The last 18 months have been described as a big leveller, with organisations and individuals across the globe facing many of the same challenges. For the former, one of those challenges has been the question: how to engage and empower – and increase the productivity of your field staff when all they are out of [...]
A passion for making life as simple and intuitive as possible for the end customer led Margot Hoekstra to success as a user experience designer. Tell us how you ended up at Retriever and about your first role. Thirteen years ago I was looking for a job with a focus on design and project management, [...]
Unhappy and disengaged staff can be a business’ worst nightmare. Any organisation that has had to deal with the fallout of a disgruntled staff member, or former staff member, badmouthing it on social media or in anonymous online workplace forums knows this only too well. It leads to a negative atmosphere internally and can also [...]
As the name suggests, the term ‘real-time systems’ refers to systems that carry out tasks in real time – generally, tasks that are time-sensitive and need to be carried out with some degree of urgency. In simple terms, real-time tasks relate to either controlling certain events or reacting to them. Air traffic control, for example, [...]
Have you ever held on to a pair of running shoes much too long? They’re comfortable, they’re familiar and, besides, you’re just too busy to get along to the shoe shop and find yourself a new pair? But you know deep down that you really should. Shoe design improves all the time, your old shoes [...]
Of all the industries currently undergoing radical transformation, facility management has had to evolve quicker than most. As a profession it has morphed dramatically from concierge and janitor-based roles to an industry that requires highly technical skills and knowledge across a wide range of disciplines. The last few years have seen this expand exponentially, even [...]
From university graduate to Chief Technology Officer, our long-serving employee Nic Grange takes us through his journey at Retriever Communications since joining the company in 2004. Tell us how you ended up at Retriever and about your first role as a software engineer. In early 2004, I was just about to graduate from a software engineering [...]
Contracts aside, customers can sever their relationship with you at any time and go elsewhere. Presumably they keep doing business with you because they want to, because you are giving them something different, something special, something reliable and something they can’t quite get anywhere else. But how do you ensure that this is what you [...]
In February 2021 there was a press report about new rates for drivers working for a certain food delivery app. A significant bonus was now available, but to earn it a driver would have to make 70 deliveries a day. Even with a 10-hour shift, that’s seven deliveries an hour. Now managers of drivers actually [...]
Who among us is organised and proactive enough to think, ‘Six months have gone by – it’s time for me to book in a dental check-up’? We all have so many concerns and responsibilities that we have to attend to every day that these regular but rare commitments are very difficult to keep top of [...]
