(00:00:05) - Welcome to The HR Tech Spotlight podcast. I'm Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. The HR technology market is crowded, and we know it can be hard to find the best software solutions for your business in the sea of sameness. On this podcast, we shine a spotlight on some of the best up-and-coming technology options out there. Check it out if you are interested in learning about new, innovative solutions available in the market. And if you are with an HR tech company and interested in being considered for a guest spot. Stay tuned for details at the end of the.
(00:00:45) - Hello and welcome to another episode of the podcast. Today we are putting a spotlight on Beekeeper, a platform that solves the disconnect between frontline workers and their managers in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing and construction industries. Beekeepers mobile-first platform was designed and built for desk employees who, despite representing 80% of the global workforce, have been chronically underserved when it comes to workplace technology. With Beekeepers front line success, system companies can automate paper-based processes, communicate with employees in real-time from anywhere, and improve the engagement, productivity and safety of frontline workers.
(00:01:23) - Joining me to talk about this technology is co-founder and CEO of Beekeeper Cris Grossmann. Welcome to the show, Cris.
(00:01:32) - Thank you. Deanna. Thank you for the invitation and a pleasure to be here.
(00:01:37) - Of course. So I always like to start with the question. Tell us about your background in the HR tech space.
(00:01:43) - Yes, absolutely. So we've been doing this for over a decade serving frontline workers. And of course, air is one of the main personas and users of Beekeeper. It's all about enabling the frontline worker providing information and processes from an HR perspective. So I've been a blessed to talk to thousands of HR departments, heads of HR around the world. We have customers everywhere from the US, Europe and Asia. So I've been very much exposed to what are the latest trends, latest practices when it comes to serving the frontline from an HR perspective?
(00:02:23) - And let's talk a little bit more about what Beekeeper does. I obviously gave a little bit of an introduction, but I know there's so much more to the technology than what I mentioned.
(00:02:33) - Yes, absolutely. So we're a mobile first platform, dedicated and purpose built for frontline organisations and frontline workers. As you also mentioned, we believe frontline workers have been long, long forgotten when it comes to digitalization. The tools that they can use, and we believe they have already a hard enough job in order to make their jobs harder and more difficult by basically working with the tools of today, the status quo, which is pen, paper, bulletin boards and all of those things that just created drag and inefficiencies for companies. So Beekeeper provides a one stop shop solution for the frontline workers to get basically everything they need in order to be productive and engaged at work. So that's what we are as a as a company. We serve customers all around the world, the globe, as I mentioned, we have end users and employees and frontline workers in over 130 countries worldwide. So we're fortunate to be able to learn and see how the frontline works really around the world.
(00:03:41) - And I know you're one of the co-founders of the organization.
(00:03:43) - How did the company come to be?
(00:03:46) - Yeah for sure. So maybe a little bit background on myself. I'm originally from Mexico City. Both of my grandparents were frontline workers themselves. My father was also an entrepreneur and built a frontline business. So I would say from early on exposed to frontline workers. I used to spend summers and afternoons visiting my family, my grandparents and the paint factory that they used to have, and also the copper factory that my other grandfather worked. So I've been exposed to that environment for, for a while. And that's certainly one of the things that tainted us and tainted me to continue to follow that passion. The bad news is that the frontline world looks very similar today as how it looked 30 years ago when I was a kid visiting those factories. And as I mentioned, the status quo is slow-moving. It's very well established and hard to change. So we still continue to see companies struggle with language barriers, use pen and paper left and right with no digitalization of processes, which makes them just slower and the more difficult to to work as a company.
(00:04:57) - So we started in across a number of industries from the very beginning. We had our first customers in the manufacturing industry, in the retail industry and hospitality industry, and it was all about answering the question to those leaders, how can I reach my employees? They didn't have a way to put information out there to be in contact with 80% of the workforce and how to send them messages, how to hear back from them. And that was usually done through these old communication means. Through these cascades of information that is a little bit like playing in the heat. Game of telephone that I tell you something, and by the time it has done 2 or 3 hops, it's completely a different version. Right? So that's how we started as a company solving that problem for customers of how do I reach my employees? That was only exacerbated during Covid, of course, when you had to furlough people and send them home, and then you suddenly have no way of contacting them whatsoever, because typically frontline workers don't have an email address.
(00:06:01) - They don't exist in digital records of the company. So that, I would say, was the tip of the iceberg of how we started as a company. From there, we learned that that is really just the beginning of the digitalization journey for companies. So typically you start finding them other topics like shifts when do I have to work a swapping the the shifts, getting the training in the hands of the right people, onboarding frontline employees, etc. all of those are trickled-down effects from not being able to reach them and digitally connect with them. So we have evolved into becoming what we call a frontline success system, which is all about ensuring the success of the frontline workers by providing them information to the most important information that they need in order to be successful and productive at work. And so, as you mentioned, also initially the great frontline.
(00:07:00) - So you mentioned not a lot has changed in 30 years. I know that Beekeeper just released a big report. What are the trends that you're seeing in the market?
(00:07:11) - Yes, absolutely.
(00:07:12) - So today we are releasing, I would say, one of the biggest of its kind type of reports. We talk to 8000 frontline workers, frontline managers and people in the headquarters of those industries, six different industries across two continents. So there's a lot of great data that we have been analyzing and sinking our teeth in, and that we're releasing today in our frontline survey. What are some of the trends that we're seeing? I would say the most shocking one for us is. The fact that at least 50% of the frontline workers we surveyed have changed jobs in the last 12 months, so they continue to be discontent with their current a provider's of of work there. There are a number of topics like inflation, wages, understaffed shifts that are major pain points for for them. So happy to go a little bit deeper into the report. But certainly one of the biggest trends that we were shocked at was to continue to see how many of those frontline workers continue to change jobs at such a fast pace.
(00:08:26) - Yeah, that certainly is a lot.
(00:08:28) - And I can imagine for those companies that have to manage that, that can be really challenging. What do you think the solution is to address those type of problems.
Speaker 4 (00:08:39) - .
(00:08:40) - So I think the solutions like loading the. In the root causes of why they are changing. So in the frontline survey, one of the things that we that we saw was asking them like, why did you quit your job lately? Right? And it's interesting to see that on the one hand side, the answers for the frontline workers and for the managers are somewhat different, but they all point in similar directions. So for example, the first one is the change because they were looking for a better pay. That's of course one of the the easy answers. They're looking for a higher wages, something that really represents the effort that they're putting in. And that is, I would say, the first point that we found. But beyond that, I would say it's not only about money. And the solution is not just pay your employees more, which sounds easier than what it actually is, but there are levers that companies can actually use that are not just paying more money in terms of wages, but actually leveraging and doing a lot of the things that they can easily do through technology, through training and just getting closer and listening to their employees.
(00:09:47) - So, for example, the second main reason for change, at least for the workers, is the work life balance. So they they do feel a toll in the in the on their staff shifts in the pressure that is put on them. And finding a balance between work and life is another major reason that was mentioned for the job change. And last but not least, having a better prospects and better prospects in the job in terms of development and training and in terms of learning. So there are, I would say, two things that. Are much more actionable than just paying more money for companies, which is. Find ways to relieve the pressure that there is on the workers by making them more effective and more efficient with digital tools. As I mentioned, one of the biggest tracks are all of these paper processes that take forever. And had a lot of friction for the frontline workers to be completed, and removing a lot of that will free up some of the time and pressure. And that they're failing.
(00:10:51) - So digitalizing and investing in automation and technology is certainly one of them. The other one are around the growth that that people are seeking to to get, investing in trainings, development, the employees and acknowledging that there is a better path for them to go in the company. I think those are things that are low cost at at the reach of many companies, and that can certainly help to alleviate some of these pains that we're seeing, because ultimately, such a fluctuation rate and people changing jobs has a massive impact and massive cost for companies nowadays.
(00:11:31) - Yeah, that's really great advice, Cris. What role can Beekeeper play in helping solve some of those challenges?
(00:11:40) - Well, I think we we have been playing a very active role in this by, by the way, we have been developing as a platform and addressing the needs of the frontline workers holistically and not just as point solutions that nowadays I think the HR, tech space and in general, companies have way too many point solutions. And by bringing them under one umbrella, one hood, and having a simple way of providing that help and guidance to the frontline workers, that's where we see a lot of of relief.
(00:12:11) - And I would say the major areas that companies need to be thinking about is how do I support them from an HR perspective to do the. Processes that typically are really full of friction to get done, like requesting vacations, requesting three days. Looking at my payslip salary, when do I have to work and see my shifts? Like all of those things tend to be related with a lot of friction in the day to day for the frontline. So that's one big area. The second one is around communication and collaboration around the business, making sure employees are well informed, appreciated and they know what's going on. I think that that's a second pillar really important to cover. And the third one is around the topic of productivity. How do you support them in making sure that they know what are they targets? What do they have to do? How do they have to do it in terms of training, KPIs, targets, tasks, and everything that really has to do more with the day to day job. So I think the contribution that Beekeeper does to the frontline world is bringing those worlds together that are right now completely disparate, and this joint working in silos and joint solutions into one place where you can easily guide and help your frontline workers be more efficient and be more effective.
(00:13:30) - And how would you say Beekeeper is different from other solutions that are out in the market?
Speaker 4 (00:13:36) - .
(00:13:37) - Well I think when it comes to the front line there are a number of, of things. Of course the holistic approach is a very unique and different approach from other point solutions that you have here. And there may be only war trying to solve certain aspects of a workforce management system, or there's certain aspects of replacing an intranet in the company or trying to solve for the tasks and the execution. So all of those are systems that don't talk to each other, that each one of them needs to roll out, and it's a establishing it in the company and a certain amount of training, etc.. So our approach of holistically taking all of that into one platform, connecting with the systems that you already have and exist and leverage the data, I think that is really unique. The other big unique, point from, from paper is when companies embark on this digital transformation for the frontline, it's not a six month project or a A or a simple thing to do.
(00:14:36) - It's a whole change in the company that needs to be supported. And who better to do it that somebody that has done it over 1500 times over and over and knows how to guide those customers through that process, or the change management process, and making sure that you get really quickly within the first couple of months, those quick wins, and make sure that you're established and can get running and see the ROI or customers are seeing returns already within the first six months of deploying peacekeeper. But then from there, you have a very clear roadmap on how you will continue to evolve that a tool. So I think it's a combination of change management and the tool that really drives the success of of people and our customers.
(00:15:19) - And what type of companies would you say are really the perfect fit for your solution?
Speaker 4 (00:15:25) - .
(00:15:26) - So I would say typically we work with customers that have high share of frontline workers. We're talking about 60% and upwards where the vast population of workers are in the frontline. They're typically also largely distributed across sites, sometimes across time zones as well.
(00:15:44) - Companies that have to deal with language barriers, that has a very diverse workforce speaking anything from Spanish, Chinese, Albanian, Hungarian, Polish, etc. and that are struggling to get information across because of these language barriers. Those are great candidates. And I would say typically those companies are coming from industries like the ones you mentioned at the beginning construction, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and pretty much of all sizes. I would say there's minimal size for which it makes sense to make an investment like this in a platform, but anywhere upwards from a few hundred employees. It absolutely makes sense. We have the largest customers with over 100,000 people on Beekeeper, so I would say that the whole range is a is doable.
(00:16:35) - And what impact have you seen organizations that work with your company experience?
Speaker 4 (00:16:41) - .
(00:16:42) - Yes. I think the, the impact spans a number of different,, areas. I think the first one is around the people and making sure that people can be retained. So they see their fluctuation rates and turnover rates go massively downwards in anything from 20 to 30% lower than what it used to be.
(00:17:05) - I think the other big aspect is you're not only keeping your people, which nowadays in this world where everybody has staffing issues and they're not finding enough people making sure that your bucket is not a leaky bucket like, and your employees are living at these rates of 50%, it's a really big ROI. The other one is around operations and making sure that your team is productive and effective. Your digitalizing your simplifying a lot of the processes and trainings. And that has a massive impact. And then. And there's also, I would say, a very strong cultural topic of cohesiveness around the company, of making sure that everybody's on the same page. Everybody understands what's happening on the company, and it's about strategic alignment. So. I would say those are the three big buckets of. Impact that our customers face. There are also topics like compliance, because a lot of what we do is replace some consumer tools that have infested the organizations and that represent big risks for the company when it comes to data protection, leakage of data, etc. so we also help them and eliminate that shadow it.
(00:18:16) - The frontline workers, rightfully so, introduced just continue to do their job and try to ease it a little bit. So that's more of a compliance topic. That also is very, very valuable for our.
(00:18:30) - As you look ahead, what is the future vision for Beekeeper?
(00:18:35) - So for Beekeeper, I think our our North star and our vision is to make the life easier of as many frontline workers as we possibly can so that they live better lives, but also their organizations can thrive and do better business. So that's, I would say, our long term vision for Beekeeper to bring it to as many frontline workers as we possibly can in the next couple of, I would say, borders and years, some of the strategic priorities that we have is around strengthening our HR processes. We've seen an incredible adoption of HR processes on the platform. We're supporting that and bringing them closer and simpler to our customers in order to consume them and be able to get started much, much faster. Also, on the integration capabilities of the platform, we are investing a lot in order to make sure that we're playing well with all of those existing systems that are already around with the financial system, the payroll system, etc., all of which contain little pieces of information that are really relevant for the frontline worker, but that you want to extract basically from your systems and put at the fingertips of your frontline workers.
(00:19:45) - And then last but not least, one of the things that I continue to be amazed and humbled by, the passion that our customers show, is how much of a strong, vibrant community we have been able to build around. Practitioners that want to solve the frontline, disconnect, and truly unleash the power of their frontline workers. So we're also investing in bringing more of those communities together, enabling the learning from all of them across each other. And it's something that we already see a lot of the raw materials there, and there's a lot more that we can do.
(00:20:21) - What is the biggest hesitation that you see companies have when they're considering implementing a solution like Beekeeper?
Speaker 4 (00:20:30) - .
(00:20:31) - I would say it's the fear of the unknown or the fear of change. For many organizations, introducing a platform like Beekeeper into their their companies is the first time that they put any sort of technology in the hands of the frontline workers. And there are all sorts of questions and fears that come up like, oh my God,, are they at all going to be able or willing to use an app and install it on their phone? Are they going to be able to actually understand it, or do they need a massive amount of training, like the ones we're used to giving to the tools that we give to the frontline workers, etc.? So I would say we have specialized over the last decade in polishing every single aspect and friction point of the deployment of Beekeeper into these organizations in order to make sure that it's as a swift and as effective as possible.
(00:21:26) - To give you a couple of numbers that we do track, and that show how much of a difference it makes when you make it with a professional versus not is. We typically see customers trying to launch, for example, a new intranet or a social intranet or a slack tool that they want to also their frontline workers to have access to. Typically, what you will find there is that the frontline workers adopted at a rate of roughly 15%. So 15% of the employees will at all download the app, install it on their phone, and start using. That leaves 85% basically nowhere. So you don't have any sort of business impact with that type of deploy. With Beekeeper. We've done it over 1500 times worldwide. We know how it goes, and from the get go, we guarantee you can achieve 90% adoption. We know the recipe. We've done it thousands of times. So we know how to get 90% within the first couple of weeks. The last 10% are always the ones that never, ever had a mobile phone that are about to retire, that don't even want to know more about the company, etc. and in the best class, we do get to 9,599% of adoption of these types of technologies.
(00:22:33) - We the true frontline workers. So that's the difference is we're talking about A67X type of difference when you take the right approach rather than when you try to fake it till you make it by yourself using tools that are more tailored for office workers.
(00:22:51) - . Yeah. That's that's tremendous. I know with EHR technology that's the big fear right. Is you make this big investment to support your employees and the adoption rates aren't there. It's throwing money in the garbage. Yes. Nobody wants to do that.
(00:23:06) - Absolutely. So that's something we hold ourselves accountable to, that we regularly track with our customers and that we make sure that we do hit those, those metrics.
(00:23:17) - So, Cris, what final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with?
(00:23:22) - Well, I think it's important to highlight that the frontline workers are still in a turmoil. I think we're coming out of the pandemic with the sense of how the frontline workers are the essential workers. They do such an important and critical job for our society, and I think many companies have woken up to the opportunity that they have by providing the right technology to the frontline.
(00:23:46) - However, what we're seeing from this study and I invite everybody to go to our website and download the report, contains a ton of data. I think there are a lot of things that companies can do at the low cost, like recognition of their employees. They're hungry for recognizing it.. And there's a lot of data that you can do to better understand what are the pains, what are the stressors? What is the. What are the things that are holding back the frontline from being more productive and addressing? So I think that's an invitation for anybody in our audience that is interested in finding ways on how to more effectively deal and empower the workforce that they will find in our.
(00:24:30) - Great. Where can our listeners go to learn more about Beekeeper and to find that report?
(00:24:35) - They can find it on our website is www.Beekeeper.io. You will find there a big banner for our report, so we invite you to download it from there. And then we can add it in the link of the show.
(00:24:50) - Excellent. To our listeners who have a frontline workforce.
(00:24:54) - Be sure to check out Beekeeper. And Cris, thanks so much for being a guest on the HR Tech Spotlight podcast. It was great to have you.
(00:25:02) - Thank you so much, Deanna. Pleasure talking to you.
(00:25:10) - Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight podcast, where we showcase some of the best up and coming HR technology options in the market. If you are an HR tech company leader who would like to be. For a guest spot on this program. Please contact me via GrowthMode Marketing.
Speaker UU (00:25:30) - Or reach out to me Deanna Shimota on LinkedIn. And if you found this show informative, subscribe. Connect with us on social media and leave a review.
(00:25:40) - This is Deanna with GrowthMode Marketing signing off. Thanks for listening. We hope you'll tune in again next time.