Looking Glass is a WFM solution that serve many purposes depending on your specific needs, just like the elephant in the fable is many things to the blind men who touch different parts of its body (spear, snake, fan, wall, tree trunk and rope).
Having just returned from the 20th Annual HR Technology Conference and Exposition where we introduced several of our newest workforce management solutions, I was amazed at how many different uses people thought of as they examined one of our newest tools, Looking Glass™. It reminded me of the story about the Blind Men and the Elephant, where each of the blind men interpreted the elephant differently. So too, are there many different uses for this one product. I thought I would share some of the uses people came up with after seeing Looking Glass for the first time.
A Preventive Maintenance Tool — One woman envisioned this product as a method for continuous code checks. She was in the software industry and revealed that there is a real need for a method to keep programmers moving in the right direction. If her company was using Looking Glass, they could stop the programmer moving in the wrong direction quickly, rather than having to wait until after the damage was done, and hundreds or thousands of lines of code have to be rewritten.
A Conflict Resolution Tool — Another lady remarked that she wished her company had this product two weeks ago when she had to deal with an angry employee disputing his hours. She has long suspected this employee cuts his days short when no one is looking. When she went by his desk at 2 p.m. on Friday he was nowhere to be found. She assumed he slipped out again. He claimed that he was in another office at that time and later forgot to clock out when he finally left at 5 p.m. If they were using Looking Glass, the manager could visually see the employee working and when he was not working, rather than having to take the employee’s word for it. The system offers video monitoring in real time, and can also record and store images for as long as the business wishes. Unfortunately for this company, there was no proof that the employee disputing his hours left work early that Friday.
A Legal Tool — An acquaintance with the woman above remarked that the Looking Glass would also be a great tool to use as proof when workers tried to make unfounded unemployment claims.
A Tool for Collaboration — One man commented that Looking Glass was an excellent tool that his boss should know about. He was particularly excited because it might allow him to continue working from home. It seems that the company he works for is calling back all telecommuters due to their inability to collaborate. Innovation, it is claimed, is thwarted when telecommuters work in silos. Looking Glass with its video conferencing and screen sharing capabilities is a way to bring teams together when brainstorming, planning, socializing, or working through a project no matter where they are physically located.
A Learning Tool — Looking Glass is also a great means to train employees. Since it is a form of quality monitoring, companies can find video to demonstrate excellence and share it with the low performers. Video of each worker can also be used during one-on-one mentoring sessions to point out positives as well as areas where improvement is needed. Several visitors to our booth indicated that they would love a tool such as this to enable workers to see the methods used by different employees to accomplish similar tasks.
An Evaluation Tool — One man said he might want to take out at random video of employees to use for performance reviews. Perhaps a video after 90 days, another after 180 days, and so on through the year – this would enable management to gauge improvement and competency.
Like the blind men and the elephant, how one sees our Looking Glass workforce management solution can be unique for everyone. You can use it as an evaluation tool, a learning tool, a tool for collaboration, a legal tool, a tool for conflict resolution, and even for preventive maintenance. We haven’t even scratched the surface of all the uses for the newest tool in our workforce management solution suite, and its capabilities for screen sharing, multi-station video conferencing, instant messaging, monitoring workers in real time, recording workers and the work being performed, video interviewing, etc.
See for yourself what it can do for your company – request a demo of Looking Glass today.
Want to learn more about Looking Glass? Click here.
Want to view and/or download the Looking Glass info sheet? Click here.
About Pipkins
A privately-held, American-owned company, Pipkins, Inc. was founded in 1983, and is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm is a leading provider of workforce management solutions for the contact center industry. Today, Pipkins’ systems forecast, plan and schedule more than 300,000 agents in over 500 locations across all industries worldwide. In addition, Pipkins solutions have applications for back office and remote workers, as well as a range of other business operations.
by: Martha Heltsley, PhD