EX-Related Product and Partnership Announcements from ADP, Achievers, Cogito, FirstUp, and Others

Focus Areas Include Frontline Worker Support, Communications, and Voice of the Employee

Recent EX announcements feature a lot of focus on frontline workers, with solutions for insights, coaching and rewards, and recognition. Additionally, ADP launched its entry into the voice of the employee (VoE) space, giving its human capital management (HCM) customer base easy access to a survey solution.

ADP Introduces Voice of the Employee

Leveraging the knowledge and data of ADP Research Institute, ADP has introduced a survey solution to collect feedback and sentiment across the employee lifecycle. The offering uses ADP DataCloud analytics technology and customizable survey templates that cover a range of topics along a customer journey (new hire onboarding, candidate experience, employee engagement and resilience, and employee exit).

“It’s never been more important to create a workplace where employees feel valued and connected to their work – and doing that starts with listening to what they have to say,” said Aaron Smith, SVP of global products and user experience, ADP. “Employee surveys are easy to create, but hard to get right. We designed Voice of the Employee to deliver reliable data that is more predictive of employee behaviors, so leadership can analyze results with confidence and focus on designing a workplace that meets the needs of the people in it.”  

The tool is available within ADP’s HCM platforms, allowing for easy access to all HR data that can help build survey audience lists depending on where the employee is in their tenure. Surveys can be sent via email, text, or ADP mobile app notifications and results can be benchmarked against local, global, or industry peers.

Aware and WorkJam Partner for Frontline Employee Support

Frontline-focused mobile app provider WorkJam and collaboration intelligence platform Aware have partnered to integrate Aware technology into the WorkJam solution, bringing enhanced insights into frontline workers priorities, behaviors, needs, and concerns. Aware will also help organizations to implement the necessary security, governance, and compliance controls within their WorkJam environment.

“We’re thrilled to partner with WorkJam to give their enterprise clients visibility into what is top-of-mind with the frontline. From the break room to the board room, our AI-powered technology helps surface the insights that business leaders need to ensure their frontline workers feel valued, heard, and able to provide the kind of excellent customer experiences that lead to long-term business success”, says Jeff Schumann, CEO at Aware. 

Rich Halbert, Chief Strategy Officer at WorkJam says, “To improve employee happiness and retention, enterprises not only need to provide digital tools that streamline tasks, scheduling, and communications, but also truly understand what’s happening within their frontline staffs. By partnering with Aware, we’re able to give our business customers powerful insight into the trends, conversations, and overall sentiment that are important to their workforces, so they can quickly address employees’ needs and concerns and reduce risks and turnover.”

Achievers Partners with Axonify and Integrates with Microsoft Viva

Achievers and Axonify have formed a partnership that will give mutual customers an easier way for employees to access their rewards and receive recognition. Axonify focuses on mobile-first learning and communications solutions for frontline employees, while Achievers has an employee experience platform that encompasses recognition, connection, and listening.

“With so many overlapping customers in the retail and grocery sectors, it was only natural that we establish a relationship with Axonify,” says Jeff Cates, CEO and President, Achievers. “We look forward to working together to deliver a more robust rewards experience to this highly engaged customer base and offer the Achievers Employee Experience Platform to frontline workers.”

Accomplishments that employees learn from training and learning in Axonify can be transferred to the Achievers platform, where employees can either pick their reward from Achievers’ reward catalog or keep collecting points.

“Frontline businesses are currently stuck in a vicious cycle, experiencing high levels of employee turnover with a limited pool of talent to tap into. With no relief in sight as we enter the crucial holiday shopping months, these businesses can ill-afford to lose more of their current workforce,” says Carol Leaman, CEO and Co-Founder, Axonify. “In partnering with Achievers, we’re able to provide an ecosystem that creates a better work experience, offers a breadth of rewards and recognition and keeps frontline workers better trained, which will lead to longer-term employee retention and a less stressful holiday season.”

Additionally, Achievers announced Achievers for Viva Connections, which will give users of Microsoft Teams the benefit of the Achievers platform. “Microsoft Viva is an open and extensible platform that supports connection, insight, purpose, and growth – empowering people and teams to be their best. And now, this latest integration with Achievers provides a quick way for employees to recognize and celebrate their coworkers and their own achievements right in the flow of work,” says Sunita Khatri, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft.

Cogito Launches Personalized Coaching for Frontline Employees

Cogito has introduced a new module that provides real-time, continuous coaching, and personalized growth plans for frontline workers. The Personalized Coaching solution can identify emotional cues and important conversation topics that are relevant to the contact center context. Calls are reviewed with targets automatically identified, freeing supervisor time to focus skills development.

“Well-being has always been at the heart of our technology, creating solutions that equip individuals with real-time emotional intelligence and insights to improve their ability to deliver more caring, differentiated experiences,” says Joshua Feast, CEO and Co-Founder of Cogito. “As we navigate a changing workforce, we expect to place a more considerable emphasis on the applications of data to improve frontline employee experiences and, consequently, the interaction between agents and customers. Cogito ensures enterprise frontline teams are equipped with resources to enhance and improve these human interactions with the tools and guidance that empower humans.”

Personalized Coaching uses AI to assess agents’ specific skills and needs. Direct feedback is given on agents’ progress toward their personalized goals.

Firstup Enhances Platform to Lessen Employee Digital Overload

Intelligent communication platform provider Firstup, has launched data-enabled platform enhancements aimed at reducing the amount of “noise” aimed at employees, resulting in more personalized and meaningful communications. Firstup’s platform can connect to in-house EX technologies including human resource information systems, recruiting, learning & development, talent acquisition, and performance management. Data can be collected from all these sources helping to build comprehensive employee profiles to ascertain the appropriate timing, channel, and type of campaign each employee should receive.

“There’s no denying that the workforce is experiencing a digital overload crisis. Most organizations are trying to find a solution to the symptoms, like burnout, rather than solving the underlying problem, which is digital complexity,” says Nicole Alvino, CEO, Firstup. “Businesses should focus first on building meaningful connections and look for ways to reduce digital noise, which might require different methods for different employees. Our platform empowers HR, communicators, and leaders to engage on a personal level, intelligently, throughout every employee’s journey – which will mean better outcomes for all.”

Specific features launched include new connections and in-app experiences, enhanced universal employee profiles, employee journey campaigns, optimized intelligent delivery, and continuous employee journey insights.

Moveworks Launches Employee Experience Insights

Moveworks has introduced a solution that leverages natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning (ML) to uncover the biggest obstacles slowing employees down. Aimed at chief information officers (CIOs), the solution analyzes and categorizes data coming in from customers’ IT service management systems and provides specific insights into the largest problems causing inefficiencies and employee frustration. This functionality is done in real time.

According to the company, most out-of-the-box NLU models can categorize 20-30% of a company’s tickets when performing the same analysis while Moveworks NLU models can categorize 100%. The Employee Insights solution focuses on the people experiencing the issues, helping to provide answers to questions such as:

  • Which apps do employees need to access on day one?
  • What are the biggest issues remote employees are running into?
  • What are the most common issues employees spend time troubleshooting?

“Every help desk is sitting on a treasure trove of information that could prevent future issues, before they happen,” says Bhavin Shah, CEO of Moveworks. “But business leaders have not yet been able to extract value from this data because the majority of AI models fail to understand the vast ambiguity of human language. Recent advancements in NLU have changed that — and it’s a milestone that will fundamentally change the way business leaders make decisions moving forward.”

Vantage Circle Partners with A Better Living

Employee Engagement provider Vantage Circle has partnered with wellness company A Better Living. This partnership will enhance Vantage Circle’s Vantage Fit module, which is aimed at improving corporate wellness and employee wellbeing.

“People on their journey to physical fitness through Vantage Fit already understand the importance of health to their work performance. An emotional wellness coaching from A Better Living will complete the whole system of physical and mental health and lead to peak performance for Vantage Fit users,” says Moumita Paul, Founder of A Better Living.

Author Information

As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.

Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.

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