Fresno tech firm believes app can help solve labor crunch

The Arrived Workforce Connections app is “white labeled,” meaning it can be branded with the logo of any client company.

A Fresno-based company is helping staffing agencies maintain a connection with clients through its self-developed app. 

Arrived Workforce Connections has spent more than a year developing the app, fully launching it into the market six months ago. 

“We’re hearing that this is a crisis that is literally closing businesses. We think that employers are actually trying pretty hard to figure out ways within their business model to retain their employees and attract new employees, but they don’t have a lot of options. You can’t always afford to pay people a higher wage,” said Arrived Workforce Connections CEO Jennifer Byrne. 

But she added that employers can find ways to give employees a better overall experience through the Arrived Workforce Connections app. 

The company launched its app exclusively to staffing agencies earlier this year, and will soon launch the product to direct employers. Employers that could benefit from the app are primarily in retail, hospitality, health care and light industrial, or other jobs that offer dynamic, shift-based work, said Byrne.

The company was originally founded in 2017 as a staffing agency with a strong foundation in technology. But when Covid-19 came on the scene, the company found that many employers weren’t hiring amid the uncertainty. They used the changing business landscape as a means to pivot into a tech company. 

The founders realized that the greatest value that they could deliver to market would be the tech platform that they built, Byrne said.

Byrne leads the company with a wealth of technology experience under her belt. She spent the last 25 years in the industry, most recently as chief technology officer at Microsoft. 

The app is “white labeled,” meaning companies who use it can display their own logos and branding on it. 

“That’s really important because the app is used by their workers and we want them to be able to create a really strong connection with their talent pool. That is easier to do when the people in their talent pool are using an app with their company name on it,” she said. 

The app is also designed to put the worker experience first, making it a place for workers to input their preferences like wage, availability and skills. 

Normally staffing agencies don’t communicate with clients unless they’re placing them with an employer. But the app allows them to retain job seekers in the talent pool via digital connections.

“They also have no way of really knowing if somebody who has been placed in an entry level job two years ago has gained enough skills and experience to be in a higher paying position,” Byrne said.

Byrne said Arrived Workforce Connections believes the worker shortage is due to people demanding a better work experience. But it’s extremely difficult for employers and staffing agencies to offer this experience without digital solutions, she said. 

While the app can be used to find new workers, most employers are using the app to connect with their current employees. 

“This is a way for them to not just recruit people, but retain them,” she said.

Through its digital platform, the company has reached customers in New York, Washington, Idaho, Minnesota and California.