We’ve been living and breathing a fast-paced technology driven environment, whether we like it or not, accelerated by COVID-19 lockdown rules. Smart doesn’t just stop at phones, it’s TV, communications, gaming, watches, and even cars. There’s an app for everything and some. Of course, we’re not satisfied by just looking at one screen, are we?
Demand for technology has exploded because of lockdown and we are more reliant than ever on technology to keep us connected both at work and at home.
Will Businesses Adapt Forever?
Businesses all around the world are being encouraged, where possible, to work remotely and continue to do so. It’s even being reported that some offices will shut up shop entirely having seen reductions in overheads matched with successful employee output in recent months. But remote or home working isn’t entirely new. For many, it’s a fairly established way of doing things and for some – it’s really all they know. Even if you’re a working from home pro, you’ll always be on the hunt for something that connects you to others. Or you just want to show off about the latest must-have.
Without a doubt, there will be significant and long-term changes to I.T infrastructures that allow employees to continue remote working while going about their daily ‘office’ routine. While offices are expected to open in safe measures post-lockdown (whenever this may be), those that are not in the office still need to be able to connect. What’s more, there will be safe distancing measures in place at the office which are likely to reduce opportunities of too much physical contact for long periods of time. Something is needed to bridge the gap – but it needs to work.
We’re not just talking about the likes of unproductive and actually time-consuming instant chat service, a fancy calendar or all singing all dancing project management tool that’s too complicated it puts people off. The human element of post-lockdown technology needs to be considered.
For the long term, senior managers and HR teams will need to maintain staff culture and relationships that happen naturally in the office environment but take these online. Taking the ‘office culture’ to a technology platform is not only something people need to implement, they need to make it work for the foreseeable future. It’s important for personal growth, development, employee appraisals as well as instant communication.
If staff haven’t raised concerns already, they soon will be shouting for a technology platform that allows them to work efficiently at home and connects them to their servers, files and teams. But this doesn’t and shouldn’t mean snooping on employees. Having a two-way tool where employees can interact with colleagues and management will make everyone’s life easier.
StaffCircle is a communications, performance and culture platform that enables companies to manage employees across many locations. And with the likeliness of ‘home working’ to remain firmly in place for months ahead, this cloud-based software provides business owners and management a streamlined approach to employee communication, ensuring performance can be achieved remotely.
Start Up Success
Following a successful 18-months since launch, there is no slowing down now. StaffCircle will continue to develop product features and expand its offering to customers with a robust 2020/21 product roadmap. This demonstration in growth is backed by Blackfinch Holdings and Mercia Asset Management who have recently invested funds of £800k in the SaaS business.
Positioning itself as an all-in-one platform allowing managers and employees to unify performance, progression and responsibilities through culture – StaffCircle sets itself apart from other HR products and services that are expensive, clunky and disjointed, which make it difficult for employers and employees to communicate easily.
Aimed at medium to large organisations, StaffCircle has been developed by tech entrepreneur and CEO Mark Seemann to provide businesses with an efficient, collaborative and transparent way of managing employees and monitoring productivity. These core qualities, along with the ability to carry out a number of tasks such as setting KPIs, booking annual leave, creating personal development plans, instant alerts with feedback and more – provides employers with a 360-view of their staff.
CEO Mark Seeman explains, “The mission for StaffCircle is simple – to capture collaboration between staff, from front-line to top management and everyone in between. Quite often, businesses grow and communication breaks down, especially with a disparate workforce. It’s exactly what happened to me over the years and that’s how StaffCircle was created. This platform is about interacting with staff and empowering them but perhaps more importantly, at a time like this, it’s also about maintaining communication when businesses are not able to do so face to face.”
During this challenging time, to support businesses, Mark has opened up use of StaffCircle to businesses of all shapes and sizes giving them a free 12-week, unlimited licence for use.
Mark Seemann is a Tech entrepreneur and CEO of current venture, StaffCircle
Mark’s overall vision is to shift negative perceptions about clunky, disjointed software platforms with his extensive and personal experience of bringing simple solutions to the forefront. His knowledge of cloud-based technology
Mark has successfully started three cloud-based businesses where he sat as CTO or CEO (Genesis, Synety and CloudCall) which have then been sold. His current venture has received £1m of funding.
