Why bottom-up architecture is the future of WFM solutions
This article explores 5 common drawbacks of legacy tools and how next-generation, bottom-up architecture unlocks revenue growth.
Building a staff schedule couldn’t be easier.
Reduce payroll errors with real-time T&A.
Fill 50% more shifts with your own employees.
Ensure shifts are covered even if you're understaffed.
Manage absence requests and approvals.
Practical ways to boost team morale with proven examples from across the sector.
Find out what care employees say matters to them most at work.
Search and view employees with customised permission levels.
Key employment information all in one place.
Store visas, professional certifications and more with easy access.
Control personal and operational details of your staff.
Why are people leaving Social Care, and where are they going?
We asked 250 Social Care leaders about their attitudes towards digitisation and their plans for the next 12 months...
Why are Hospitality workers leaving the industry, and what can you do to retain them?
Share updates with a single click.
Staff can see relevant messages in one place.
Request post-shift feedback from staff.
Recognise staff contributions by sending them praise.
Identify staff at risk of churning.
How care organisations can embrace flexible working and thrive.
Maintain quality of care and reduce costs.
Maximise profitability through AI-powered forecasting & scheduling.
Elevate your operational efficiency and guest satisfaction.
Streamline operations across sites.
Developed alongside Social Care experts with decades of combined experience.
See why we are the leading user-friendly, end-to-end platform that prioritises both efficiency and wellbeing.
More information is coming soon. Talk to us today.
Give staff greater visibility of shifts available to work, with a simple "shift claim" process to increase their income.
Improve employee engagement and retention with a seamless employee communication platform.
Happier staff provide greater customer experiences, which in turn drives return rates, revenues and recommendations.
Give staff greater visibility of shifts available to work, with a simple "shift claim" process to increase their income.
Improve employee engagement and retention with a seamless employee communication platform.
Happier staff provide greater customer experiences, which in turn drives return rates, revenues and recommendations.
Meet the Sona team online with our webinar series or in-person at an event near you.
Downloadable templates, reports and guides from Sona.
New research, insights, and strategies for frontline leaders.
Stay up to date with the latest Sona news and research.
Learn how our customers are transforming their people operations.
| 7 min read
This article explores 5 common drawbacks of legacy tools and how next-generation, bottom-up architecture unlocks revenue growth.
| 9 min read
This essential guide explains the evolution of WFM and why AI-driven technologies will influence the way organisations are run in the long-term.
| 6 min read
We’re excited to announce that Sona has raised £22m to help large organisations move from legacy systems to a truly intelligent AI-driven WFM solution.
PUBLISHED: August 2024
What motivates the next generation of Care professionals to stay in the sector?
PUBLISHED: August 2024
Find out if your tech supports your business goals!
PUBLISHED: August 2024
How to invest in management solutions that pay for themselves
We are excited to announce this new round of investment and how it will impact large Hospitality groups and their employees.
6 minute read
Together with my fellow co-founders, Steffen Wulff Petersen and Oli Johnson, we’d like to thank Felicis who led the financing with participation from Northzone, Google’s AI-fund Gradient, SpeedInvest, Antler, BAG Ventures, and the numerous notable angels who participated in the round.
Sona’s mission has always been to solve the unique challenges of Hospitality work with next-generation AI technology that empowers every employee to drive productivity, on every level of a large organisation.
Sona co-founders Ben Dixon, Steffen Wulff Petersen and Oli Johnson
Today we are doing just that for a total of over 100,000 people. We are grateful to the Hospitality operators who have chosen us to support them on their digital journey, including Gleneagles, Exclusive Collection, The Pig, Insomnia Cookies, and more, helping them and other organisations deliver over 5 million seamless shifts.
Some of the most talented and motivated people around have joined us to make this possible, and I’d like to give a particular shout-out to Karina Coen, Paul Watson, Harry Salmon, Piers Lambert, and Ben Lee. Together, they have more than 50 years of experience in the Hospitality sector and their insights into labour productivity, demand forecasting, and what operators really need to succeed against market challenges have guided us every step of the way.
Alongside our exceptional development teams and our partners, they set the foundation of what a truly intelligent AI-driven WFM solution should be.
The Hospitality sector needs innovative solutions that are not only cutting-edge today but also versatile enough to be future-proof ten years from now and beyond. Our modern tech stack means that we can process the huge quantities of data generated in real-time to generate actionable insights. One (small) example of that this means in practice: we can make productivity suggestions for dinner based on what happened at lunch and provide real-time nudges if drinks or dessert participation is lagging.
It’s great to see Sona provide an industry-leading solution for such a critical area for Hospitality.
Having been involved with ever-evolving Workforce Management platforms for nearly ten years, the results seen with Sona are impressive – from smart AI-enabled dynamic forecasting to auto-scheduling and, importantly, employee preferences and a slick ‘consumer grade’ app for ease of use,” said David Campbell, tenured executive (Chairman, CEO) of numerous hospitality businesses (including wagamama, PizzaExpress, The Ivy Collection, Bill’s Restaurants, Ole & Steen) and industry employee initiative Hospitality Rising.
“Quite rightly, Hospitality businesses are driving productivity and efficiency while building customer service – Sona has demonstrated the ability to help grow sales and optimise staffing.
David Campbell
Hospitality CEO & Chairman
Over the past year, we’ve seen demand for a next-generation solution like Sona increase fourfold, particularly amongst Hotel groups. This pushed us to strategically outline how we'd like to become the biggest WFM supplier for Hotels, Casual Dining, and QSR groups in the UK.
My friend and Sona co-founder, Steffen Wulff Petersen, put it best:
“Overall, with Sona, I like to think of it as building the “self-driving car” of running a large Hotel group or a restaurant chain. The last 20 years of workforce management were dominated by legacy point solutions that digitised simple paper processes and offered basic versions of AI assistance. Sona is building the next generation of WFM with a truly intelligent platform that enables organisational leaders in complex, multi-location enterprises to put the right people, in the right place, at the right time; and to seamlessly manage their workforce end-to-end.”
Steffen Wulff Petersen
CEO & Co-Founder of Sona
We believe we can deliver this because our exponential growth has been driven by tangible factors: speed of product delivery, high configurability, and sector expertise.
Unlike legacy platforms, Sona’s technology has been built from the ground up for real-time data processing and insights. Leveraging the Elixir programming language and large language models - similar to what powers tools like ChatGPT - we offer AI-powered real-time actionable feedback which helps drive intelligent decision making and leads to real workforce productivity gains. The trust of our investors so far has yielded a total of £30 million - funds that we see contributing to the development of the sector as a whole.
“We are proud to lead Sona's Series A round and support its mission to empower frontline enterprises with cutting-edge workforce management solutions.” We believe in Sona's potential to redefine how businesses [...] manage their workforce, and we're excited to be part of their journey towards reshaping the future of work. Ben, Oli, Steffen and the Sona team have already helped over 100,000 frontline workers schedule shifts, and we know so many more will appreciate smarter software that enables their work.”
Niki Pezeshki
General Partner at Felicis
As we continue to innovate, our mission remains clear: to transform the outdated tools that have hindered Hospitality groups in the past and usher in a new era of intelligent WFM that drives ROI, efficiency, employee wellbeing, and, ultimately, the delivery of an exceptional customer experience.
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6 min read
We’re excited to announce that Sona has raised £22m to help large organisations move from legacy systems to a truly intelligent AI-driven WFM solution.
2 min read
Today we’re excited to reveal that we have raised a $2.2 million (£1.6m) investment round - led by Speedinvest - to help us deliver Sona's mission.
2 min read
Sona was invited to join an expert panel to discuss why care providers should be focused on employee engagement and wellbeing in 2022. Read more here.