356: The Information Your People Need - with Bob Wise

Meet Bob

Bob is an experienced technology leader with 25 years in executive roles in cloud-based SaaS companies, including InterCall, West Corporation, FreeConferenceCall.com, and now Notiphy. Always taking a collaborative approach and being involved in all areas of the businesses, he endeavored to always improve decision-making with data. This led to starting Notiphy which tells you what your people did, where and when they did it, what data they collected, and how long they did it for.

With an aging workforce and hiring being an issue today especially in industries like manufacturing and warehouse/distribution, how can technology help?

Well, it's a great question. I've spent a lot of time really looking at, you know, all different areas of the labor force and work workflow, process management, and have had the opportunity to speak to so many people in manufacturing and other areas of the supply chain. And, and found, I mean, obviously, you know, there's been difficulty in hiring, especially now post-COVID. While we're sort of toward the tail end, but in this time period, it's been so hard for manufacturers to get frontline workers, and hiring young workers is, you know, to make it attractive, and manufacturing has been very difficult. And, you know, as you probably know, I mean, there's so many different factors that go into maintaining and hiring people, but you have to really show them that you've created an environment where people and technology are really balanced. And so they can see that they can safely and effectively perform their job and be, you know, and be a differentiator in the company. We know technology in general and the technology that we've developed can make workers more accountable, which by all studies is what they want. They can make them more efficient, productive and safer. And, you know, people have, you know, listened. We know that people have good days, people have bad days, you can't rely on them to remember everything, retain information on a stressful day, or execute the work without, you know, having information and the access to information at their fingertips. We don't need to replace paid people, but it really needs to enable them to be able to increase their performance and increase the company's performance. You know, additionally, technology, you know, helps maintain data that they didn't have before. So workers can, you know, input data into technology, transfer that data to other people. So as people leave, that data can be shared and not, it doesn't walk out the door as people are leaving the workforce.

Where can technology help companies and their people be more productive and efficient?

Well, you know, technology can really help tremendously. But people being more productive can really help the companies understand their data, so they can understand the labor efficiency, the actual labor, labor efficiency of their workforce, so they can continue to, you know, sort of move the ball forward and to what their expectations are. When you look at a lot of what happens on the floor of manufacturing or other areas of the supply chain, oftentimes, you know, you're gonna see a little chaos, right? I mean, you're gonna see people running around, you know, looking for paper, looking for manuals, waiting for somebody to answer a question to help. I mean, there have been some studies out there where people spend, you know, over five hours a week waiting for assistance, and, you know, two thirds of the time that can take, you know, a lot more time. I mean, as I sort of said before, I mean, technology can put that information, those videos that people might want to access, and those manuals at their fingertips, and really help them to, you know, to get that information while they're doing the job. It also can help with more on the job on the job training. And so gives them the ability to access that information while they're working. So it helps them be much more productive faster, it ramps them up faster, and providing them that data really, really can help you really onboard your talent much, much quicker.

Are the companies in these industries being successful at being data-driven?

Yeah, I mean, you can imagine in the world that we live in today, how important it is for companies to, you know, fully understand their data. And there are still a tremendous amount of technology that these companies are using, that don't doesn't give them all the data that they actually need. So I would say overall, it's definitely getting better. The bigger organizations, as I said, Have lots of systems. But still, many of those systems don't provide all the data that you know about, what about their people, what their people are doing, how long are there people taking on specific jobs or all the or all the tasks or processes related to those jobs? What happens in between? Did they have to access data or did they have to message out to somebody? I think some of the other issues that are hurting is that if you take in manufacturing, 90% of these companies in manufacturing are under 100 employees, and they're all having issues hiring, they're all busy, it's tough to get these decision makers to the table to hear a technology story. Especially when they have old technology or paper based systems, and in their mind right now with how busy they are, and how stressed they are, you know, it's good enough. So the biggest competition that we face is not so much the other technology companies, it's really stagnation and doing nothing. And so there's this perception out there that, you know, technology is expensive, has long deployment times, and it's difficult for employees to embrace. And we're really trying to change that, because that's not necessarily true and not true in all cases, and so getting technology that is much easier for people to use, and faster deployment and budget friendly is really important, especially for the smaller organizations if they want to get more data driven.

Can you share with our listeners one of your most successful or favorite networking experiences that you've had?

Yeah, sure. I'd love to, I'd love to say it was, you know, everyone would love to say it involved maybe a famous person or something. But that's obviously not always the case. I mean, for me, probably the most important networking event of my life is, you know, I was at a networking event, I can't remember the exact event that it was, I remember where it was in Chicago. But I met a random person there, right. I mean, I was working, I was looking to make some changes in my career. And I met a random person there at the event who was in the telecom space, more like telecom and conferencing. But, you know, he, she knew a person, you know, somebody who was running a conferencing company, you know, about a $30 million company at that time, and they had, you know, started looking for someone with sort of an entrepreneurial spirit to start a separate brand for them, and they wanted somebody with no telecom experience, no preconceived notions in that space. And, you know, I met with the president, we had a really good meeting and things went well. And I ended up having a 20 year career there. And with, you know, not only a fantastic career, but met so many people, made a lot of friends, and just have great memories of that company. And the history of that company, as I started from a very low man there to one of the top executives of that company and had an opportunity to run a lot of other software and technology companies for that company, as we continue to grow and became the largest company in that space, when I left.

So how do you stay in front of, invest in, and nurture your network?

You know, it is tough, but it's so important. I mean, honestly, Lori, I'm such an advocate of networking. And, you know, I do it through, you know, through emails now a lot. I do it through LinkedIn a lot, now I will reach out to people that I haven't talked to in a while, and maybe I don't have their current email address, but they're in my LinkedIn network. So I spend a lot of time in my LinkedIn network looking at, you know, people and people inside there, you know, in even now with some of the marketing and some of the things that we do with my company, you know, we'll put out content and people will put out content, and I will like their content and comment on it. And I make sure that my content goes out to, you know, to my network and stuff. And so, you know, a lot of it is done through LinkedIn, and other means, but I really do allocate some time each-- I'd like to say each day, but I don't. But each week for sure, a number of hours each week. And I definitely reach out to people, especially over LinkedIn that maybe I haven't talked to in a while and just catching up with them. And so it's very important.

If you could go back to your 20 year old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of, less of, or differently with regards to your professional career?

Well, again, you're, you're talking a lot about networking. And, and you're and you just said that it's good that I am intentional. But I wasn't always that way. And when I was my 20 year old self, I wasn't that way. Especially in terms of networking, I would tell my 20 year old self to, you know, get off your butt and do it and make it much more of a priority. And I think that's one of the things, especially today, when the younger people are less-- again, back when I was 20, you had to go out and meet people, right? You couldn't sit behind a computer screen and do a lot of the networking online. And so I think that in-front networking is still so important. But networking in general, I just wish I would have done more of it back then. And that's what I would have told myself: to just make it much more of a priority than I did back then. And I've tried to tell all the younger people that I work with and my own kids, who are in their 20s and starting their jobs, to make it a priority. I've really tried to tell them to do as I say, not as I did, when I was here.

What's a final word or advice you'd offer our listeners with regards to growing and supporting your network?

I think you and I just talked about it a little bit, right? I mean, it is realizing that people do want to help. So if you can convince yourself that that is true, and you realize that it's, you know, it's kind of like the, you know, the old Nike slogan, “just do it”, right? You have to do it. And, and I can't stress it enough how important it is, and the benefits that somebody could achieve from it. And so I listened, and I realized that, at least today, now, things are starting to change. And there's more live events starting to happen. But still, there are fewer live events than pre COVID. And, so certain things are going to be done digitally. And, you know, LinkedIn and certainly other platforms are very valuable tools to use. So use them, right? I mean, spend some time, allocate some time, whether it's put it in your calendar, 30 minutes a day, a certain number of hours each week, I mean, put it in your calendar to spend time nurturing your network on LinkedIn, looking at the people in your network, or other people's network that are that maybe they're connected to, that you might be able to tap into for advice, or introductions that are going to help you in your personal life or career.

Connect with Bob

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wisebob/