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Beekeeper enables crucial connection for frontlines

, November 25, 2020

Similar to other deskless industries, there are unique employee engagement challenges facing the utilities industry brought on by advances in technology and a shortage of qualified workers. 
 
There are many factors that are affecting employee engagement these days: The big one for a third or more of employees: working from home, but it’s not the only item on the list. 
 
“Others, even for workplaces that still exist as physical company-owned facilities, include large teams, departments that work in isolation, multiple locations doing similar work, and the effects of physical distancing. It’s a long list, and it’s expensive,” says Cristian Grossmann, CEO of Beekeeper, a platform that enables collaboration and connects frontline workers to all the systems they need for work.
 
“The latest employee engagement statistics reveal that only 52 percent of utility workers are engaged. Disengagement costs an organisation 34 per cent of an employee’s salary.”
 
With many changes happening in the industry and an often stressful and sometimes dangerous work environment, it’s no surprise that employee engagement is a challenge. In the utilities sector, the road toward digital transformation has been slow.
 
Organisations spent plenty of time discussing technologies that could streamline operations, engage customers, and transform service delivery — but few utilities made meaningful progress.
 
However, unprecedented times called for unprecedented measures, often in the form of technology. Utilities quickly embraced new digital solutions once the pandemic forced back-office employees to work from home and field workers to distance. And in 2020 alone, some utilities providers have made more progress toward digital transformation than they had for years prior.
 
The key is for companies to focus on effective, transparent communication that keeps employees in-the-know, safe, and supported in their jobs. By providing a higher level of communications, the utilities industry builds trust in itself and the municipalities it serves.
 
Platforms like Beekeeper exist for employees in these jobs and the utilities industry. These platforms perform many of the same functions as intranets — supporting communication, providing engagement, and maintaining vital functions such as: 
 
• Training and onboarding
• Updating ever-changing protocols 
• Employee recognition and acknowledgement 
• Providing important wellness and benefits updates
• Discussion, forums, and employee contests
 
Beekeeper is a platform that enables collaboration and connects frontline workers to all the systems they need for work.
 
“We think of the frontline worker technology landscape as a broad range of industry-specific and/ or use-case specific tools that frontline employees interact with at work,” says Grossmann.
 
“Not all of the solutions a frontline worker interacts with every day are easily accessible on the front line, and when you put them all together the question of accessibility becomes even more complex. Logging in, printing, gathering around bulletin boards, keeping data up to date — all of these things become more challenging the more systems you have in place to enable, empower, guide and direct your front line.”
 
This is where it becomes important to have a mobile platform in place to tie it all together.
 
Grossmann says Beekeeper has working with early adopters who understand the value of connecting their front line for years. “We’re excited to see more companies waking up to the fact that workforce connectivity isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, but a necessary component to a healthy organization. This is a thrilling time to be focused on enabling the front line!”
 
Beekeeper was founded in 2012 by Cristian Grossmann (PhD in Engineering) and Flavio Pfaffhauser (MSc in Computer Science). The two friends were passionate about connecting people through technology, so they created Spocal, a student social network. Users found the platform so intuitive and engaging, they started using it for everyday communication. They quickly realised just how many businesses struggled due to a lack of high-quality, engaging tools for internal communication and knew they could fill that need with intuitive mobile technology. Now, Beekeeper has a strong presence in Silicon Valley and Europe, with customers in more than 130 different countries. –-Tradearabia News Service
 



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