Most contact centers are familiar with a pervasive problem: absenteeism. According to a 2017 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) report, an estimated three percent of an employer's workforce was absent on any given day. In the years since this report, experts have estimated that the problem is even more pervasive.
Lauren Wilson, founder and CEO of Black woman-owned workforce solutions startup ImIn, notes that call centers and other labor-heavy industries need to reimagine the way the workforce operates.
“The world and how we do things is changing quickly and ImIn is helping organizations keep up by reimagining the way we work,” said Wilson. “Through our app, employees are now in control of their lives and careers and can choose when and how they want to work without impacting their employer’s bottom line.”
ImIn’s app provides flexibility by allowing employees to join and work based on the hours that work best for their schedules. In addition to providing flexibility for the full-time employee, ImIn also has the ability to offer hours to a pool of on-demand staff, which helps fill gaps in hours and ultimately minimize a company’s revenue lost on a daily basis.
For employees, the application supports work-life balance while also helping them maintain their employment and consistent income.
“I wanted to shift the traditional thought processes of the workplace, beginning with the outsourcing industry,” said Wilson, who believes static work shifts and 40-hour schedules should be a thing of the past. “There are members of our workforce who make tough decisions daily between attending to a personal matter and earning a paycheck. It was heartbreaking to talk to mothers, for example, who felt torn choosing between caring for her sick child or making a day’s wage.”
The marketplace seems to agree: less than six months after its founding, ImIn has closed $1 million in seed funding. With the newly secured funding, ImIn will scale and automate its on-demand employee scheduling app, which has been in its beta stage since June 2021. The app allows workers, particularly those in hourly, wage positions, to have full control of their work schedules while also earning rewards and incentives. Companies can, in turn, fill scheduling gaps by sending out push notifications to their talent pool.
Edited by
Erik Linask
