In recent years we have seen more and more companies adjust to remote or hybrid models, particularly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Remote work offers many benefits, allowing companies to save on office space costs and employees to enjoy greater flexibility and more time to do the things they love. However, creating a strong remote culture has proven challenging. Recreating the dynamics of in-person offices virtually is difficult, which results in employees feeling disengaged from their roles.
It is clear that solutions to boost remote employee engagement are urgently needed. So, the team at SquadPal asked – what if your next team happiness manager was in your pocket?
SquadPal is a platform for remote teams that was founded in August 2020 by seasoned remote workers Robinson Nouveau, Mehdi Benbrahim and Harshit Jain. The co-founding team has experience working for some of the world’s biggest tech companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Babylon Health, Vodafone) and wanted to use their years of experience working remotely, even pre-pandemic, to help solve the problems they faced as remote employees.
“We’ve been remote workers ourselves for a long time now, and have had first-hand experience of how lonely and disconnected it can be.” says co-founder and CEO Robinson Nouveau. “We wanted to create something that brings remote work to life by making it easy for colleagues to be real and connect with their teammates.”
They built SquadPal as a platform for remote teams to collaborate, connect, and communicate. The goal is to make it easy to onboard, engage, and retain remote employees through fun asynchronous activities. Remote employees can take part in games, competitions, and challenges that can also be customised to suit their particular needs.
Since launching their app in February 2021 the team has onboarded over 3,000 teams from more than 500 companies. Now, they expand on their initial offering with a new Slack extension – Hakuna. This extension will further work towards their goal of streamlining remote employee connection by integrating it within one of the most popular communication tools. SquadPal has also revealed an improved website, where you can book a remote consultation or a demo of their products to see how it could work for your remote team.
The future is bright for remote workers as industries and companies continue to evolve to better provide for a remote workforce. SquadPal estimates there will be 450 million employees working at least 2 days per week remotely by 2025. Investing in the engagement of these employees is directly beneficial for employers: a report prepared for the UK government found that companies with a highly engaged workforce experience a 19.2% growth in operating income over a year.
Productivity and retention rates among engaged employees are, understandably, higher than among employees who don’t feel engaged at work. SquadPal helps with this, with 72% of active users reporting feeling more engaged at work and 70% reporting an improvement in their workplace wellbeing.
This is why SquadPal can be the happiness manager you wish you had.
