With periods of rapid change often comes some of the most remarkable ingenuity. Over the past few years, we have seen how pressing needs have created space for new innovations and ways of operating. This is especially true as we consistently strive to navigate new norms in the workforce.
After witnessing the struggles many faced during the pandemic with keeping up with their work while simultaneously striving to stay well, entrepreneur Lauren Wilson took it upon herself to develop a solution that prioritized both the employee and the company's needs.
Wilson initially became familiar with the dynamics of the workforce through working at her family’s outsource call center space. After years of experience, she became particularly interested with solving high absenteeism rates from a business perspective. As opposed to utilizing a route that would blame the employee, she shifted her efforts to encourage flexibility, trust and accountability for both the business and the employee.
Officially launching today on August 1, 2022, ImIn is a digital on-demand staffing software platform, based in Atlanta, that allows enterprise customers to improve their contact center scheduling, employee engagement, and customer service execution. Through this platform's functionality, businesses are able to effectively communicate with employees, track wages and performance, reward users and ultimately be accessible across a variety of devices. The company raised a million-dollar seed round in 2022 through Collab Capital’s investment to propel the product into the market.
Wilson shared with EBONY the process she underwent with creating this app and the importance of keeping up with the remote work ecosystem.
EBONY: As many companies and businesses continue to navigate and implement remote work structures, how do you believe ImIn helps in creating effective solutions toward this challenge?
Lauren Wilson: I realized that COVID-19 changed the workforce dynamic tremendously. Through the creation of the ImIn platform, we are able to provide flexibility to employees that may not normally receive it due to the nature of their job. A major appeal of our platform's branding is that we operate primarily from the employee perspective. This directly leads to a win of happier employees which results in a win for corporations overall.
This scheduling platform directly helps minority communities through providing a tool for them to thrive at work. Can you speak more to this?
ImIn was born out of the knowledge that 98% of the employee population of my family’s business are African American and approximately 95% of them are parents. Furthermore, a good portion of them are women and single mothers at that. Due to the lack of flexibility in work hours, I frequently saw scheduling challenges. It is critically important to create an environment that considers both an employee’s personal and professional life. ImIn has features where a fulltime employee can be provided flexibility by reaching 40 hours through working a flexible schedule throughout the week or it allows employers to cover shrinkage or gaps due to absenteeism through making unfilled hours available to an available workforce that works a minimum of 10 to 15 hours per week. Together these two features allow employers the ability to retain full time employees and the ability to recover typically lost revenue due to absenteeism. Additionally, employees are provided needed flexibility which increases employee satisfaction.
What are your tips for folks who’d like to develop an app one day based off your experience developing ImIn?
My main piece of advice is having a sound vision for what you're trying to create because that vision will shape the application. There'll be many, many iterations of what you're trying to create, but make sure even with each iteration that it brings you closer to achieving the ultimate vision of your product. Stay focused on the goal. Surround yourself with a strong support system and resources that can help you.
