We recently had the opportunity to chat with Simon De Baene, Co-Founder and CEO of GSoft, who shared GSoft’s insights and perspectives on the future of work in Canada and how workplaces will continue to evolve in the years to come, his opinion about the ways in which enhancing employee experiences can assist businesses in increasing their levels of productivity, how GSoft improved its bottom line and employee experience through access to its portfolio of offerings, followed by his recommendations for businesses seeking to evolve their practices in favour of more innovative and contemporary workplaces in the context of the evolving hybrid work model.
Simon De Baene is the visionary dreamer at the head of GSoft who, for the last 16 years, has inspired and mobilized his teams to build the next generation of tools to make work simpler, more human, and more efficient. These products – including ShareGate, Officevibe and Softstart – focus on laying the groundwork to change the employee experience through the digital revolution. GSoft’s products are used in more than 17,500 organizations around the world, and specifically, in more than 100 countries.
Simon De Baene started GSoft while he was still in university, determined to lead the charge in changing workplace environments for the better. Through his ongoing commitment and dedication to this mission, Simon and the GSoft team – which now includes more than 350 employees – are continuing to work together to reimagine the future of work while delivering new and innovative tools to enable better, more collaborative work environments – whether they are at home or in the office.
With its unparalleled corporate culture, GSoft is recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies and stands among the largest Quebec SMEs. In 2021 alone, GSoft saw revenues of more than $100 million.
What led to the establishment of GSoft? And what successes have been accomplished since its inception, particularly in the midst of the pandemic?
We launched GSoft in 2006 with a mission to provide enterprise customers new and innovative ways to improve their workplace practices, environments, and the employee experience they’re able to offer.
Myself and two friends – including Sebastien Leduc, current Chief Operation Officer, and Guillaume Roy, current Director of Product – founded the company based on our joint belief that together we could shake up the status quo in favour of reinvigorating workplaces and helping them offer a better employee experience. We felt that many workplace environments lacked the excitement and collaboration needed to fuel innovation and productivity and we were excited to do something about that.
Since we started the company in those early days back in 2006 – when we were still completing our university degrees – we have always seen GSoft’s role as fueling more effective workplaces through offering software products that provide simple, scalable solutions to real enterprise pain points.
With a team of more than 360 employees – and one that has grown significantly amidst the pandemic as our offerings become even more invaluable to our clients – we work to provide our enterprise customers with solutions to make their workstreams and practices simpler, kinder and faster. Plus, with our innovation lab – our research and development branch – we never stop testing, learning and reinventing our product offerings and striving towards improvement.
Since 2006, we’ve gained the trust of tens of thousands of companies in more than 100 countries. It’s this support and enthusiasm for what we do that keeps us building the next generation of tools — tools that change work for the better.
What are GSoft’s insights and perspectives on the future of work in Canada and how workplaces will continue to evolve in the years to come?
While the digital transformation of workplaces has been strongly in effect for the last couple of decades, the COVID-19 pandemic really made it a necessity to evolve practices further. It was required – to continue business per usual –employees had access to digital environments that prioritized collaboration, integration and their overall working experience. Many workplaces had to completely overhaul their ways of working to ensure their employees could operate effectively.
What we’ve seen from these changes is enhancements to how people and technology are interacting, and how employees are able to leverage and capitalize on their digital tools to achieve great things, all while having a bit more flexibility in their day-to-day.
At GSoft, we’re proud of our involvement in supporting this workplace shift. It is through our innovative offerings that we have helped transform workplaces around the world to make them not only simpler, kinder, and faster, but also future-proofed and able to adapt with the changing times.
Overall, GSoft has helped more than 17,500 enterprise customers globally migrate to new online environments that enable collaboration while also fostering productivity, innovation and positive workplace cultures founded upon belonging. We’re proud to be a global leader aiding in this positive digital transition and look forward to continuing to work with new enterprise customers to help them reap the benefits of our products.
What, in your opinion, are the ways in which enhancing employee experiences can assist businesses in increasing their levels of productivity, employee retention, and revenue?
Spurred by the pandemic, we’ve seen significant changes not only to workplace norms and practices, but also in terms of what employees’ value in their roles. The ‘great resignation’ was said to be a natural consequence of five prominent factors that came to the forefront during the pandemic: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling and reluctance. Employees were given the opportunity to pause and reevaluate how they were spending their time, and for many this meant leaving their roles. In fact, in 2021 we saw 57 per cent turnover rates, compared to the “healthy” rates pre-pandemic of about 10 per cent.
The challenge for employers – which persists currently – was not only finding new talent, but also determining which changes they would be required to make to attract and keep talent for the long term. With an employee’s departure costing a company an average of 33 per cent of an employee’s yearly salary, this pandemic-ignited trend continues to put added financial pressures onto companies globally.
At GSoft, we’re proud to offer enterprise customers tools that help them enhance the employee experience they offer, while also ensuring they’re able to get the most from their employees. Through GSoft’s offerings, we help companies enhance collaboration, engagement, productivity, sense of employee belonging, all of which help businesses positively impact their retention rates and improve their revenue and bottom line.
How has GSoft improved its bottom line and employee experience through access to its portfolio of offerings as it continues to alleviate growing business pain points in Canada?
We are a company truly inspired by enhancing workplace environments through modern, digital, employee-minded tools that support collaborative, engagement, and sense of belonging. With a team that has nearly doubled over the last few years, leveraging the tools we produce for our enterprise clients has also enabled us to grow and succeed. Whether it’s ensuring we offer the most seamless and positive onboarding experiences to our employees or providing best-in-class digital environments that enable collaboration while strengthening culture, we practice what we preach and wouldn’t be where we are today as an organization without using the tools we offer.
As a company – and like many other companies globally – we offer our employees a completely hybrid work environment and the ability to work from anywhere internationally for up to 150 days of the year. Without access to Officevibe, Softstart and ShareGate, we would not be able to maintain our position as a leading Canadian company with revenues of more than $100 million annually.
What are the various offerings provided by GSoft? And is it able to accomplish its objectives with these offerings?
Currently, GSoft offers three innovative products to enterprise customers – Officevibe, ShareGate and Softstart. With each tool, GSoft supports its clients in creating simpler, kinder and faster working environments.
Through our innovation lab (or GLab), we lay the groundwork for developing innovative solutions to company problems that make workplaces better. We innovate by first identifying common corporate pain points, and then set our sights on ambitious product visions to design unique, bespoke products that offer solutions.
Through our ongoing commitments to GLab, we will continue to grow and drive further successes not only for our company, but for our clients. Our “intrapreneurs” continue to experiment to build the most effective solutions to address corporate pain points that are plaguing knowledge workers and the businesses they work for.
What specific recommendations do you have for businesses seeking to evolve their practices in favour of more innovative and contemporary workplaces in the context of the evolving hybrid work model?
My best advice for any company seeking to evolve its practices in favour of more innovative, modern, and collaborative work environments would be to jump right in and fully embrace the change.
With the digital transformations we’ve seen take place within businesses over the last two years, it’s clear there are no signs of slowing. Now is the time to get on board with adopting innovative tools developed for optimal collaboration so you can watch the benefits to your business become unleashed.
