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VISION 2023: Essentials Conference Recap Day 1

May 2, 2023

Next-Gen Workforce Management and Frontline Worker Employee Experience Technology Are High Priorities: 2022 Gartner<sup>®️</sup> Hype Cycle<sup>™️</sup>

Taking place in the heart of Music City, VISION 2023: Essentials brought together like-minded global employers, experienced system integrators, HCM thought leaders, workforce management technologist, practitioners, and business leaders to meet, collaborate, and discuss how to make smart investments in workforce efficiency and engagement. This served as a gathering place for those passionate about building a stronger, happier, and more productive workforce—now and as business needs continue to evolve. 

For the first time since the pandemic, VISION 2023: Essentials conference was completely in-person. Beginning with an energized welcome reception the night prior at the Country Music Hall of Fame, the first day of VISION 2023 featured a spectacular lineup of global breakout sessions led by customer speakers, WorkForce Software experts, and experienced global partners.  

Here are just a few highlights: 

Mike Morini, CEO of WorkForce Software Kicks Off VISION 2023

Future success relies on how we prioritize employee well-being and innovation. Mike Morini, CEO of WorkForce Software, emphasized that future success relies on how we prioritize employee well-being and innovation today. 

The evolving needs of the modern workforce have challenged the traditional employer/employee relationship and there’s no returning to the ‘normal’ that existed before 2020. “The only direction is forward,” declared Mike Morini in his opening address. In the face of labor shortages, changing employee demographics, inflation, supply chain risks (the list goes on), organizations need to prioritize their ultimate competitive advantage—their people. 

“We’re going to shape the future of work together.”  

Mike Morini, CEO of WorkForce Software 

Keynote Speech—Engagement Is the Key to Achievement

Rusty Lindquist, CEO and Founder of Life Engineering, declared that we are in the most competitive economic landscape in history. Amidst other waves of disruption, the commoditization and competitive abundance of innovation means that an organization can no longer sustainably differentiate themselves based on what they do. “Success is more about who you are,” Rusty stated. In this climate, how organizations manage people and culture directly impacts the performance they can achieve. “Businesses don’t create value, people do.” Rusty identified strategies to unleash the value of an organization’s workforce noting that most efforts to improve performance focused on time and talent.  

“When it comes to performance, energy for the work we do has more impact than talent and time.” Even minor investments on this front can have an impact on engagement. You have to go deep to understand the sentiment of your employees as individuals to lead to peak performance. Businesses don’t create value, people do.” 

Rusty Lindquist, CEO and Founder of Life Engineering 

What Year Is It Inside Your Organization? 

Co-CEO of GroupeX, Farhan Khan emphasized the significance of digitization protocols and the utilization of back-end data as tools for big picture building, showcasing how a dedication to digitization can enhance an organization’s empowerment, efficiency, and optimization, while also transforming systemic issues through automation. 

 He then provided best practices for overcoming barriers and building engagement by strengthening visibility measures that create flexibility for employees to deliver work in the best way. “The organization becomes empowered with all this combined data to make better decisions looking at the big picture, getting in front of issues, expanding and being able to wipe out the competition.”  

Customer Success Stories

Ben Wooding, CEO of Red Badge, described the challenges their organization faced in managing scheduling through manual process. Errors, back-end processing procedures, along with the challenges of a competitive labor force all contributed to high turnover and low employee engagement. Ben stated that their decision to leverage WorkForce Software was motivated by the desire to achieve better outcomes for customers and staff alike and encouraged other organizations to fight for similar standards. “The first job is to make sure that the basics are taken care of.” Further, he talked about the benefits of moving to a centralized system that could quickly share information, enabling flexibility and trust with their employees.   

Are You Ahead of Your Time?

We joined Mark Bryner, Product Director, HR and Payroll and Raquel Simpson, Managing Architect for Time and Attendance to learn how CONA (Coke One North America) achieved success with a multi-tenant complex configuration—and the strategies used when making changes to policies. As part of the broader Coca-Cola ecosystem, CONA looked for the best ways to leverage WorkForce Software solutions to stay compliant across a complex network of bottlers. They also discussed best practices for optimizing value across organizational functions. Mark shared, “WorkForce Software cares deeply about their customers and their success.”  

Session Highlights 

The first day of VISION 2023 was jam-packed with sessions covering a variety of workforce management topics, customer stories, implementation best practices, and product overviews.   

Here are key takeaways: 

Maximize Your Investment: Meet the New Select and Signature Tiers

In this session, we explored WorkForce Software’s updated support structure, including new Select and Signature Tiers, created with customer feedback and industry analysis in mind. Molly Gapp, SVP, Continuous Service at WorkForce Software, and Annwar Miah, Global Support Senior Manager at WorkForce Software, discussed how these new tiers are helping customers receive the most value from their modern workforce management investments.
 

Air Canada’s WorkForce Software Win: Automating Pay & Boosting Crew Engagement

Ryan Hoffman, Delivery Manager at WorkForce Software and Shantelle Hector, Manager, Crew Pay and Brankica Segota, Senior Manager Crew Admin of Air Canada dove into their unique WorkForce Software journey, discovering how they tackled union rule challenges and automated complex pay calculations. We discovered how WorkForce Software streamlined and optimized crew payroll processes. The improvements helped in minimizing manual work and reducing pay errors, demonstrating the power of improved data management, analytics, and reporting tools that enhanced business requirements and financial results analysis and forecasting. Brankica noted that these implementations were made possible through an extended testing period. Moreover, we heard about Air Canada’s collaboration with the dedicated WorkForce Software Managed Services team, their committed to understanding Air Canada’s requirements and configuration, enabling continuous application improvement. 

“When we were going through testing, we realized WorkForce Software is doing this right and the legacy system isn’t. We knew we were moving in the right direction.” 

Brankica Segota, Senior Manager Crew Admin of Air Canada 

Scaling Your WorkForce Software Solutions for Sustainable Growth

Together, Niels van Amerom, Director of Professional Services, Lani Davis, Director of Professional Services, and Kathy James, Sr. Director Professional Services at GroupeX discussed post-go live strategies to optimize their solution using WorkForce Software Account Managed Services. We also learned how to leverage various governance models and different methodologies from agile to traditional ticketing.  

Engaging Front-Line Workers through Operational Communications: A Comprehensive Strategy for Driving Organizational Maturity

Angelina Sun, Director, Product Marketing and Virginia Wear, Solution Consultant at WorkForce Software explored the advantages of operational communications for engaging front-line workers and driving organizational maturity. This involved learning how best practices and comprehensive communications strategies can drive organizational maturity, including top-down communication, team collaboration, and bottom-up feedback loops to empower your workforce and enhance productivity. Further, we learned how to gain insights on why effectively engaging and empowering modern workforces can boost productivity and drive positive business outcomes.  

See why WorkForce Software has been rated the #1 workforce management solution provider by Nucleus Research in their WFM Value Matrix for the ninth year in a row. 

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