourcustomers telling you about when
(09:41):
they get this in as kind of afoundational piece?
Are they seeing around thoseareas?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah.
So there are a number of thingsI think kind of retention is
absolutely key for them, youknow, managing that employee
churn, reducing all of thosekind of onboarding costs and
retraining costs whichultimately, kind of you know,
they do see a dip in customersatisfaction whilst you know new
(10:10):
members of staff are kind ofgoing through that onboarding.
Increased productivity isanother metric that we look at,
and time liberation as well, andit's about kind of, with that
time liberation, it's about kindof redeploying that for value
add.
So it's about kind of you know,I now have a manager who is
(10:32):
freed up because they'vedisseminated this information.
They're seeing increasedproductivity, they're seeing
their front line and the flow ofwork manage their tasks,
managing their learning, kind of, you know, communicating around
kind of customer sentiment andtherefore they can kind of
redeploy that to, you know, toother growth areas of the
business or other operationalkind of value drivers.
(10:53):
There are a number of more.
We support all our enterpriseswith kind of this value
engineering right the waythrough the piece.
And I think you know, wheneveryou're out there buying software
today, you, you know you reallyneed to think about the return
you're going to get as abusiness.
So you know, we really get intothat with our customers and
prospects.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And you talked there about kind of tasks and I know
you can kind of push tasksthrough Workjam.
You can also link to some ofthe workforce management
solutions as well, can't you?
So people can view schedulesand swap shifts, bid-on shifts
and all those other things thatkind of coexist in there, the
bridge between you and workforcemanagement world.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
And this is where WorkJambecomes absolutely vital for any
business.
We have a number of pre-builtconnectors that can get all of
that schedule and shiftinformation into WorkJam.
And that's when things start tobecome really, really powerful.
When an employee has on theirphone or device a shift that
(11:56):
they're working, they know whothey're working with, they know
the tasks that they have to dowhilst they're on that shift and
they know that the learning issitting nicely alongside all of
that in the same place.
So you've now got a reallyempowered frontline worker who,
in one single app, is managingkind of task execution for
operational gain, managingcustomer sentiment.
(12:18):
They're managing their learningin the flow of work.
They're kind of communicatingand collaborating really
effectively and efficiently withother team members and they
also have that knowledge centreand that repository of
information to help them withanything else they need.
And that's just the work sideof it.
And I think at the start of thepodcast, simon, I mentioned the
softer benefits for thatindividual as well.
(12:41):
So it's managing things liketheir benefits program, their
reward and recognition.
There may even be gamificationaround leaderboards in there as
well.
I mean, when you put all ofthis stuff together in a really
clear, concise way.
For me, that's the sweet spotthat every business should be
kind of looking to achieve fromtheir digital transformation,
and for the frontline workerspecifically.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
And if an organisation islistening to this and thinking
that's all well and good, thatsounds like it's going to be a
really big implementation.
There's loads of stuff we'regoing to have to do to get ready
.
Can you just describe the kindof from somebody saying yes to
process.
Then you go through toimplement the change?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, sure.
So I'm fortunate in my teamacross Europe to have a number
of experienced project managersthat work with me and we can do
as much or as little as anenterprise wants us to do.
So we completely manage in itsentirety kind of the setup, the
deployment and the delivery intomultiple market units in
(13:47):
multiple languages.
Or we can work with internalproject teams inside those
organisations to educate them todo exactly the same thing.
But where we really excel,Simon, is kind of with partners
like yourselves, where kind ofwe bring it all together and
partners are out theresupporting us with the delivery
(14:09):
and kind of the widerimplementations and benefits and
hooks into kind of all of theother frontline systems that may
be already implemented or inthere to date.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
We're not talking big wholesale integrations here.
Months and months of rollout.
We kind of can deploy quicklyand then start to understand the
benefits.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think our record fordeployment was eight days and
that was into one particularshell market right at the start
of the pandemic.
It was into Shell China verycomplex joint venture, a lot of
legalities and regulations towork through, but I think eight
(14:58):
days with a very simple sort ofcomms and task setup into that
marketplace.
Typically we would see a 12 to16 week kind of deployment plan,
depending on the speed that theorganisation we're working with
and the part with can move aswell.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, so a quick speed to deployment and then
kind of ROI return.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Exactly, and we're seeing that return on investment
and we're seeing some verystrong numbers in under one year
.
Which other solutions that I'vebeen involved with?
It tends to be a multi-yearinvestment and it's not until
kind of year two, year three youstart to see that kind of
return on the investment.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So we've got the solution in how do we keep
driving the benefits?
What kind of things internallyyou thinking about to help drive
additional benefits, to keepthat momentum?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah.
So I think when you look at ourroadmap and when we kind of
move to the future, I think it'smaking sure that we continue to
lead, it's making sure that wecontinue on a unification
journey to remove a lot of theother noise that might be coming
down to the frontline workers.
And what I mean in that is, ifthere is a particular element of
(16:23):
task, if there is a particularelement of audit, if there is a
particular element of project,what we want to do is
incorporate that into ourproduct in a way that is sort of
decluttering and really makingit meaningful for that frontline
worker to continue to act.
And that's where all of thisvalue comes from.
(16:46):
It's the ability of thatfrontline worker to kind of act
in a seamless way.
We also have some fantasticcapability around pre-waged,
pre-earned wage access.
So with a number of ourprospects across Europe at the
moment, as we're now lookingforward, dare I say, into
Christmas, a lot of overtime, alot of workers are kind of
(17:08):
wanting to do additional shiftsto help fund their kind of
Christmas, and so we have agreat product called Express Pay
which enables us to look atwages earned at a particular
time and an early drawdown forthe employer on some of those
(17:29):
wages, enabling them to kind ofperhaps buy Christmas presents
or kind of meet that financialneed that they have at that
particular time.
That might have not beenplanned for.
So lots of really exciting andinteresting things kind of
happen to keep us at the front.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Brilliant, so continuing to push the
boundaries, and I think that'sbeen recognised by time, hasn't
it?
Because you've been included inthe 100 most influential
companies 2023.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, correct, simon.
A fantastic accolade and onethat we're very proud of here at
WorkJam, and I would steer anyof the listeners to kind of take
a look at that article from ourCEO, steve Kramer.
It makes quite interestingreading.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And I think there's some other prestigious companies
in there as well, as, I think,does it Tesla?
Did you say before?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, there are.
You know, we are proud to kindof stand up there amongst some
of the world's most influentialand leading companies.
So absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, good, well done to everyone on the team.
So this is episode one.
I think we'll pause there, mark, and then I'll be back in
episode two with David Rogersgetting deeper into the
conversation, and then inepisode three, david will join
me again with a special guestspeaker from Aramark, rachel.
(18:58):
So two more to come, but Iappreciate your time, mark, and
thanks for the insight.
Thanks very much, Simon Thankyou.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.