Canadian Retailer - Store 2015 - 52

REBOOT CHALLENGE

UP
FOR
THE
CHALLENGE
Start-up companies wow with innovation at
Retail Council of Canada's STORE 2015
BY SEAN C. TARRY
INNOVATION and creativity are the lifeblood of the retail inment and omni-channel and upgrading their
dustry. Whether that innovation and creativity has to do with back office systems. But there hasn't been a lot
increasing productivity, enhancing customer service, enabling of focus toward making the store operations
workforce management or developing integrated marketing, more efficient. We knew that we could develop
it's what continues to drive the industry forward.
something that could help solve that problem
In celebration of the innovation and creativity sparking all and bridge the gap."
across the country by young start-up companies supporting the
As a grand prize, WorkJam will have the opindustry, Retail Council of Canada (RCC) hosted the inaugural portunity to present to RCC's Board of DirecReBoot Challenge at STORE 2015.
tors at an upcoming Board meeting, where 15
The challenge was launched as part of an overall effort by of Canada's retail leaders gather from across
RCC to provide retail industry profile and help foster growth the country to provide guidance and direction
for Canadian start-up companies who serve the retail market- to the retail industry.
place. More than 40 start-up companies submitted their product descriptions. Each was
judged by a group of retail industry experts.
All candidates were Canadian companies
less than three years old and were judged
on their potential to transform the retail
experience and make a positive impact on
the industry. Ten finalists were selected and
received a booth at the conference as well as
an RCC membership.
The top four companies with the highest
score after judging had the opportunity to
present their solution onstage to a live audience for five minutes at the Conference. Delegates voted via the conference mobile app for
the start-up they felt was most deserving of
the winning title. That start-up was WorkJam,
Its product is the WorkJam Employee Relationship Platform. The Platform empowers
employers to streamline scheduling, com- (L-R) Michael LeBlanc, senior vice-president, digital retail, RCC, Steven Kramer,
munication, training and recruiting for their CEO of WorkJam and winner of RCC's ReBoot Challenge, and Matthew Corrin,
hourly workforce. It provides a simple ap- STORE presenter, ReBoot finalist and CEO and founder of Freshii.
proach to managing the constant flow of shift
trades, swaps and cancellations that managers need to deal with
"We are thrilled to have been presented with
on a day-to-day basis with their staff.
this prestigious award from Retail Council
"Over the past five or six years, as companies have become of Canada," says Kramer. "We appreciate the
more sophisticated in their omni-channel strategies, we started strong support from so many retail industry
to see a disconnection between how retailers envisioned their leaders at STORE 2015 who voted for us. We
stores running from a resource perspective and what the reality look forward to helping these businesses lower
was," explains Steven Kramer, CEO of WorkJam. "After speak- recruitment costs, improve attrition rates, optiing with retailers we started to realize that this was an area that mize labour in relation to demand signals, and
had been underserved and under-innovated over the last 10-15 improve the overall customer experience with
years. A lot of retailers have been focused on customer engage- happier, more engaged employees."

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