Case Study
Waste Point Mobile App
Overview
Helium Develops Digital Solution To Resolve Challenges Of Offsite Workforce
Managing its offsite workforce poses several distinctive operational issues for service companies. Using manual practices to remotely track and verify employee hours worked, gauge task completion, and monitor overall performance can prove a challenge for organizations in any industry, particularly during a time of corporate growth and expansion. As a result, business owners in virtually every service vertical are sourcing dynamic software solutions to support their existing operations as well as scale to meet future needs.
The Challenge
Managing a National Distributed Workforce
WastePoint, LLC, an innovator in the valet trash and recycling space, delivers customized, green waste management services to upscale apartment and condominium complexes across the nation. The WastePoint business model uses a team of professional waste porters who have been trained in proper, responsible waste elimination. Every WastePoint client location receives an assigned crew of porters that provide environmentally conscious trash and recycling removal to both doorstops and common areas five days a week for optimized client convenience, as well as increased building sanitation and safety.
WastePoint’s corporate success and rapidly growing market presence quickly highlighted a need for an integrated software solution to replace manual employee processes and best manage its growing business operations, beginning with its porter time management process. When first launched, WastePoint tracked all employee hours by having each staff member text the company’s Vice President with individual clock-in and clock-out times, a process that proved.
Time Consuming. Each night, WastePoint’s Vice-President had to endure an endless string of messages from porters before he could begin systematically working through each text on his cellphone.
Employee Management. Like all manual processes, WastePoint’s employee hour-tracking approach exponentially increased the risk of incorrect data getting logged during and managed.
Consistent Service. WastePoint’s growing team required a better way to oversee its offsite workforce during any particular shift. Beyond time management inefficiencies, the company’s lack of digital support proved a significant threat to its quality assurance practices whenever there was a customer complaint about missed floors and doors during a scheduled trash pickup.
WastePoint’s executives recognized that their existing, one-dimensional hour tracking process eliminated their ability to effectively manage its employees as well as offer its property management partners real-time support and issue resolution.
The Solution
Employee Tracking and Unprecedented Insight
Helium collaborated with WastePoint’s executive team to develop a robust, agile software solution that automated time management as well as delivered a full-suite of digital functionality to drive inefficiencies, quality assurance, and service excellence across all relevant company operations. Helium’s development team proposed a QR code solution for desktops and Android/iOS devices that leveraged a comprehensive range of technologies.
Helium’s QR code solution for WastePoint included a customized functionality, explicitly designed to support its business model and operations.
The Highlights
Key Features
Clock-In/Clock-Out
The QR code application offers a standardized remote time management procedure. Porters arriving on-premise scan the property’s unique code to clock in and out, instantly automating hour tracking within the software.
Task Tracking. Each floor of every building also received its own QR code that porters must scan before clocking out at the end of their shift, ensuring that WastePoint can verify completion of all floors, doors, and shared areas.
Maintenance Issues. Helium’s full-scope software application also allows WastePoint porters to report any discovered maintenance concerns within any complex that require attention. WastePoint personnel can designate the issue type from a list as well as include a description and photo of the problem. Once logged, maintenance needs are automatically escalated to the appropriate client contact for further attention and investigation.
Machinery Monitoring. Porters must take pictures of relevant machinery onsite (dumpster, compactors, recycling bins, etc.) to showcase the current condition of all utilized equipment during a designated shift.
Reporting. Helium’s development team also created dashboard reporting and map functionality, allowing WastePoint’s supervisors to manage employee attendance and performance as well as identify vital business trends.
The Software
Technologies Used
Laravel
React
React Native
Testimonial
"They’ve done a great job of providing both a reliable, functional, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly product."
– Seth Elberger, CTO
The Results
Conclusion
Officially launched in 2019, Helium’s digital strategy has already yielded several critical results and competitive advantages to the WastePoint brand, including:
Optimized Efficiencies
Waste Point’s new time management capabilities instantly streamlined the hour-tracking process, both for employees and supervisors. Assigned QR codes automated the entire clock-in and clock-out practice, eliminating the potential for manual errors or mismanaged data transfer.
Increased Partnership Value
Giving WastePoint porters the ability to report maintenance issues and concerns within specific buildings allows the company to enhance its service offerings to its clients. By automating escalation of any tracked maintenance problems, WastePoint equipped its property management partners with the expedited insight needed to eliminate any potential safety hazards or inconveniences to tenants.
Reduced Operational Risks
Uploading images of client equipment created a visual audit trail for every employee shift and client engagement. Helium’s designed functionality tracked the condition of relevant gear so both employees and property management team could determine whether machinery was not functioning or damaged during the course of a shift, mitigating WastePoint’s potential operational risk.
Improved Service Excellence
Most importantly, Helium’s iterative software solution provided extensive reporting capabilities that instantly increased the company’s workforce management resources. Helium developers designed a comprehensive dashboard reporting system that delivered real-time insight into several essential operational features, such as:
- Actual vs. Guaranteed Hours
- Total Hours Worked
- Supply Requests
- Violation Submissions
- Building Issue Submissions
- Employee Absences
The system’s dashboard functionality equipped WastePoint’s executive staff with a full suite of visual resources that verified hours worked and project performance for improved service excellence and overall client engagement value.
