The customer: Meet Workplace Options
Workplace Options is a global employee assistance and support organization that provides 82 million employees in over 200 countries and territories with access to emotional health, practical health, and physical health support for themselves and for their families.
With nearly 1,400 team members all over the world, Workplace Options operates with both remote and hybrid employees. Serving as President and CEO, Alan has been with Workplace Options since 2002 and has more than three decades of experience in employee assistance.
Alan’s Challenge: Slowed down by inefficient meetings
Workplace Options needs to be able to work fast. When crises unfold in the world, that impacts the millions of employees Workplace Options support, and a swift response is required to provide vital care. However, their meeting culture wasn’t facilitating the efficiency required to move fast while still delivering effective support.
Our ability to think quickly, to move quickly, is critical. Our traditional meeting structure didn't allow that to happen.
Our ability to think quickly, to move quickly, is critical. Our traditional meeting structure didn't allow that to happen.
Our ability to think quickly, to move quickly, is critical. Our traditional meeting structure didn't allow that to happen.
When looking at his calendar, there were simply too many meetings. But it wasn’t just the volume, it was the efficacy of all those meetings that Alan knew needed fixing. For example, he’d find himself attending meetings that didn’t have an agenda and realize soon after that his presence wasn’t actually required.
Those meetings didn't seem to provide the kind of results you would expect for the time and energy that went there.
Those meetings didn't seem to provide the kind of results you would expect for the time and energy that went there.
Those meetings didn't seem to provide the kind of results you would expect for the time and energy that went there.
It wasn’t an engagement issue — in fact, his team members would be so engaged in meetings that no one took notes, losing valuable context and a history of decisions made. That impacted their ability to come to positive outcomes and fulfill their mission of supporting employees in need.
As a CEO, Alan realized this all pointed to an organization-wide meeting culture issue that needed to be addressed.
Alan tried to implement better meeting habits using Microsoft Teams, but since Teams isn’t purpose-built for meeting management, he says there was no enforcement mechanism. Instead, everyone reverted back to email which he said became “a black hole where everything disappears.”
It was during one of those unproductive meetings that Alan started looking for a solution — and that’s how he found Fellow.
Alan’s Solution: AI-powered, purpose-built meeting management
As Alan researched Fellow, he realized it was what he was missing — software built explicitly for meeting management with all the tooling to enforce good meeting habits.
It was an “easy” choice because Fellow “was designed from the ground up to support how people do things,” he says. “It felt like Fellow recognized all the pitfalls and built solutions to answer each one of those.
It was an “easy” choice because Fellow “was designed from the ground up to support how people do things,” he says. “It felt like Fellow recognized all the pitfalls and built solutions to answer each one of those.
It was an “easy” choice because Fellow “was designed from the ground up to support how people do things,” he says. “It felt like Fellow recognized all the pitfalls and built solutions to answer each one of those.
Combine that with the fact that Fellow integrated seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and Alan was all in.
Alan expected some resistance to adoption — it wouldn’t be the first time he introduced a new app to Workplace Options’ tech stack. But he was pleased to find his team members took to Fellow right away during a pilot phase with the leadership team.
The first change he noticed is that meetings started to have agendas, so everyone was on the same page and he could better evaluate which meetings he needed to attend. His favorite part was a built-in Fellow automation that suggests a meeting be canceled if it didn’t have an agenda.
What it did is it really forced good behavior. I would be in meetings where people didn't know I was there and people were talking about the value of Fellow. That made it clear for me.
What it did is it really forced good behavior. I would be in meetings where people didn't know I was there and people were talking about the value of Fellow. That made it clear for me.
What it did is it really forced good behavior. I would be in meetings where people didn't know I was there and people were talking about the value of Fellow. That made it clear for me.
With leadership on board, Fellow adoption cascaded down the organization and Alan says “that's when I knew we had a winner.”
A big gamechanger was the introduction of Fellow’s AI Copilot, which automatically records, provides accurate transcriptions, and summarizes at a human-level all meetings it attends. Alan says he had a healthy skepticism of new AI technology, because sometimes it’s just a “parlor trick.” But Copilot delivered on its promise.
The first time I tried it and the Copilot actually didn't just transcribe but summarized in a way that was not just thoughtful, but accurate — that surprised me.
For relatively new technology to work as demonstrated out of the box was a surprise for me.
The first time I tried it and the Copilot actually didn't just transcribe but summarized in a way that was not just thoughtful, but accurate — that surprised me.
For relatively new technology to work as demonstrated out of the box was a surprise for me.
The first time I tried it and the Copilot actually didn't just transcribe but summarized in a way that was not just thoughtful, but accurate — that surprised me.
For relatively new technology to work as demonstrated out of the box was a surprise for me.
Results: Reclaiming time with automated meeting administration
For Alan, the greatest benefit of Fellow has been the time it’s freed up for team members.
With the AI Copilot, there doesn’t need to be a dedicated person to take notes during a meeting — Copilot takes care of it. Copilot also takes summaries to a human level, noting decisions made and action items, in addition to providing accurate transcriptions.
That meant people could focus on the work to be done in a meeting and the administrative task. No one had to be a secondary participant.
That meant people could focus on the work to be done in a meeting and the administrative task. No one had to be a secondary participant.
That meant people could focus on the work to be done in a meeting and the administrative task. No one had to be a secondary participant.
He adds Fellow has been an “incredible resource” because all meeting notes, summaries, and transcriptions are available and searchable, so context is always easy to find. He says that when AI was launched, his team took to it even more quickly than when they intially adopted Fellow
Alan says he needs his team focused on what they do best — their expertise, passion, and ideas. Fellow removed the friction from meetings that made that difficult.
Now, there are fewer meetings on Alan’s calendar, and the ones that do happen result in high engagement and follow-through.
The energy is focused on the problem at hand or the solution or the innovation that's happening — there's no constraints.
There's freedom that comes when everybody in the room can just engage.
The energy is focused on the problem at hand or the solution or the innovation that's happening — there's no constraints.
There's freedom that comes when everybody in the room can just engage.
The energy is focused on the problem at hand or the solution or the innovation that's happening — there's no constraints.
There's freedom that comes when everybody in the room can just engage.
Having Fellow has built a culture of mutual respect for everyone’s time and that’s important, because he says meeting culture is a direct reflection of an organization’s work culture. It’s vital to Alan that everyone at Workplace Options feels accepted and can be their authentic self, and now their meetings reflect that because everyone can engage effectively.
If I told my company right now that we were cutting Fellow, there would be an outcry outside my door. What started as Alan's next shiny thing has turned into everybody's shiny thing.
If I told my company right now that we were cutting Fellow, there would be an outcry outside my door. What started as Alan's next shiny thing has turned into everybody's shiny thing.
If I told my company right now that we were cutting Fellow, there would be an outcry outside my door. What started as Alan's next shiny thing has turned into everybody's shiny thing.
Alan says the value Fellow has brought to Workplace Options makes the cost-benefit analysis a no-brainer.
If you're really interested in cutting back on spending, then you want to find the tools that actually allow you to do more with less, and Fellow makes us do more with less. We have fewer meetings. We have better results.
If you're really interested in cutting back on spending, then you want to find the tools that actually allow you to do more with less, and Fellow makes us do more with less. We have fewer meetings. We have better results.
If you're really interested in cutting back on spending, then you want to find the tools that actually allow you to do more with less, and Fellow makes us do more with less. We have fewer meetings. We have better results.
He sees those results every day — from more focus time in his own calendar, to more solutions coming out of meetings, to seeing his employees at their best.
It's really clear, and you don't have to figure out the dollars, just simply the efficiency of meetings.
It's really clear, and you don't have to figure out the dollars, just simply the efficiency of meetings.
It's really clear, and you don't have to figure out the dollars, just simply the efficiency of meetings.
