You cannot turn on the news without hearing how much this global pandemic is changing lives. Our personal and business lives are starting to either compete against each other or blend together in our day as many are forced to work remotely. To address the global issues we are confronted by today, SAP has launched SAP Purpose Network Live, a virtual platform that provides a space for collaboration and support of relief efforts for COVID-19. It will feature weekly engaging sessions related to our everchanging environment and profile many SAP.iO startups.
Episode 2 of Innovative Solutions from SAP.iO Startups Help Businesses Succeed Amid COVID-19, features Disco CRO Justin Vandehey, and Rachel Renock, Co-Founder and CEO of Wethos. The team talks about a shifting paradigm in what it is employees are looking for in a career. Moving from a paycheck being the most valued indicator or reward and fulfillment to a culture where people are increasingly more interested in fulfillment, finding a purpose to what they do in their careers. As of late, this might mean looking at how they work in a different way.
Rachel Renock and her team at Wethos are transforming the world of creative marketing by enabling teams of highly skilled freelancers to connect to form creative marketing teams remotely using the Wethos platform. In this model the free lancers have the opportunity to tackle bigger projects, earn more money, and participate in the work that they choose. There has been a powershift of people looking toward flexibility and freedom to help them scope work, delegate, and distribute work amongst their team.
The platform allows freelancers to discover and connect with each other and then share opportunities for work with one another. This has offered freelancers more independence, access to a larger network and more opportunities to work on growth. As people increasingly value job purpose, they start to define for themselves what growth looks like for them: Money related? Learning more? Meeting new people? Do I want to work less and live more? Wethos has created a place where freelancers can work on projects they are passionate about and puts more money in their pocket instead of the inflated agency overhead. On the flip side, the end customer gets more bang for their buck at the same level expertise they would find in an agency.
Renock has some great tips for success based on her own experience working with a global remote team, maybe most importantly she says there has to be a mutual trust. As we move into a more remote workplace be respectful of the change in schedule– trust your people to do their work when they can do it. And secondly, make sure to have an operating infrastructure. Documentation is valuable to set expectations and then the putting the supporting tools in place to help operate smoothly. Understand how you want to manage your team.
Disco’s CRO Justin Vandehey has seen for himself the shift from paycheck to purpose and the benefits of culture-aligned collaboration. He and the owners created the company when they saw that people who work in a remote environment wanted more connection, there was a new need to build relationships in a digital environment. Seeing for firsthand that some people were leaving jobs to work locally so they could have that direct human interaction.
Disco is a culture platform that runs on top of tools already used to communicate daily at work. They addressed the question of how we can meet those employees where they are already engaging with others to feel more connected. Disco is a real-time recognition platform that integrates into the employee workflow to tie moments that matter to core company values. By being in the employee workflow like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Disco socializes, celebrates, and scales culture and employee engagement. Disco was the first app to launch on Slack and its collaborative messaging helped companied connect and build stronger relationships through this platform.
The company helps businesses build new cultural rituals in the digital era of work that is anchored in their values and make it fun at the same time and Vandehey give us a glimpse of how in this episode. Organizations are having to think more about digital innovations, but also digital cultures. Disco recognizes the this is a tough time for companies, and they are excited to help them help employee in this changing time by offering an extended 30-day free trial and reducing our ongoing license fees by 50% after the trial period for all SAP SuccessFactors customers for the next 3 months.
At SAP, our purpose is to help the world run better. Now more than ever, we know we need to find solutions together. In that spirit, SAP.iO is incredibly privileged to collaborate with an ecosystem of B2B startup partners such as Disco and Wethos who are supporting global companies during this pandemic. We are proud to navigate the new reality with solutions from our over 60 SAP.iO startups who have released specific COVID-19 related offers. These offers and the latest COVID-SAP.iO news can be found at SAP.iO/covid-19.
