Kintinu'd Conversations
You’re listening to Kintinu’d Conversations. We’re healthcare providers working at Kintinu Telerehab out of Omaha, NE. We provide physical, occupational, speech, and psychological therapy to help individuals around our country get back to life. This podcast is designed to engage a variety of listeners on topics that matter to us-- whether at work, in life, or in our relationships.
Kintinu'd Conversations
S3E22 - Maxwell: Retaining Talented People through Finding Balance and Joy
Backed by decades of experience producing exceptional clinical outcomes, Kintinu Telerehab connects recovery to everyday life. In this podcast, we explore hot topics in rehabilitation, the keys to personal growth and recovery, and how to apply it all to the real-world.
In this episode of Kintinu’d Conversations, Brad Dexter sits down with Stephen Enke of Maxwell and Kiley Armitage of QLI. Stephen co-founded Maxwell with Adriana Cisneros Basulto because they are obsessed with creating better workplaces for healthcare workers, and unlocking human potential. Kiley is QLI's Director of Operations and initially helped establish a relationship with Maxwell to bring their unique style of employee focused and employee driven benefits to QLI.
Maxwell recently won an international competition through SHRM that aims to bridge the gap between companies that are creating workplace technologies and the end users of their products: HR professionals and their workforces. Adriana had this to say after winning the award:
"Maxwell helps employers retain employees by bringing them balance and joy and delivering the employee value proposition that HR teams have worked hard to build. Employees receive a monthly budget to use how they choose to balance life/work via our technology. With their attention captured, Maxwell makes it easy to elevate traditional benefits; present important information you don't want your employees to miss; create connection; and capture employee data like demographics, levels of productivity and stress, so employers can make better decisions."
Cisneros Basulto added that there is a growing work/life imbalance worldwide. "There are talent segments and industries like health care that are struggling with burnout and a lack of balance. We know that when employees feel valued by their employer and are able to recharge, they are better at their jobs. However, what helps someone balance and feel valued is uniquely personal. Maxwell helps employers meet the diversity of needs their employees have to find balance."
To learn more about Maxwell, click here.
Join us for a fun conversation about how Maxwell has impacted QLI's team and how they are helping other companies value their employees.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Welcome to continued conversations where we explore hot topics and rehabilitation, the keys to personal growth and how to apply it all to the real world. Hey, welcome back to continued conversations. This is Brad Dexter in studio today with a couple guests. Kylie Armitage, did I say it right?
Speaker 2:You did.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yep and Steven Anka.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's perfect, man, Just don't let my parents hear it, they'll say it differently.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I did have to practice those before I said them. But just to orient our audience to who we have in studio with us Steven is with Maxwell, who we're going to learn a little bit more about in a little bit here, and Kylie is our director of operations at QLI, and so these two are here to have a conversation a little later about employee benefits and what that kind of means on a larger scale, and we'll hear what Maxwell is doing and the impact of that on QLI as an organization too. But before we dive into any of that, we are having a conversation, before we started recording, about running shoes. Steven, you've recently kind of gotten back into running correct Yep, and you've enjoyed some nice weather in the last couple weeks.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but what's your running shoe of choice?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started with Ultra, so, like my whole running journey is just about a year old. I ran my second marathon in June and tore my so as so that's what I was talking about. It's been. It's a little things that you appreciate when you don't, when you can't do them that when you are able to do them again, like running your first mile.
Speaker 3:That really brings joy. So for me it was Ultra's. And then, as you were maybe teasing me about, I also work in sock knees. That's my race shoe as well. And then New Balance is big fan of but no Hocus.
Speaker 1:No, hocus Kylie is our resident Hocus evangelist.
Speaker 2:I feel like right you know I do promo Hocus every once in a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I feel like it's the running joke with myself and either our Hocus wearers or our PTs that maybe don't prefer them.
Speaker 3:Running joke. Was that I, yes, pun intended no.
Speaker 1:Unintended pun.
Speaker 2:I'm just that good, it just happened.
Speaker 1:I was going to say the only running that happens with Hocus is running joke.
Speaker 2:Third pair of Hocus. Third pair of Hocus.
Speaker 1:Right, I really I'm. I respect Hocus. There are a lot of people who love Hocus.
Speaker 3:It's just too much shoe for me the foam on the bottom like too high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're like platform shoes.
Speaker 2:When you wear them you just don't even care anymore, so maybe you'll try them someday. I may.
Speaker 3:Do you have a go to?
Speaker 1:Brooks. Okay, Brooks is my go to running shoe, but I I used to run in Brooks pure flow and then that line stopped at one point and so I got on Amazon and I got, I got several pairs of pure flow so I could just like wear through them over the next several years, and then at some point I had to make a change and I'm in hyperions now. So I just really I like low profile shoes, more of a midfoot runner, and so I I like them to be lightweight too. I just like my foot feeling the ground.
Speaker 2:So for hiking shoes, hocus are really lightweight, but not for that fact.
Speaker 1:That is true. That's not a that's not a bad point.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's how I can get you to wear some Hocus.
Speaker 1:I did get some new hiking boots recently and they're built a little bit like the Hocus. They're lightweight hiking shoes, still kind of the Gore-Tex on the outside for a lot of resistance.
Speaker 3:When you like, kind of roll your ankle.
Speaker 1:There's a. I mean squish your phone.
Speaker 2:It's quite enough that it's more stability, more surface area.
Speaker 3:I forgot, I have nikes too. Wait for running shoes, yeah.
Speaker 2:We don't talk about those Speed shoes.
Speaker 1:Do you have a? Do you have a different shoe for each day, or?
Speaker 3:kind of yeah yeah, it was for training for my second marathon. I have a lot of friends who are like way into it and so talking about better, you know, training and less being less prone to injury of rotating in different shoes helps out with that, because then you're not over indexing on one type of shoe and foot motion and whatnot. So ultras are like my go-to easy day. They don't have any of that drop, so you get to practice like you're on your calves. Nike Sockney kind of a speed shoe and the new balances are my long day.
Speaker 1:I like, I love that you kind of have a toolbox of shoes and, like you're intentional with how you're using each one. It's not just like I run in this pair of shoes and that's it.
Speaker 3:It gets your mindset too, because when you go between them like certain shoes feel fast, so you're like I'm fast. Today.
Speaker 1:That's probably why I like the lighter weight one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you're going to eat your hokas, your all white hokas, to mow in with the cutoff jeans and the white socks.
Speaker 1:Yes, I guess I was joking about that. But if there is an all white pair of hokas, I would wear them for mowing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I bet there is, I'll get into it. We'll get one ordered.
Speaker 1:I'm comfortable. Well done, all right, guys. So this, this conversation, is really stemming out of another conversation I had had with Kylie QL. I's been using Maxwell for over a year now a year and a half Going on to.
Speaker 3:Going on to we saw yeah, so we'll go for it.
Speaker 2:You, we see mehr.
Speaker 3:January of 2022 was it? I don't know. Time flies.
Speaker 1:It is coming up in two years. I think it was.
Speaker 3:January of 2022.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's when we went live, but we did the trial, maybe like the quarter before, I don't know.
Speaker 3:We did the trial January to March and then started rolling people. The whole team on starting in May, so two year in January. I'm really hoping that our listeners are just like what is Maxwell, what is you know and why don't they know these things? Yeah?
Speaker 1:Exactly who has a timeline. But I'm going to keep that cliffhanger right there, because I think Kylie and I were just talking about benefits recently and Maxwell came up and I was like, wow, that actually that'd be a really good conversation to have, just in terms of you know how Maxwell got started and the impact that it's had at QLI, or even personally for Kylie or I to talk about how we're using it. But I was also recently at a conference and there's a lot of conversation about healthcare worker burnout and you know that's been kind of at the forefront even since the pandemic. But it had me thinking about Maxwell in light of some of that and, again, the benefits that we've gotten from it. So I looked up before our conversation. I looked up the US Surgeon General has current priorities and one of those is healthcare worker burnout and so they have recommendations for what healthcare organizations should be doing and also recommendations for what health workers should be doing to combat that, and I thought some of their recommendations actually are right in line with what Maxwell is trying to do. Let me let me just read a couple of these. I'm just trying to tee all of this up for you, ok, so what should healthcare organizations do to help prevent or manage healthcare worker burnout.
Speaker 1:One build a commitment to the health and safety of health workers and to the fabric of health organizations to review and revise policies and ensure health workers are not deterred from seeking appropriate care for their physical, mental health or substance use challenges. Increase access to high quality, confidential mental health and substance use care for all health workers. Rebuild community and social connection among health workers. Mitigate burnout and feelings of loneliness and isolation. Combat bias, racism and discrimination in the workplace. And invest in health prevention and social services to address health inequities. And I mean right off the bat.
Speaker 1:Like I think the building a commitment to the health and safety of health workers and getting that woven into the fabric of health organizations is something that, kylie, you guys, when you were thinking about this several years ago, like was right. In line with that, and then investing in the health prevention and social services to address health inequities I think that's another maybe piece of this too. Like those are just things that jumped off the page to me. And then what can health workers do? One learn to recognize those signs of distress or mental health challenges, burnout in yourself and in colleagues. Stay connected and reach out for help, prioritize moments of joy and connection, get back to basics with good health habits. Use your voice to advocate for positive changes in your workplace, learning environment or communities, and I think more of those probably are even in line with what you guys are doing at Maxwell, and so maybe we can. You know frame, we can use some of that as we talk about this too.
Speaker 1:But to get me to shut up, here, let's actually talk about what Maxwell is and what you're doing, stephen. You're representing Maxwell. Can you tell us what Maxwell is, maybe how you guys got your start and we'll go from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. First, before jumping at Maxwell, it's important to note that a lot of what QI has been doing was along these lines.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so just partnering with other companies that also have those same beliefs has that great synergistic effect. So I think that's something that we found with QI and maybe why it works so well Early on, and they bet it on us early on in our journey, too, as a company. So I'm Stephen, I am with Maxwell, I'm one of the co-founders there. My co-founder, adriana, is with her kids today, taking them to piano lessons. So you get to hear me and suffer through that. At Maxwell, what we like to talk about which is funny is delivering balance and joy, and so Kylie knows this too, and when you get my emails, or when we even talk about metrics, it's how many moments of joy have we created? Which is kind of funny as we read that too, because that wasn't planned ahead as far as the recommendation goes. And so how that looks like.
Speaker 3:We really give the autonomy and control and a choice into the hands of each individual employee so they can feel supported in the way that they choose, and really this starts with either a monthly budget or some sort of incentive or recognition program where they receive funds and dollars no points, because we're adults and they can find out how that best works for them. So instead of an HR team having to decide, ok, this is your benefit, you're getting here's childcare Sorry, if you have pets and you don't have children. That's what our kind of value system is and then maybe you get a coffee type of pass or stipend. Instead of doing that, you can say here is the budget working from the ground up, this is our values as a company, this is how we care about you, and you get to choose how that works for you. So whether that's buying your new pair of wedding shoes, which is a store we have from QLI, or it's using Uber to get to work, or buying groceries or gas, so that that's a big stressor in your life, you can take that away. It's really up to you as an individual to find those things that really gives you the most support, and so with Maxwell, they can do it within the app itself, where we have some curated partners that do have some of those high touch things. So something like Kinside is one of our partners. They help with childcare and preschool placement.
Speaker 3:So if you're a parent, this is a really high value service that you can find. But maybe only applies to two, three people in an organization. Well, they can still have that and it's their choice of how that supports them, whereas other individuals that's kind of what we were talking about it might be getting coffee, because that's really what makes you smile, and it's important too of how we package it is it sets outside of payroll and that's really important for mental accounting. As we have all experienced, if you find $100 on the floor, that feels like you just won the lottery. But if someone says, hey, you have $100 on your bank account, well, it kind of disappears.
Speaker 3:It's a sunk cost that goes into everything else and, most importantly, you're not intentional about how you want to use it. You don't give yourself that permission of how you want to use it. So even though you might have $100 that is in your bank account and you could afford getting a massage, there's guilt associated with it. But if you have this other account that it's specifically for that type of benefit. It's specifically a message that this is for you because you deserve it and you should feel empowered to use it in the way that you want to use it. You might go and get that massage and feel good about it. There's no feeling of guilt like I should have used this on my children or whatnot, because it's been positioned that way, so that at its kind of highest level is Maxwell and how we operate. I can pause there or kind of go into our background.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how'd you come up with that?
Speaker 3:model. Why?
Speaker 1:Why does it exist?
Speaker 3:Yeah, why is it a thing? So it really started with Adriana and this was before I met her, actually, which is another funny story, but she had just worked at First National, built the Inclusion Diversity Program, and then was looking for something else, and part of that was, during some soul searching and self-reflecting, was wishing that she had these tools that meets people where they are, especially as it related to race discrimination and whatnot, and is that she was disproportionately seeing people of color and women opt out of the workforce as they get higher up because more responsibilities fell on them at home. So how could you support them? So that was kind of like the genesis of Maxwell. Was it going to be more of these kind of curated people that come to your house and help you out? And that's kind of that benefit package and along that evolution, it was really like, oh no, people know what they want. People can make the right decision if you give them the opportunity to. And so what if we provide those funds and then provide really great partners and go from there?
Speaker 3:So that was kind of the start, and using it also as an anchor of attention to elevate all these other great things that employers are already doing so, like QLI, for example, when we partnered with them, it wasn't just Maxwell coming in and saying, hey, here's your benefit, here's some money. It's hey, this is this. But you also have all these other great benefits that you can see within the app itself that you might have forgotten about that you already have an EAP program to help you with your mental health and sometimes you forget about that because if you're a clinician, you're on the floor, you're running around, you're not sitting around at desktop looking at your employee handbook. So it was really this belief that creating a better benefit experience is one anchoring the tension and giving that autonomy and control into an individual. But it was also about how can you connect it to the rest of the organization and with each other, and so that's kind of in our mission along the way. We started with just the benefit portion, so getting receiving the money and then having those traditional benefits that we could link to.
Speaker 3:And then one of the things actually with QLI during our pilot program, qli was one of our early users and we wanted to give more choice and control, and that's actually where the Maxwell card came out, which was a Visa debit card, so that was a direct relation with our work here, and that just gave more choice, control, flexibility to the individuals, because that's what they wanted, that's what they asked for and that's what brought them joy.
Speaker 3:And then, beyond that too, working with QLI was what is called the regalo section, so it means gifts in Spanish, and that's where you could appear to be gifting with each other, because you realized again, with companies like QLI, people would be asking for how can I use this budget on the other people in my team, because that's what brings me joy is supporting someone. Supporting someone need or saying thank you for a work well done. So, as Maxwell started here with Adriana and it's evolved along the way, alongside the people using it, because that is what has been asked for, that is what has optimized for the joy that they're receiving and for employers on the flip side, not only are you able to provide this care, because you care about your employees generally, you see increased retention as well, and so that's kind of what we're here for.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I might shift over to Kylie just a little bit. Maybe, from your perspective, can you talk about when you first came across Maxwell. Was it too good to be true? How did you start to vet that? And then, what's the impact that it started to have on our company in terms of retention?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I first met Adriana I think it was on a chamber round table call that was centered around childcare. So we have team members that have childcare struggles that are preventing them to get at work, stay at work or be employed, and we had talked about is there a benefit that we could do? That's flexible enough where I don't have kids, so I don't need the benefit for that, but Brad does have kids so maybe he could utilize it for something like that. Funny enough, adriana was on the call and I think was in the early stages with Maxwell and said I have an idea, let's connect.
Speaker 2:And Adriana is just so well respected in the community. Pat, our CEO, already knew her and so wanted to have a conversation with her and had a conversation. I didn't know where it was going to lead, but it ended up in us evolving a benefit we already had into something way better than it ever could have been. So it has really increased our retention of our team members, especially team members going from on call or part time to increase their scheduled number of hours. So in order to receive Maxwell at QLI you have to be scheduled so many hours per week and that's kind of been the hook to get people to increase their scheduled hours and it's been amazing to see how, you know, some money per month can increase that commitment to QI.
Speaker 1:That is signed up for Maxwell has some amount of money deposited into their account on a monthly basis. From what you've been sharing with our audience to Stephen, there's a lot of flexible benefits that are involved in Maxwell, so it doesn't again for someone that maybe doesn't have kids. They don't have to use that as part of their benefit package.
Speaker 1:They can flex that towards something else, but how do you land on the amount of money that is going in there? And then what is? Do you have any metrics on what utilization of that is looking like too? I bet Stephen has that All right.
Speaker 2:So how we came to the dollar amount was we replaced benefit that we used to have and so we rounded up a little bit to make sure that it was an exciting roll out of Maxwell. So it replaced our special benefits program and we had kind of a set dollar amount of how much that benefit ended up giving towards our team members each month. So I think for utilization, Stephen has been a great partner of trying to make sure that we have all of our team members onboarded. So just because they're hired and they officially have access to Maxwell doesn't mean that they've been through the training class yet. Stephen's great and comes out to campus monthly to make sure that our team members are comfortable using the platform.
Speaker 2:But yeah, let's even talk about utilization.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this year I was actually checking back to we with QLI we have around the 93% utilization rate which feels pretty good.
Speaker 3:We were actually a little bit higher than that right now closer to the 95%. So, per Kylie's point, what was actually been kind of fun is people onboard when their account is created before they've even gone to an onboarding session, because people talk about it. It's kind of a household name interesting, which makes kind of again. It's a kind of a fun connection, right, you talk about hey, what did you get for lunch? Did you use your Maxwell budget for that? Oh, that's a great idea. I should use that too. So the utilization is great. We feel good about it. But really what matters more so than people just being onboarded, it is those moments created. So I was actually looking back, sent kind of a mid-year check in. So mid year there was 31,000 moments of joy created at QLI. So it's gone out and found things that worked for them, or they celebrated people on their teams or they received kind of a bonus for a talent show that QLI put on.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's really cool. Do you know like which, maybe which apps within Maxwell get utilized the most?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so people generally like to actually use their budget on the card and on the go which kind of makes sense.
Speaker 3:We have some fun stuff in store to maybe drive more people within the marketplace itself and I can talk about that later if we want to. But people generally for QLI and this kind of matches with the overall ecosystem. On Maxwell, number one food, about a third of usage, and that does that's probably not coffee. So it's you know it's people getting dinner on the way home or it's ordering Hello Fresh Meal Kit or something like that.
Speaker 3:The second one is gas. So a lot of people just getting to work it's a big stressor, especially, you know, if you might be an hourly paid worker. Having something that you can have budgeted out every month which is probably why you see some people move down call is a huge stress reliever. And so when you talk about joy and well being in life and find that balance, it's not only about these kind of hedonistic pleasures, it's also about those stressors and that weight that hangs on your shoulder. So if you can have something that reduces it, then that's great. So I think that's what we're seeing there with that.
Speaker 3:And then the other one it's probably around the specialty stores which fall under Target and Costco. I think there's a target nearby here and there's also a gas station nearby here too. So I think that might be why those are some of the bigger ones. So those are kind of broad categories of usage where we see people see it. But also what you miss then are kind of those stories, those really cool stories of like I bought my wedding shoes or I won't say who, but someone was talking about just before this talk about getting a fire pit that she's so excited to use it for the fall. So you see different ways of people used it very intentionally on these things that they might have saved up over time instead of just gas or groceries.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:I mean earlier we were talking about running shoes, right, I think one of our team members used their Maxwell budget to get new shoes and they just talked about how much it improved their overall well being at work and feeling better day to day.
Speaker 3:That was a really cool story. I won't go into all of them, but we have gotten some moments that people shared with us. And there are some really cool ones on QLI. One was about shoes. One was about just buying flowers weekly because seeing them on the table just makes them smile every morning when they see it. So it's these little things that you can't really. You can't, as an HR team, find a benefit that does just that, unless you give that choice and flex building control to the individual Right, and then it does.
Speaker 2:But I think a lot of credit in this has to go to the Maxwell team. I mean, yes, QLI has an award winning culture, but without a partner that gets it, that truly wants to do what's best for the team members of QLI and all of Maxwell's clients, I mean, you can't find those moments right? Stephen slows down to ask those questions and I'm telling you, Maxwell sets the bar high for customer service, Like the stories I have about this guy right here, Hi you you emphasize that word very, very strongly.
Speaker 1:I know I was telling you, kylie, maybe before you got in I use my Maxwell benefit primarily on coffee. Same, okay, but it's not just about the coffee. I actually have people that I meet with on a weekly basis and at the end of each month, like that, that benefit is basically used up and it's actually kind of a sad day when I'm like, oh man, I got to pull out my own, my own card for for the coffee, right, and so like there's, there's just been this value and I look forward to being able to to use that in those meetings to build those relationships with people.
Speaker 3:Get those dopamine shot Totally and I'm always yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm always excited at the beginning of the month. I'm like sweet, my balance is back up again and, honestly, like I didn't, I didn't know what to expect. When we transitioned to Maxwell, I remember I remember you guys talking about, I remember getting emails to onboard to it and I was a heavy user of special benefits for years before that right, but I really enjoyed it. I even just like the user experience of the app, the, the. I guess as a user, as a customer of that, it really it's made me feel valued right as a as an employee. The fact that you can kind of shift how you use that in a lot of ways is really impactful, and my story is not as cool as many other people's that you've probably already shared.
Speaker 3:But that's the thing is like it's relative, right. It's relative to you yourself. Your life, like what makes you happy and smile today might be different than tomorrow, but also it's going to be different than the other person. So that's the cool thing about it.
Speaker 1:I mean really, what I'm saying with some of these coffee meetings is I don't, when we're going through our budget at the end of the week, I don't have to answer to my wife who's like why you spent how much on coffee again.
Speaker 2:I don't think you're the only one that feels that way.
Speaker 3:I won't go into it, but you hear that surprisingly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so accountability partners are our spouses.
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure so you're. You use it on coffee.
Speaker 2:I do yeah, is it just?
Speaker 1:about the coffee, though, or was it a?
Speaker 2:I think for me it's what Stephen hit on earlier about the guilt. It's like so if I get a pay raise, I'm not thinking about, oh, I use those those extra dollars for my direct deposit to do something special for myself. It's a mindset. It's people like gave me this money to spend on myself however I want. I'm gonna spoil myself and go to coffee. What do you?
Speaker 3:get Just black coffee latte. Oh no, I get a latte. What is it? What's your order? Vanilla latte. Usually I was hoping that there was gonna be like five.
Speaker 1:From a local place or from a Starbucks.
Speaker 3:Oh, local, okay, good for you.
Speaker 2:It's a Minnesota good coffee yeah and they have all these scones they make there. I won't get into it, but I have my favorites. Yeah, that sounds great.
Speaker 3:I use it too, right? So the Maxwell team uses it and it happens with me, even though, like you know, I'm behind the curtain and working, so you know it works for me, Whether. I've used it for races. I have used it on shoes quite a bit running shoes. I just went to a comedy show with it, so those type of things.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. That's awesome, so maybe you wanna talk about you know what's next. Where are you going? Where are you continuing to build this? Yeah, you kind of got into a little bit of that earlier, or at least you teased us with it.
Speaker 3:So and just before jumping, that too I think, as you're talking about the incentives of lining to QLiCare as much about the team here as we do, and that's why we're here. It's not to you know, maxwell doesn't exist just to make money or feel good about it. It's actually to know each individual and see how we can support them, and that's the same thing with QLi.
Speaker 3:And going back to what we talked about from the start is that piece on autonomy that QLiCare is huge about that too of and upskilling and being able to learn other things. The amount of stories of people being able to shift to different apartments and be able to kind of be that you have houses that run pretty independently, that what you do matters, is really important, and Maxwell is just a piece of that.
Speaker 3:You know, ethos that QLiCare has is that you have autonomy, too, of how you want to be supported and cared for by QLiCare. So we are really excited early on to be able to work with someone like QLiCare and continue moving forward as far as new, fun things so actually should be. This week we have two different releases. One is a product test in the marketplace, so right now we have what we would call brands or solutions that you could find anything from, like Canva or what I talked about with Kinside or DoorDash, but they're kind of brands that you click into and then get to see other ones. So instead we're trying to do a couple of things. One, make it more productized, so I can show you even afterwards where it's actually products, and we're releasing it to celebrate Spanish Heritage Month. So one of our customers or partners they are a Mexican brand called NoPolera that we love very much. They make these great kind of soaps and whatnot, using the cactus and in a traditional way, and so they're going to be some of the first people that we celebrate up there, where people can see you front and center and be able to easily use their money on something that both is kind of a discovery thing but also is fun to use. So that's something that's kind of a tweak within the marketplace that we're playing around with and testing out. So you'll get to see that later this week.
Speaker 3:The other is on the regalo section. So, again, gifts, sending gifts to each other. But another important part of it too is recognition and incentives, and so how can you give this autonomy to managers as well, so that they can do spot bonuses or what we're calling spot regalos, and so it's important to we hear this all the time. We do tons of interviews. We talk to a lot of nurses, pts, ots also. As a side note, my dad's a physician, my mom's a nurse, I have two siblings that are OTs and I have a brother who's a physician. So I was the black sheep who went outside of it, because they're all older than me too.
Speaker 2:But now you just take care of all of us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now I'm just taking care of all the horse stories of fortune and some of their administrations. But I forgot where I was going with that, where?
Speaker 1:was I Changes regalos managers.
Speaker 3:So when we talk to a lot of nurses and what not actually what really matters to them is being recognized in a specific way. But that's also timely and money never hurts. That was one of the trash clothes that I heard from it just kind of nudges that along and so much of what we do. It's hard to give really quick, easy spot bonuses as a manager, because managers are also generally doing plenty of work as well.
Speaker 3:They're not just managing they also have direct work that they're doing as well. So how can we make it easier and then make it easier for teams to empower those managers to do that? So with the Spot Regalos section they'll be able to quickly from their phone the same app that they're using on themselves that they can find a team member that relates to them. With their budget that's set aside purely for recognizing people, they can choose a value that aligns with the company. So with QLI it could be this person displayed relentlessness and that they can select it and then send it to them all. Within 30 seconds the person gets a text. They receive that budget on the way home from work. They can use it. So that's a big release and we've kind of done a redesign along the way on that section.
Speaker 3:I would say, as we look ahead in the future there's things specifically in healthcare, but before that is kind of as it relates to this, mental health and wellbeing are just these quick check-ins, so something that through a program that we went through as Maxwell was just starting them each day same red, yellow, green and just tracking it over time of how am I feeling today and how important that is to do, because sometimes you can just be in a rut without even knowing it, because that's your baseline, so being able to help people if they're using Maxwell to say, hey, this is check-in, this is how I'm feeling today, so that really, more importantly for themselves, they can see how they're feeling over time.
Speaker 3:And then, as we focus more and more on healthcare which we've kind of, we serve people outside of healthcare, but that's where we're doubling down and focusing on is how can we also loop in the other part of what makes people love the work that they do in healthcare, and that is the patient interaction and so much of the angst in healthcare. The burnout is related to being feeling divorced from the mission because you're kind of in the rat race of just the administration of getting stuff done.
Speaker 3:I mean seeing my family going home at night doing notes or having to take notes while you're kind of in a clinical setting, otherwise you're gonna be behind afterwards. So you kind of have to make this trade off. So how can we bring that patient in and kind of close that loop and recognition? Because it matters from your peers, it matters from your managers or administration, but then it also matters from the people that you're caring for. So that's kind of our next big step of okay, how can we loop the patients in so that they can send this recognition and thanks to the individual and not take some 20 question patient survey that goes to kind of administration is kind of locked away and that the individual caregiver never gets to feel that appreciation or recognition. For, especially in kind of some industries where it's really high churn, you have to get someone out of that bed right away. So that's kind of what we're saying.
Speaker 1:You know, I guess I didn't realize that you guys are doubling down kind of on the healthcare realm right. So even when I was bringing up some of the healthcare worker burnout, I didn't realize that, yeah, we focused on that a lot and I thought actually beyond that like hey, healthcare is just kind of one part of where you guys are putting your benefits right now, but you're also focusing elsewhere. But it makes a lot of sense, given what we've talked about, and I'm sure you could probably rattle off even more data than what I shared at the beginning, given the rules that you've had too. Kylie, anything you wanna jump in and say, are you?
Speaker 2:I think, the other piece that I have to say about Maxwell is it's so refreshing to have a partner that not only do they offer a flexible benefit, but they're flexible themselves, sure. So if I say, hey, I'd love to see who's all onboarded, can you help me get a report of that? Or if we're looking to redo some of our QLI gear our t-shirts, our swag and we're trying to figure out a solution of how to do that in a way that's convenient for our team members, the Maxwell team never says no, it's always oh, yeah, we can do that, or that's an interesting thought. Let me look into that more. Or I actually was thinking about doing that. Let me tell you about what we've looked into. And so it's just been amazing to be able to have a partner that, again, yes, cares so much about our team members, but also cares about how do we just innovate?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, from an HR perspective, like there's a big difference probably between looking at someone as a vendor for you versus a partner with you and then even within that partner realm, like you, can market yourselves as hey, we want to partner with you on this, but then do your actions actually follow? Right, and I have not spent nearly as much time with the Maxwell folks as you have, but what I've gathered, even from listening to Steven talk, is that partnership really means something. Right, it's not just I'm gonna say that I'm actually gonna be on the ground and I'm gonna spend time with people and I wanna know how they tick and I wanna understand how to best engage you guys and how to best provide and service you with what we're doing too, which is really cool.
Speaker 3:And then I'm gonna listen to your ideas and we're gonna find ways to implement that and make it happen, and one part for us, too, of working with someone like QLI. Like I said, some of our favorite portions of Maxwell as a product itself came from working with QLI team, not only just the individual members, but also with Kylie and her team.
Speaker 3:So it's really fun to have a partner with that, who, again, is on the same side, who has that same belief, that same ethos, and develop it along the way. It's huge for us. I mean, it's the best thing that I could have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how many companies are you guys involved with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we have 14 companies we're here, located in Omaha, so start up here and looking to grow more so.
Speaker 1:Speaking of the startup part, you guys just won an award right Early in the summer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, there was Not just any award. We won Sherm's Better Workplaces Challenge Cup, so big shout out to Adriana, my co-founder. She did an amazing job, pitching, I believe, four times to get to that champion spot and win it all and so-.
Speaker 1:And that's not just like a local award.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, this is a world.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:It's a world award. So we went through several different iterations of this pitch competition to be selected throughout it Talking about Maxwell, the benefit of how we are kind of reimagining the workplace and the workforce and we were honored to represent the US and then compete against the World which was kind of funny to say which was an amazing company. Robin is the CEO there of Anuka, out of the Netherlands, and so we were over at Sherm's huge conference. There was like 40,000 people there Pitched on the live stage and Adriana won it for Maxwell, so it felt really good to be recognized, I think. More so there was prize money associated with it and titles are great, but really more so it's that validation when you're in a startup, having someone say, yeah, what you're doing matters.
Speaker 1:Good work and it matters yeah.
Speaker 3:It's probably the biggest kind of windfall that you could get.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. I kind of wanted to stand up and clap Right.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like again, as we position it, it's not just Maxwell, it's been the community that supported us. It's been early customers like QLI, which was actually one of the first customers with Maxwell, who's helped us iterate and develop along the way. So it was really we were proud to bring it to Omaha, this city amongst all these other places in the world, and say, hey, innovation can happen here in health care and how can we create better workplaces? And that's happening here. So that was cool. There was another one where we got accepted into Google for startups more recently, so that was another fun award here.
Speaker 1:So is there more to come from that still?
Speaker 3:So we're going through the process right now. We received some funding from it, which was great, and then Adriana is spending a lot of time through the Latina founders focus and just getting a lot of coaching support along the way with that, which is again a great resource. Man it's so cool.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad that these connections exist and that we get to use you guys. There's a lot of energy just coming from this conversation too. I appreciate Can tell that you love what you're doing. You see the impact that it has on people and Kylie. Thank you for getting all this going for QLy.
Speaker 3:It's really. Kylie is great, she's amazing. She is super good, despite the hoax, you know if she wears hoax.
Speaker 2:Kylie is great. She's incredible. Yes.
Speaker 1:Hey, anything you guys want to finish up on, any follow-up points or anything that we didn't get in there today.
Speaker 3:I don't think from my end. I just want to say I'm grateful for you all here, but also each individual member and getting text messages and whatnot of thanks, and it's just always a joy to interact with people here. So, whatever you're doing here at QLy, I actually actively think about it of like how did they create such a great workplace? Because I think about how can I then copy some of that and help other companies do it through Maxwell. So big shout out to you all here and what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a legacy of people at QLy that have really kept that, started it and kept it going for a long time. So it takes a big true, that's for sure. All right, thank you, appreciate you having in here, appreciate having you in here to have the conversation with us. And Kylie, thanks for joining and kind of given the QLy perspective on Maxwell too. Listeners, hopefully this was helpful to you and if you're in a company that would benefit from using Maxwell, I really encourage you to look them up online. It's maxwellapp correct and I would encourage you to look into that. Share it with your leaders in your company, and I know Kylie you would probably say if you need a reference, reach out to Kylie. She would love to tell you more about how we're using that within our company and the impact that it's having too. So, listeners, thanks again for joining us, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining the conversation with us today. If you found it helpful, please share with your family and friends. You can learn more about us on our website at continuetelerehabcom, or check us out on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
