Waves Audio is a leader in audio and music technology with more than 320 employees spread across six sites worldwide, including Israel, the US, and Europe. In 2019 the company committed to a strategic investment in HR technology and began their search for an HRIS that would enable them to manage their employees across sites.
Waves’ priority when choosing Bob was to feel heard. They wanted a partner who understood their needs and wants and incorporated feedback from the customer community into their product roadmap. They put their trust in HiBob’s implementation team and, within three months of purchase, went live on Bob in July 2019.
Soon after implementing Bob, Waves implemented Teams to round out their digital communications. This was an easy process, as the organization was already working with the Microsoft Office suite. By January 2020, Waves’ team was fully online with Teams, and fully connected via the Bob x Teams integration.
Their timing was fortuitous. In March 2020, along with the rest of the world, all of Waves’ 320 employees transitioned fully—and productively—to working from home: something that they never could have accomplished without having a strong digital framework.
The challenge: time management
Waves originally sought out a digital HRIS to digitize their inefficient manual HR processes—something HR Director Miri Libkind described as “primitive.”
Before introducing Bob, logging attendance was a disaster. Employees would have to log their attendance using paper and pen, which would then be input manually by an HR administrator—it was inefficient, taxing, and left plenty of room for errors and mistakes.
Managing time off and sick days wasn’t any simpler. The time off request process included emails to managers and HR administrators and demanded managers keep track of employee vacation schedules manually. Checking available vacation time was just as complicated: where employees had to reach out to HR and payroll administrators who could manually check for them.
The solution: Bob x Teams
Using Bob x Teams, however, managers, employees, and HR were able to take their time back and complete these pesky tasks in their flow of work. While once tedious, now requesting days off and noting sick days could be done with a few clicks in Teams. Vacation day balances were available inside the platform. Bob’s implementation, and the integration between Bob x Teams, automated more than 100 hours of administrative work every month.
The challenge: going remote
Waves, a traditional, top-down, location-based organization, faced a challenge: managing a remote workforce. Waves optimized their time and attendance practices before their shift to WFH, but now they were faced with a new challenge: making sure that they didn’t lose culture
and connection during this trying time. Waves’ successful move to full-on WFH was largely driven by the company’s prior adoption of Bob’s HRIS capabilities and the collaboration capabilities of Teams.
The solution: Bob x Teams
Bob’s accessibility on web and mobile, plus its integration with Teams, made communication from a distance not just possible for Waves employees, but comfortable. Instead of tapping each other on the shoulder, teammates were able to connect to each other’s cell phones via their personal profiles within the Bob mobile app. With Teams as the company’s primary communication platform, utilizing the Bob integration allowed employees to access the organizational directory and news feed in their natural flow of work.
The Bob solution
Bob provided Waves with a new way to look at their employees. Using Bob, HR was able to get to know Waves employees not only as individuals but also as a group, something that’s hard enough within the office but even harder when distributed. Taking a look at Waves’ makeup from a bird’s eye view helped highlight team demographics for HR—even when they were far apart.
For remote and co-located teams, understanding people on micro and macro levels is invaluable. Understanding employee demographics answer the simplest questions, like how many vegetarians will be at the company party, and opens discussions on some more complicated issues, like how to plan recruiting strategies.
On the topic of communicating with employees at home, Oded Sitton, IT Project Manager, and Architect said “People are busy, and we have numerous sources of digital information. Our challenge is understanding how to reach our people efficiently—which is why we decided to double-down on one channel: Teams.” Integrating Bob and Teams allowed Waves to take advantage of their existing platforms and workflows to accomplish more, faster.
Employees were able to submit time off, work-from-home, and sick day requests, and managers were able to accept or reject them, within Teams. Checking vacation balances could be done within the Bob platform—no call to HR required. Reminders about birthdays and anniversaries became part of the Teams-based company culture, with notifications being shared through the platform. Any questions about the organizational chart or company structure could be answered in Teams, in the flow of work, no distractions necessary. Teams became the hub for all company communications, allowing employees to solve problems, collaborate, and build relationships without leaving their flow of work.
Working with Bob and Teams has created a single source of truth for employees. Instead of filtering through endless emails and Whatsapp groups, Bob x Teams created a dedicated home for Waves’ company culture.
The results
- Managing time and attendance with Bob has automated 100 hours of labor every month—and saved a whole lot of paper!
- Automating time off and sick day requests have saved managers and HR administrators a combined 60 hours every month
- Bob’s integration with Teams created a unified space for employees to experience Waves culture and get familiar with each other
- In a company-wide poll, Bob got the highest score from Waves employees out of all of their tools for ease of use
