While working together at Ceridian, a Fortune 500 Company and global provider of human resources software and services, John Cardella (former Chief People Officer) and Shami Sheikh (former SVP, Ceridian LifeWorks) shared joint perspectives on how companies could solve the decades-long challenge of employee engagement, and enhance employee connectivity to inspire greater productivity, and happiness at work. Their vision was to turn existing employee engagement models upside down, and instead of organizations using a top-down approach to employee engagement, reverse the hierarchy into a “WorkerUp” perspective. An employee engagement solution that would bring people closer to develop more meaningful relationships and higher-trust workforces that would allow companies to collaborate at a higher, more human level.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies and their people were suddenly even more disconnected than ever before. John and Shami set out to develop an employee experience app, rooted in proven engagement principles, that would bring people back together again, closer, and more engaged than ever before. The app would need to be something people genuinely enjoyed, and a space where they could openly share ideas, provide feedback, and experience a true sense of community and belonging. The app would enable management to gain key insights directly from employees on the ways they could improve their organization, products, and services. Not just a point-in-time employee engagement measurement tool, like a survey, or a flat, two-hour online training session, but a dynamic platform that actively works to increase and improve employee engagement, in between the surveys.