Connecting the Frontline: WorkJam and the Future of Employee Engagement

Nikki Harley (00:33):

Hello, everyone. You’re listening to another episode of Cloud and Clear, SADA’s Cloud Transformation podcast. I’m your host, Nikki Harley, our VP of Partner Ecosystem, and today we’re pleased to welcome Catherine Roy, COO of WorkJam. Hi, Catherine.

Catherine Roy (00:48):

Hello, Nikki.

Nikki Harley (00:49):

Welcome to the pod.

Catherine Roy (00:50):

Thanks for having me.

Nikki Harley (00:54):

Of course, of course. We’re happy to dive in, but before we do, don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel on your favorite listening platform to stay up to date on the latest Cloud and Clear episodes. With that, let’s dive in.

Before we get started talking about WorkJam and all the great stuff you guys are doing, do you mind introducing yourself to the viewers and telling us a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got into this?

Catherine Roy (01:19):

I am COO at WorkJam, chief operating officer. I joined the company a year and a half ago now, but I wasn’t always in this type of industry. I started my career in the video game industry, so I started as a producer. Well, associate producer, and then ended up producer, and then HR in the video game industry. I went into E-commerce then and business transformation. I am here with WorkJam.

Nikki Harley (01:50):

For our listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with where you are now at WorkJam, could you give us a brief overview of WorkJam’s mission and what you guys are up to?

Catherine Roy (02:00):

Yes. WorkJam is the first digital frontline workplace, so we connect the entire deskless workforce with their company, with our industry, and this single app in their hand, the workforce is able to seamlessly connect with their coworkers, their managers, so it’s bi-directional communication. They can manage their tasks, they can learn, they can manage their time, like exchange shifts, ask for time off or manage availability. So, with all these different capabilities, we’re helping organizations drive efficiency and productivity, but at the same time, we also provide a better experience for the workers themselves, driving engagement and a better work-life experience, really, giving them the same type of technology they use in their personal life.

Nikki Harley (03:02):

Yeah. I put myself through college, working retail, and at restaurants, waiting tables, all that, so I know some of the fun challenges of the frontline workforce and all that, so it sounds like you play mainly in retail.

Catherine Roy (03:19):

We’re in different industries. We have marquee customers, iconic brands, like Ulta Beauty, American Eagle Outfitters, Avis Budget Group, Marks and Spencers in UK, TJX Worldwide. Woolworth, which is in Australia, a very big company there. So we’re a bit everywhere, mostly in retail. We started there, but also in hospitality, restaurants, Pete’s Coffee, Panda Group, so anywhere that frontline workers are struggling with the same challenges, even in logistics as well. We have a sharp customer in Australia, called Young Guns, where they unload containers. They have rarely contacts with their frontline workers. They’re spread in different ports, and they can contact their employees seamlessly.

Nikki Harley (04:13):

Yeah. Talk to us about some of those challenges. I mean, I remember when I was working retail. It was like if I didn’t write down the shifts that I was working, I would have to drive back in, look at the schedule on my day off. So talk to us about some of those challenges. I’m sure you guys have been able to solve some of those.

Catherine Roy (04:30):

Yeah. The frontline workforce is really the backbone of every retail or services business, and they’ve been forgotten. They still have to go through a PDF pinned on the bulletin board, like a dirty bulletin board in the back door, and they have to struggle with Facebook groups or texting their managers on a Saturday to try to communicate. So, WorkJam saw this massive pain point that both companies and employees were having. So we are addressing this.

Let’s start with communication. When you have more than 10,000 employees you need to communicate to, if you just spam them with everything you want to tell them, they’re going to stop reading. That’s if you can reach them, but sometimes you have no way to reach them because they don’t have a company email, so it’s a real challenge for companies. Now, we’re enabling companies to target their communications to the specific group of people they want to talk to.

(05:40):

Let’s say you have a change in your POS system, you want to talk to only people that occupy the position of cashier. Then, we can do that with, we call that targeted audience, so AI powered targeted audience engine so that you really reach only the people that are concerned by this message. If you want to talk about a different thing, like everybody in the different retail stores need to change their Christmas facing, then you can provide videos with it, a training on how to build the little reindeer. Then, the employees can post a picture of the job done, so it’s not only basic communications, but we’re bringing it further, including task management, and so, communicating about anything in life, policies in the work life, policies or anything a retailer wants to do, but also bringing it to task management, training, and cross referencing all this, so you can make sure that the people that will do a job or achieve a task have the proper training, and that only the people who had the proper training can take that task.

(06:58):

So, these kinds of relationships between communication, task management, learning, and also shift management really bring our platform to a next level and of orchestration of the workforce, and making sure that people are enabled to do their job and rewarded too as well, because they check their tasks, they see how things are going, you can reward them with badges, so it really brings the experience to the next level. That’s without talking about shifts. Like you mentioned, my son had the same challenge you had having to call three people before he could find someone that could exchange shift with him. Now, with the WorkJam, we have open shift marketplace. You can request your time off right on the platform. You can take a shift from a pool, so that allows employees who are struggling with just base level salaries, trying to reach both ends, pick up more shifts, so earn more money without having the manager involved in all this, so it solves times for the managers, but also gives a lot of opportunities to the employees, so it does join hearts and dollars.

Nikki Harley (08:22):

Yeah, yeah. For sure. That’s great. There’s truly nothing worse, in my opinion, than a giant group text with dozens and dozens of people that you don’t know, and that’s what we had to rely on in the day of trading shifts, and your phone’s just going off 24/7, so that’s awesome that you guys have solved that. I didn’t even think about sending pictures of displays, and this is what this should look like, and I imagine that is much better than just saying, “Decorate this in holiday theme.”

Catherine Roy (08:50):

Yeah. You can think of challenges, like expired or dangerous food poisoning, for example. You need to recall yogurt. It needs to be done right away, so we’ve done the test. Companies who were implementing WorkJam saw it took days for their stores who didn’t have the tool yet implemented, and it was done in an hour when you could reach the right people that were currently on shift, and that had the perfect job to go and recall those yogurts, so it has a real impact.

Nikki Harley (09:31):

Yeah, and the peace of mind of knowing this reached someone, they checked it off, they did it, and also just the power of a to-do list. Nothing better than checking things off.

Catherine Roy (09:40):

Efficiency and productivity, it is at the heart of every business concern, with the pressure on financials, salaries going up, difficulty of finding employees sometimes, making sure that the ones you have on the floor are really efficient is key.

Nikki Harley (10:01):

Yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. Well, awesome. Well, I know that Work Jam is a cloud native company. Can you talk to us a little bit about why you guys chose to build primarily on GCP?

Catherine Roy (10:15):

Yes. Well, being in the retail, GCP seems like a bit less of a-

Nikki Harley (10:21):

Little more friendly.

Catherine Roy (10:22):

Less of a threat to retailers than-

Nikki Harley (10:25):

Sure.

Catherine Roy (10:25):

… Other names I wouldn’t name, and it seemed at that time that it was the easiest to manage. Since then, we’re thriving on the Google platform, on Google Cloud. We have a very good relationship with the Google team. Our headquarters is based in Montreal, and Google also has a big office in Montreal. We work very closely with them and innovation as well.

Nikki Harley (10:57):

Yeah, they definitely have their fair share of retail customers, so if that’s the target, then that makes a lot of sense. For sure. Oh, cool. What led you guys to work with SADA? How did you guys get introduced? What was the reason why you guys chose SADA?

Catherine Roy (11:13):

We wanted to go deeper with that partnership with Google. Being on the marketplace seemed like the good thing to do. Our team was struggling with too many things to do and a bit of lack of knowledge on how to be on that marketplace, so instead of spending so many hours and understanding what were the steps, it felt like the best thing to do to partner with you guys, so SADA helped us understanding the steps to be certified and to get to be on the Google marketplace. Now, customers that have Google Credits can now use them, and they can buy Word Jam through their platforms, the Google marketplace, so it is a channel for us that Extends our exposure, I would say.

Nikki Harley (12:03):

For sure.

Catherine Roy (12:04):

Yeah. Sarah made it easy.

Nikki Harley (12:07):

That’s great. That’s great to hear. I am really glad to hear that. We hear a lot, like what are the benefits of getting on the marketplace? Not many companies are searching the marketplace for their enterprise tools, right? But I think having the visibility there, having the benefits of customers, being able to burn down their commits by purchasing things on the marketplace is such a huge advantage, so that’s great that you guys were able to get on quickly, and have you guys seen the benefits? Have you started to see the benefits of that yet, being active on the marketplace?

Catherine Roy (12:42):

Yeah, it does add credibility. It adds easiness for customers, and it also introduced us, as a buyer, for our tools to the marketplace.

Nikki Harley (12:55):

There you go, yeah. You guys can start to use it too.

Catherine Roy (12:59):

Yeah.

Nikki Harley (12:59):

For sure.

Catherine Roy (12:59):

So, we started using it too.

Nikki Harley (13:02):

That’s great. Well, speaking of some Google tools that you guys are using, I know when we met earlier you were talking about Gemini. I mean, AI is the topic of the year, of the last few years. Can you talk to us a little bit about how WorkJam is leveraging Gemini and how you guys are planning on using AI to enhance your platform?

Catherine Roy (13:23):

Yes. We started using Gemini as a code assist tool, so all our developers have been trained, not all of them, directly by Google, but through Google help, so we started using that a few months ago. We are seeing increasing adoption, good impact on mostly back-end development testing, helping QA, creating tests, and making sure validation of code. Not using it to replace people, just enhance productivity.

Nikki Harley (14:01):

I think we’re a ways away from that.

Catherine Roy (14:03):

Yeah, so that’s for the internal part, but we’re also starting to use Gemini in the chatbot. So we’re working on implementing a chatbot in WorkJam in the tool itself, so that frontline workers can search, like a universal search within WorkJam, but within also any other source of data that the retailer or the company would want to feed the bot with. So, let’s say, for example, someone wants to know the time off policy, the maternity leave policy, they can look and ask the chatbot and get the answer right away, instead of asking your manager, taking the manager’s time to go through the document, because maybe he’s not been asked that question for half a year and he doesn’t remember.

(15:00):

So, removing all this pain or this time, and giving the access of the information right away can also accelerate how employees on the floor can answer customers that are asking for example, for the return policy that they don’t necessarily remember. So, they can ask the chatbot and have the answer right away to increase customer satisfaction, but the real plus, I think what is going to make it a game changer for us, and for the retailers and the employees, is the combination between the chatbot and the target audience engine, so it’s not about just searching and getting any result. If you think about it, there are permissions, people don’t necessarily have the right to see some information. You don’t want people to be looking for, “What’s my manager’s salary?”

Nikki Harley (16:02):

That wouldn’t be good.

Catherine Roy (16:03):

It’s somewhere in the bank of information, but you don’t want the employees to have access to that. Same thing, maybe the time off policy is not the same in California than it is in New York, for example, so based on the location or the position of the employee, again, the target audience engine will segment the answers that the chatbot will give to you, so that’s really important for retailers and any company, to make sure that it’s the right information that is delivered to the person asking the chatbot.

Nikki Harley (16:40):

For sure. I mean, any industry can benefit from that. What other changes can we anticipate for frontline workers with the addition of all of these tools and AI adoption?

Catherine Roy (16:51):

Yeah. We’re bringing a lot of new features this year, and we have been introducing last year too. One of the cool thing we delivered is Task Connect, so I was mentioning earlier that someone had to place for Christmas, but you also have a lot of other tasks that frontline workers have to perform, that might be related to other tools, but you don’t want your employees to have to deal with 10 different application. So, WorkJam becomes that hub where you can access your task, but at one part of the steps of this task, it can bring you to any other system, like an inventory system where you can enter how many peanut butter jars are left on the shelf, and then you’re coming back to WorkJam, continuing your inventory task, not having to leave the application and go to another one.

(17:53):

So again, reducing the time to go from one to the other, the simplicity of execution for frontline workers, all through seamless connection for them between the different tools they have to use. So this Task Connect feature really expands the possibilities of optimization of processes and workflows to make it as simple as possible, as efficient as possible for frontline workers. We can also interact with our task module with different other tools, like Qualtrics using sentiment analysis from customers to trigger tasks, or even use thermometer or like a freezer API that would say, “Oh. The freezer is not freezing anymore. There’s an API in that freezer that triggers a task.” So, our task module has really been evolving, getting simpler and simpler, but more mature, and with this Task Connect on top of all this, it makes it a very powerful tool.

Nikki Harley (19:11):

Awesome. Yeah, it sounds like you guys are making some really great strides for the frontline workforce, and if we had that years and years ago when I was working in that industry, it’d make, I’m sure, lives a whole lot easier, so that’s great. That’s awesome. Well, shifting gears a little bit, Catherine, you’re a COO in the tech industry where women are still a little underrepresented in these leadership and C-level roles. What advice would you give to other women aspiring into similar positions as you?

Catherine Roy (19:43):

I would say believe in yourself, but that’s a bit cheesy. I would start with mothers, actually, or mothers to be, because it starts at a young age, is treating your girls like you treat your boys in terms of technology. My father bought me a Commodore 64. [inaudible 00:20:09] how old I am, but it was in my room. I mean, it wasn’t, “Oh. You’re a girl. You won’t be interested in technology.” It is just making it like it’s normal and, “Oh. You want to go in engineering? Fine, great. You’ll have a great career,” so it starts with how you educate your children, but then once you’re grown up, I think there’s a lot of opportunities there.

(20:35):

So, it’s believing in yourself and not blocking yourself from considering these opportunities. It’s not because you’re not so tech-savvy that you can’t thrive in the tech industry. I worked in the video games’ industry for a long time. I wasn’t such a gamer myself, but I was curious and creative. So there is that you can fulfill that need for creativity and innovation in the tech industry, and I think that most girls think that the only way you can fulfill this need is to go in the entertainment or fashion, but there is that same creativity and innovation in technology that I think is overlooked a little bit.

Nikki Harley (21:34):

For sure. My family always jokes with me that I’m the least tech-savvy person, so it’s so funny and ironic that I work in tech. So yeah, totally. You’re 100% right, and I think your comment on mothers, I know I’ve become a better leader since I’ve become a mother, so I think that’s something too, that’s super powerful, is you just become a little bit more empathetic and understanding once you become a parent, and that also makes you a better leader in this industry.

Catherine Roy (22:04):

If I can add something, I would also say don’t make a fuss out of being a woman. To me, it’s a non-issue. It has always been a non-issue. It became one when people started to ask me, “Oh. What is it to be a woman in tech?” And oh, I didn’t even realize it was something. I think when you start victimizing yourself or thinking, “Oh. They’re talking to me like this because I’m a woman,” then you’re creating the problem.

Nikki Harley (22:34):

Sure.

Catherine Roy (22:34):

It is just like, don’t victimize yourself. Act normally, and things will go well.

Nikki Harley (22:40):

Well. Thank you, Catherine. It’s such a pleasure to have you on today and learn more about WorkJam. Can you tell us where we can find more information about WorkJam and all the cool stuff you guys are doing?

Catherine Roy (22:51):

Yes. Obviously, you can follow us on Facebook, on Instagram, and Twitter, but our website is the best place to go learn more about WorkJam. You can also go on the Google Marketplace.

Nikki Harley (23:05):

There you go. There you go. Sure can. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Catherine.

Catherine Roy (23:10):

Www.WorkJam.com.

Nikki Harley (23:13):

Perfect, perfect. Well, thank you so much. It was so great to have you on, and you don’t want to miss more insights from leaders like Catherine, so please, again, like and subscribe, and we’ll see you next time on Cloud and Clear.