Between countless apps and communication channels, the
According to software company Salesforce, 86% of executives and employees point to ineffective collaboration and communication as the main causes behind workplace failures. In fact, poor communication costs big employers with 100,000 employees
But in an era of remote work, where communication is often limited to Slack channels and email, how can employees stay connected to people and information? Arvind Jain, CEO of Glean, has his answer: a unique search engine for each workplace.
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"Glean is connected to all of your company's knowledge," says Jain. "You can ask Glean a question, and it will give answers back to you, without you having to search through all of your organization's applications."
Glean connects to apps like Google Drive, Gmail and Slack, creating a database of company-specific knowledge. Glean also tracks who works at the company, their position and current project, helping workers to find the right collaborators or experts. A user can then type a name or keyword into a search bar, and Glean will pull out relevant information from across various platforms. Jain describes it as "Google for the workplace."
Notably, Jain worked on building Google's search engine, along with other Google platforms eight years ago — but that's not the only professional experience that pushed him to Glean. As a co-founder of data security company Rubrik, Jain noticed connection and communication were proving to be big barriers to growth. In four years, Rubrik had more than 1,000 workers, but people were struggling to keep up with the rapid increase in personnel and knowledge.
"[At Rubrik], people found it very hard to find answers to their questions, and they didn't always know who to ask or where to go for help," says Jain. "There is so much information knowledge workers have to tap into to do their work effectively."
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And with the rise of remote work, connection and engagement have become even more challenging. Even Glean, which only has 200 employees, has talent in as many as 15 locations, distributed across different time zones. Employees cannot always have their eyes on Slack.
"Nobody is sitting next to you to help you, and you can't just go to the water cooler or grab a coffee and ask what somebody is working on," he says. "You have to post a question in Slack and wait until someone can take a look at it. You're stuck."
Jain believes that technology like Glean can allow workers to truly be remote. If Glean knows the answer, employees can work on their own timeline rather than waiting for a notification. Most importantly, Glean's knowledge grows with its company, underlines Jain.
Hussein Fazal, co-founder and CEO of mobile commerce platform Snapcommerce, purchased Glean for his workforce, which has nearly doubled in size in the last six years. Snapcommerce has been a remote-first organization since its inception in 2016.
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"One of the most critical jobs as a CEO is to make sure that information disseminates efficiently and aligns with our culture of 'open and transparent,'" Fazal says. "But what works for a 20-person team doesn't scale to 200 or 2,000 people. We had to reconsider how we were going to maximize efficiency as we scale."
For Fazal, information must be consistently written and shared in order for a digital workplace to be successful — and Glean makes this rule even easier to abide by. Glean even features a "work hub," where announcements and trending topics at the company are posted along with a company directory, so everyone can keep up-to-date outside of meetings and emails.
"Direct one-to-one communication does not lead to the most optimal outcome as the company is exponentially scaling," says Fazal. "We had to work hard internally to implement written culture to optimize how we collaborate, communicate, and respectfully make the most of each employee's time. Glean makes this all searchable and integrates with the majority of our current tech stack."
Jain warns employees against underestimating the importance of communication and technology in the workplace, which he believes will only evolve going forward. Jain predicts artificial intelligence will be the next big step, with workers across industries having AI "assistants" to answer their questions. But for now, employers may want to consider how they can engage employees from their homes without limiting their flexibility or capabilities on the job.
"You can't rely on things from the past in your remote work strategy," says Jain. "Companies have to make a higher investment in improving employee experience."
