As Labor and Goods Shortages Raise Havoc, Manufacturing Industry Insiders Solve for Hourly Worker Communication With New Tech Tool Called TeamSense

• Starts as COVID Symptom Tracker, Now an HR Must-Have

Hatched by two under-40 female Fortune 500 engineering and operations specialists, TeamSense is a new tech revolutionizing how manufacturers manage their hourly workers. Now a human resources tool, it was originally created in 2020 as a COVID symptom tracker, that has been redeveloped for HR leads to simplify attendance tracking and quickly reach deskless workers who do not have corporate emails. The company was recently acquired by the multi-billion industrial technology company, Fortive. Clients to date include Hunter Douglas, Pella, TDK and others in the auto, construction, aerospace, defense, hydraulics, tool making, plumbing, medical device making and other manufacturing sectors. A monthly price is charged per user.

After developing products and processes for companies like GM, Whirlpool and The Boston Consulting Group, the manufacturing industry insiders’ expertise hit a nerve with customers who requested its use for attendance and employee communication. Further applications of the tech are in development and include use of the tool to ease hourly worker hiring, onboarding and reducing barriers for new applicants.

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“At a time in history when so much workforce innovation is focused on desk workers that represent only 20% of the population; the remaining 80%, folks that come into a manufacturing site, warehouse or construction site, have been ignored. And labor shortages complicate the situation,” said Sheila Stafford, 39, CEO of TeamSense, “our tool offers a win-win-win; for the 70+ million hourly workers, their managers and their companies in this country alone. Until now the manufacturing industry has used antiquated processes that left managers and workers in the dark. Ironically enough, our tech does not use AI and is not an app; two things called out in a recent Harvard study to show were causcing 10M qualified workers to be overlooked for jobs in which they should have been matched.”

Several of TeamSense’s customers are auto industry manufacturers and are using the tool to handle worker shutdowns over the past month. “Given the recent chip shortage in the auto industry, which accounts for 8.5% of all U.S. manufacturing,” said Alison Teegarden, 30, Head of TeamSense’s Product & Customer Experience “imagine how you might handle temporary activation / deactivation of hourly workers in your factory. Until this tool became available, this would require 1000’s of phone calls and numerous phone trees to reach workers impacted by unplanned shutdowns.”

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With the help of TeamSense, companies can recall their hourly teams in a matter of minutes. Other features, which have never been systemized in the manufacturing industry by a technology like this include the ability to:

• Enable team access to benefits and announcements through a text-based employee portal.
• Auto notifications and reporting that flow directly to managers cell-phones, emails and dashboards.
• Automated documentation of each interaction.
• Codify attendance via a branching survey so that hourly worker’s paid time off is properly (PTO) and automatically recorded.
• Communicate with employees and easily reach an entire hourly workforce, or a single group, by text.
• Automate paper forms for employee suggestions, engagement and exit surveys.
• Manage attendance through text with employee call-in in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
• Text to apply solutions that work directly with your existing ATS.
• Systemize access to standard operating procedures and safety incident reporting.
• Screen teams for COVID-19 symptoms before they come onsite.
• Voice based call-in options available as well.

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