Quinyx workforce management improve shift planning and workforce management
Please introduce yourself and your startup Quinyx to our readers!
Sure. I am Erik Fjellborg, CEO & Founder of Quinyx. Quinyx is the leading SaaS workforce management platform, founded in 2005 and used by 500,000 users worldwide. The software helps people to improve their shift planning and workforce management – instead of planning via pen and paper, they have a tool at hand that is mobile-friendly, flexible and easy to use.
How did you get the idea of Quinyx?
I had a summer job at McDonald’s and realised that shift planning was a huge problem for them – the manager of the restaurant always spent hours planning shifts, a task that required even more time when an employee called in sick or wanted to switch shifts, for example to attend an important family event. Even though the manager tried really hard to combine employee wishes with the requirements of the company, it was almost impossible – or at best took lots of effort from the shift planner.
Why did you decide to start with Quinyx?
I thought that there must be an easier way to plan work shifts – through new, digital tools. Unfortunately, the existing market at that time didn’t offer a good tool, so I saw the need to build a web-based system myself – and that’s how the company started. McDonald’s became our first customer and is still, up to this day, a customer.
What is the vision behind Quinyx?
My vision is to improve the work life of deskless workers everyday- to help them to be happier and to enable them to do a better job. The existing software solutions can be pretty circumstantial, for example, they don’t always work well on a mobile device. A lot of companies still work with pen and paper. This is why we think that we can make an impact in everyday shiftplanning – a belief which is confirmed by our customers.
How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?
It is always a challenge to develop a young company quickly, to find the right talent, to win the customers and, at the same time, manage the international growth of the company. The company was initially self-financed, but later secured significant venture and growth financing. We already successfully completed three rounds of financing – the investors are the same and thus still show us how much they are convinced of our business model. This, as well as our customers, is a really important signal for us that we are moving in the right direction.
Who is your target audience?
We are focussing on companies with a so-called deskless workforce, which means they are mostly operating in the service sector, such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, warehousing and logistics.Those industries have an especially flexible workforce and require a modern and convenient workforce management tool.
What is the USP of your startup?
The USP of Quinyx is our software solution with its high usability, its consistent tailoring to the needs of our users and great high functionality with a very modern, clearly arranged user interface that makes shift planning and communication a breeze.
Can you describe your typical workday?
Typically, I sit in our Stockholm office among all the other colleagues in the open-plan office and am therefore often approached directly when there is a topic I need to deal with, so that there is always a lot of spontaneous activity. This means that I am closely connected with everyone from the developer to the customer and am strongly involved in the daily business. To get down between tasks I like to play ping-pong, by the way, which has also become established among other colleagues, so that we even hold an annual company ping-pong tournament during our Christmas week, when all global team members are joining us in Stockholm.
Where do you see yourself and your startup Quinyx in five years?
Over the past few years, Quinyx has changed a lot, developing into an international successful, “grown up” tech company. We are planning to continue our international growth, in order to help people all around the world manage their working life as well as possible. Since 2018, we’ve had our own office in Hamburg, Germany, which is growing very quickly. We want to keep a special focus on Germany, since the feedback from our German customers shows that our product fits the German market really well and is really making an impact to our customers’ workforce.
What 3 tips would you give to founders?
Focus is key! Concentrate relentlessly on your goals and on building an amazing product that really solves the problems of your customers, especially in the beginning, when starting your business. In my opinion, growth needs to be healthy and it’s much better and more future oriented to have a great product in a small markt than to tackle a huge market with a product that is not well developed and therefore not competitive.
Choose your employees very carefully, making sure they fit your vision. In my opinion, the employees are one of the most important factors for success. Also, if you find the right people, enable them to do their job as best as they can.
Choose the right investors: Choosing investors who are already experienced in building similar businesses to the one that you are building makes things much easier, because they have a better understanding of some of your struggles – and can give you very valuable advice on how to overcome them.
More information you will find here
Thank you Erik Fjellborg for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
