Oakdale Man Builds a Tool for 21st Century Scheduling

With the advent of mobile technology, the workforce at many corporations have become less traditional—less nine-to-five.

Employers may find scheduling paperwork difficult, and increasingly so, as employee work shifts often vary greatly within a 24-hour period.

To address these concerns, Oakdale resident Chad Halvorson, 29, developed When I Work, a web-based scheduling software program used by more than 700 companies worldwide.

Launched last July, When I Work was developed to provide managers and business owners with a fast, convenient scheduling system, he said. Through the program's web-based interface employee schedules can be accessed from any computer or an iPhone or Android phone. The schedule can be viewed through several calendar programs including iCal, Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.

"The core principles behind it are speed, simplicity and mobility—making it very easy to use for whomever is going to use it," Halvorson said. "and then making it fast so that you can get in and out of it quick when you want to see the schedule or when the manager wants to set the schedule ... and then mobility so you're able to interact and engage with whatever information you want to from wherever you are."

One of the core features that is unique, Halvorson said, is a two-way text messaging platform that can be used by any mobile phone. By texting the word "shift" employees will get a reply text message detailing their shift.

"They can text the word 'Tuesday' and it will tell them if they have a shift on Tuesday," he said.

The same program also allows employees to trade shifts via text messaging.

Halvorson said the system is also great for finding an employee to fill a shift quickly.

"Rather than getting on the phone and calling all of the people that are not working today and try to find someone to come in, they can go to their phone or they can go to the Web and they can put out a request or a notification to anybody that's not working saying 'I need someone to come in and work 1 to 5 today,' and then it'll send a text message and an email out to everybody else that's not scheduled with that information," he said.

Customer support is provided for When I Work in case customers have questions or need troubleshooting, he said.

Pricing for the product is based on the number of employees. Companies with five employees or less can use the product for free.

"You never have to give a dime unless you add a sixth employee," he said. "So, that kind of allows small businesses to grow into it."

For companies with six to 10 employees, the cost is one dollar per employee per month.

"The biggest plan is $10 a month for 10 employees, actually $9.95 and then as you go from there, you've got a $20 plan for 25 employees and a $30 plan for 40 employees and as you grow in number of employees the price per employee will lower," Halvorson said.

He said the average customer has 15-40 employees. Business range from retail to academic to medical.

One of the first customers of When I Work was the Dunn Bros Coffee shop in Oakdale. The business served as part of the beta test for the When I Work program, before it initially launched.

Franchise co-owner Tom Nacey said the program has been great to use.

"We were using an Excel spreadsheet before," Nacey said. "So I can do all my scheduling, I can schedule out as far as I want. People know that they're going to be taking the day off in July, they can go right in and say 'I'm taking this day off.' I just go in, click and approve it."

He said it can help get rid of the excuses typical of a younger workforce and also help cover open shifts.

For example, one of Nacey's employees broke their foot, and they were scheduled to work eight hours the next day.

"So I go into the system, send out a mass email to all the employees that show as being available to work and said 'this shift is available' and most of the time they respond."

When I Work is provided by thisCLICKS, LLC., a company that was founded at the launch of the product. Halvorson said the idea came from his experience in the grocery industry as a cashier and bag boy back in 1998.

"The technology stuff was pretty new, but I was always interested and engaged with it," he said. "And that's when I thought why not go online and be able to see when I work rather than calling in and interrupting other staff or having to go in on my day off, that kind of thing."

Halvorson said he started getting into Web development and Web design in 2000 and 2001.

In 2002, he met Joe DuBord and Brian Hagen of Meditech Communications, a video production company that supports the medical community.

"I met up with them in 2002 and worked with them as a developer on interactive tools that those companies would use to sell their products and as I grew my Web business from 2001 to 2005 I developed my own client base and in 2005, the three of us partnered and became one entity," he said.

Development for When I Work began in 2009 with funding from Halvorson, DuBord and Hagen.

"I spent 10 years just thinking about the idea off and on and eventually got to the point where I had the resources to bring it to market, I had a really good team of developers and the market was right with the way that connectivity is going with mobile devices and social media and everything else," he said.

thisCLICKS, which provides When I Work, is located on Phalen Boulevard in St. Paul.