Conversations from RecFest Nashville 2024

I travelled to Nashville for RecFest USA and hit up some industry folks while walking the grounds. In this episode you'll hear from;

• Mark Anderson from Advantage.ai

• Dan Sapir from JobGet

• Jake Morse from Pillar.hr

• Stephen McGrath from Poetry

• Gina Alioto from Shaker

• Steve Levy from DHI Group

• Krista Tan from Talent Collective

Enjoy the audio!

SHRM24 Conversations Erin CEO Mike Stafiej

Mike Stafiej is the CEO of employee referral platform ERIN. We sat down with him at SHRM 24 in Chicago.

AI Transcript

So tell the audience what his ERIN app.

Yeah, so ERIN is an employee referral platform. We help businesses engage employees to participate in recruitment, and what that means is we're taking the 40-year-old paper policy of refer somebody and we'll give you a thousand bucks. Automating all of that and then creating an experience around it so that the employees can constantly be involved and it kind of creates a flywheel of just a snowball effect. So typically we work with businesses of at least a thousand employees or more all the way up to a couple hundred thousand employees. What we're trying to do is get them from 10% hire from referrals to 30% hire from referrals. When we do that, there's three things that were really driving home. One is cost per hire, the second is time to fill, and then the third is retention and decreasing turnover.

Beyond using ERIN app, what are some of the things companies need to do for referrals to be successful at it? Yeah,

I mean, look, we we're tech that makes it easier to administrate, easier to engage with, but the reality is that most people struggle with just pure communication. I mean, grab any random employee, say, Hey, what is our referral bonus? They're not going to nip. So figuring out ways to make that communication happen better, and nobody wants another email saying there's another job open. So what we see effective is a lot of putting posters in break rooms, having a very easy place to go and learn about the policy, to participate dedicated URLs. Those are the things that matter because if people can't get in there and figure it out easily, they're never going to do anything. This is their side hustle. So they don't care about talent acquisition, but they do care about a thousand dollars. So that's the gap that people need to close. Tech just makes it a lot easier. Right.

Yeah, I remember I interviewed a guy, HR director, I remember years ago, and he had put around the office TVs with little commercials, almost playing about referrals. I thought that was a pretty cool idea, but communication is right. You have to really explain it to employees, make it easier for them to know how to do it

Mean. Yeah, you got, again, this is their side hustle within New York, so they have no idea what's going on. You need to market it constantly to them through parties, make it part of your initiative, make it part of the company wide announcements. Those are the things that close gap.

You guys have a new product this week, can tell us about it.

So today, hot off the press, I didn't even look at the press release yet, so I hope it's out there. Otherwise, we're ahead of ourselves, but this won't air in time. We'll be fine. So the new products recognition product, so we have employee referrals. We do have an internal mobility that people use, and then now we have a full recognition product that can actually be used standalone. The cool thing about that is it really buys into the message of the full life cycle of how employees participate in talent acquisition. It's refer your friends, bring 'em in. So new hires feed the machine, and then you have growing your career internally to help people develop and stay with the organization. And then recognition, which closes the gap on the other side, which is helping retain people so that they don't leave. And when that all happens together, it's a giant snowball effect. The more that people are recognized and enjoy being there, the more they're going to refer their friends. The more they refer to their friends, the more people come in that then enjoy being recognized and staying there. So we're really excited to have both sides of the problem, fix new hires and turning off the spigot to get a retention to the right place. So

What's your new recognition look like for the employee? You mean an actual use case? What

Happens? Yeah, so remember, they're already in our platform doing things. So they're in there looking at jobs. They can see how much you can earn. They can track their bonuses, fun stuff like that. The new product, it's a little bit more of a social aspect. They can engage with each other. So peer-to-peer reward system, think of it as like a wall, just any social media wall where you can see those interactions. You could insert GIF and stuff like that. It's fun as they do that. There's a point system behind it where they earn points by participating and then they can use those points to give those rewards to each other. And then some of the customers have the option to check out with digital gift cards. They could do a swag store, non-monetary rewards. Obviously we're heavy on bonuses. We have direct integrations with payroll, so if they want to create rewards and bonuses in the recognition side that do get paid out through payroll, we can do that super easy as well. So think of it as it's just a gamified, like, Hey, you're so close to earning that next reward. Can we get you in? It's a cool system.

Let's talk numbers a bit. When it comes to payouts for employees, what are the highs and lows within your customer base?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, so look, healthcare's on fire in a lot of ways. We see nurse physicians paying up to $10,000. We see cyber security with secret clearance positions paying $20,000 sometimes. But these are very specific hires, so imagine the recruiter fee to go find that person. On average, we see about a thousand to 1500. It's gone up and down a little bit over the years, and we do average 'em out, but it's pretty consistent. People bought 'em out of at 500 at the lowest, a thousand's, very common, and then up to 5,000 on more specialized roles. So just within, we're talking about healthcare, think of it as anybody, you'll give it a thousand dollars for any hire nurses, we're going to give you $5,000. Doctors would give you $10,000. So yeah, about that thousand to $1,500 range.

What's the overall average for the industry as far as just percentage of employee referrals? There are hires in the market.

Yeah, I mean, if you're over 10,000 employees, I could almost guarantee that you're at eight to 12% hires from referrals today. Some people are worse, some people are better. Really, obviously it depends on the situation. It depends on who you're hiring, how you're hiring them. Obviously you're going to have communication hurdles for manufacturing because the employees are not on, computers, are not engaging with tech versus something like an office job. But yeah, it's eight to 12%. And then from there, what we want to get you is to 30, 35%. And we've done it.

Clients in that range down

Times. Yeah, that's the magic, right? We just, we're two years in with a customer and they're kind of like our poster child just because just lined up so perfectly. We have people that have done better than them, but they started at 3% higher from referrals, 3%. They brought in a full-time person to manage it. They got them to 9%. So they tripled that. That's pretty good plateau From there, they bring in ERIN , they're now at 35% hires from referrals to 75% engagement of their workforce,

Which is pretty, that's pretty impressive. Definitely. What's your favorite feature of the product?

I've had people laugh at me when I tell them we do employee referrals. They're like, what? It's like a Google form. The nuances behind it are often lost on the surface. And what I mean by that is automating every single part of the written policy could be very hard. And I'm talking things like, did they work here before? Well, if they worked here 12 months ago, it's okay, I'll pay you a bonus. But if they worked here nine months ago, we're not going to pay you a bonus. Or maybe a hiring manager is eligible for referral bonuses unless they're referring to a job that they're the hiring manager of. So there's a lot of weird rules you have to pull together to truly automate this. We're doing this with organizations that are over a hundred thousand people. So you're getting literally tens of thousands of bonuses paid every year.

Everything has to be perfect. So we've done this all along, but what we've now done is brought that into the UI to give our customers control on it, meaning they can go in there and they can basically see every rule we've ever written, and then there's dropdowns so they can build their own, and it allows them to now think like, oh shit, we didn't even know we needed that. Right? So now they can do some pretty cool stuff, and that's all in the ui and they have full control on it. So it's, well, not a very sexy feature on the surface. It's super powerful.

Is AI going to play a part in this at all?

Yeah. Yeah. I had a guy yell at me earlier for seeing AI

For all. It seems like a pretty simple use case for a software. Does it need ai?

Well, no, that's a good point. What it needs is, is a way for employees to find what they're looking for faster. So you have to remove all friction in the process. So what we are launching this summer AI slash machine learning, but mixed in with natural language processing. So if I'm a security guard, I should be able to say, Hey, I want to security guard job that's within 20 miles of a major city that pays 20 bucks an hour, and then find the job. So that's where you can leverage things like natural language processing to turn it in from something that a human would say into a result, and then matching based on data in that job and for that person as well. So that's where we're leveraging it, and it's exciting. I mean, think about, again, large organizations. Your average person's not used to looking for work, a job within the organization. They don't want to deal with a dozen dropdowns and how to specify something and get to get somewhere. They just want to see what they want and then show them a result. That's what we're releasing.

Good stuff, Mike. Tell the audience where to go to learn more.

Aaron app.com. E-R-I-N-A-P p.com and find us on LinkedIn.

Awesome. Thanks.

Cool, man. Nice. Appreciate it, man. That's a wrap.

SHRM 24 Conversations: Jennifer Dulski, CEO, Rising Team

In my latest SHM 24 conversation, we'll talk to Jennifer Dulski, the founder of Team Performance Software Rising Team. They recently raised $8 million in funding and we'll find out more about this new HR tech startup.

Welcome to Tech the podcast where recruiting and technology intersect. Each month you'll hear from vendors shaping the recruiting world along with recruiters who will tell you how they use technology to hire talent. Now here's your host, the Mad Scientist of online recruiting, Chris Russell.

AI Transccript

Alright, broadcasting live from the GP booth at SHRM 24 in Chicago. And my guest today is Jennifer Dulsky. She's the CEO of a company called Rising Team. Just got $8 million in funding. We're going to talk about that, but Rising Team provides the industry leading team performance platform. Its software enables companies to increase employee engagement and retention, scale talent development and improve culture and connection. Jennifer, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

Great. So congrats on the funding round $8 million, I think I was back in early June.

That's right. It it's led by Zeal Capital Partners and other existing investors came back into people like Peterson Ventures, female Founders Fund and Roble Ventures. Yeah,

So it's tough marketing HR fund, HR tech funding. So congrats on that, but what's the origin story of the company? Let's start there.

So I've spent most of my background working at big tech companies. I've worked at Facebook and Google and Yahoo and I helped to lead change.org for five years and I am basically building the tool I wish I had had as a leader of teams, which is the case for many founders. I was lucky to have executive coaches and be sent to amazing trainings, but I always felt like I was being taught to fish and then I had to go back to the lake, which was my team with the binder on how to fish instead of a fishing pole. So rising team essentially builds tools that equip managers to bring to life the things they learn about driving high performing teams with their teams on their own without an outside facilitator.

In the press release it says, lemme find the phrase here, leaders in hybrid and distributed workplace. So is this more of a remote first type of product?

Absolutely not. I'd say we have customers that range from large Fortune 500 companies to nonprofits and government agencies and schools. Some people do it in person, some people do use it remote and hybrid. Essentially it's software that equips managers to run these interactive, deeply connecting sessions with their teams. And it is true that it's especially helpful for teams that don't work together in person. It's also true that sometimes even teams that work together in person are not very intentional about doing things like that, so it helps them too.

Give me an example. One of these sessions, walk it through.

So we have three different types of what we call kits. The first are development kits, which are on the skills of high performing teams. So you take a topic like psychological safety and we create a kit that does everything an outside facilitator would do. So it starts with learning goals and some ground rules and then a warmup activity and then an exercise The team does, it's all software guided so anybody can lead it. You just kind of follow the steps and the team does it synchronously, whether they're in person or remote and on a device. So they're on either a laptop or a phone and they're entering data. So for instance, in psychological safety, you might create a user manual where you're talking about things like what times of day do you prefer to work and how do you like to receive your constructive feedback? And the teams are connecting and gaining insights about each other. The benefit of having it go into software is that we then also can filter it into an AI coach that knows everything about your team. So that's the other core part of the product.

Okay. So why is this the right time for a product like this in the market and also for the funding as well?

Yeah, so there's a few key factors. One is, as you said, hybrid and distributed work. So more than ever companies we're now at 75% of all tele workable jobs are hybrid. So people need that deeper connection with their teams. The second is that managers are more burned out and overwhelmed than they've ever been. Gartner says 75% of managers say they're completely overwhelmed. And so companies don't really have tools that scale to the frontline manager level. Usually when they do leadership

Development, this is a manager tool then

It's a team tool. So unlike, it's actually a really good point because usually the way we train managers is in groups of managers. We put them in cohorts together and we don't give them anything to bring back with their teams. Instead, we train managers by giving them this software and having them facilitate a session with their whole team. Two key benefits, one is they learn it better by practicing it themselves, and two, the team is involved so they feel more valued.

Who do you sell this to? Is it HR or is it some other aspect?

Yeah, so we tend to go in through functional or divisional leaders at companies like CIOs or CMOs or a head of a division. Sometimes we go in directly through HR too, especially at very large companies. There's always a partnership with HR though. Even if we go in through, say a VP of engineering, they're bringing their HR partner with them to help make sure they believe in the tool and they'll help them implement it and so forth. Honestly though, we try to make it as easy as possible. We do all the leader training and so forth. So once they are bought in, there's very little work on their side to do.

Oh, team performance. Can you put it in the bucket of performance management as sort of a HR technology?

It's not performance management. So we don't do yet at least performance reviews, it's more team performance in the sense that the better your team understands each other and can resolve conflict and feels psychologically safe and so forth, the better they will perform. And we have a lot of data about, we move right now things like employee engagement, ENPS manager effectiveness scores between 20 and 80%.

What was your first customer experience? Tell me about that.

Our first customer is actually the bank of Hawaii. They were really interested and interestingly they work a lot in person, they're hybrid, but they do work a lot in person. But they wanted something that they could scale out to their whole organization. So originally they had been doing things mainly for senior leadership and they wanted something to scale and we tend to use a pilot approach. So they started with a pilot and then they saw the results from the pilot and then they rolled out to their entire organization. And we also built them some custom kits. So we have a lot of in-house pre-made ready kits for people to use, but they also wanted things on their own leadership principles and their own operating excellence principles. And so we made them interactive workshops based on their content too.

Do you have a favorite feature of the product?

My favorite feature is our new AI coach. We call it rd. So it's AI with RT for rising team in the middle. We are trying to be clever there, but it's essentially, again, I wish I had had this tool because my team, for example, we've done dozens and dozens of these sessions together. My team has told me so much about themselves, but I can't always remember everything they told me. Now I have an AI coach who's available to me 24 7, who remembers everything my team ever told them. So I can ask it questions like Susan is feeling burned out, how do I support her? And it will give me specific answers just to Susan, like Susan likes only working on two to three things at a time. Help her with her to-do list, or Susan likes running in the middle of the day, remind her to take a break. And then it gives me a completely different answer for other people on my team.

They almost getting to employee engagement there helps the managers to just stay in touch with that employee.

Exactly. Much better managers. The other thing is it's available to every team member too, not just the managers. So this is why I say it's team performance. An individual contributor can also say, how do I tell my manager, I think this meeting is a waste of my time. And it will give you specific answers tied to the preferences of that manager.

What's your biggest challenge right now?

Well, it's a tough market out there, right? Everybody has a lot of priorities and so our goal is to help people understand why this is a priority and I

You'll do some educating in the market, right? For these

A little bit. And what I tend to, it's basically time pressure is the biggest hurdle. So people say, we're so busy we don't have time. Rising team only takes three to four hours per quarter. So it's less than 1% of people's time to see the kind of results we're talking about. And that's why I try,

You're not in it every day. Then as

You're not, you might use the AI tool every day, and we also have mini kits that take 10 to 15 minutes. So you might use those once a week and your team meetings. But to get the results of engagement boost and manager effectiveness boost, you only need to run two to three sessions a quarter, and that's less than 1% of your time. And I tell people, if you don't have 1% of your time to invest in understanding your team, it's no wonder they don't feel valued by you. Sounds

Like it would make the managers better too. Better perceived by

13. Much better. And the favorite story I use to talk about this is from Maverick. Did you see Top Gun Maverick? Yep. Yeah. So you know this scene where he takes them to the beach to play flag football and the Admiral comes over and he says, what are you doing playing games? We have this critically important mission and Maverick says, you told me to make them a team, sir, there's your team. You just can't. No matter how important your goals and mission, you can't set aside caring for and understanding for your team. That's why people quit. They don't have managers that care about them. And so we tell you in just a few hours a quarter, you can guarantee your team will stay and feel valued by you.

Very cool. Well Jennifer, thanks for your time today. Tells the audience where to go learn more about your company.

It's rising team.com.

Awesome, thanks. Thank you.

SHRM 24 Conversations: Workleap's CPO

Recorded live at SHRM24 in Chicago, Kahina Ouerdane, Chief People Officer for Montreal based Workleap. Kahina has been mastering the art of managing people for more than a decade, previously at PwC as a consultant, and now at Workleap.

Kahina and I covered a range of topics around her role, the employee experience and onboarding.

RecTech Media travel sponsored by our friends at Jobcase.com

SHRM24: Compliance Talk with VirgilHR's Jocelyn King

Jocelyn King, SHRM-SCP is the CEO and Founder of VirgilHR, a SaaS solution that empowers HR professionals to make smart, compliant employment and labor law decisions in real-time. We discussed a lot around compliance particularly as it pertains to recruiting.

HR has been the passion and focus of Jocelyn’s entire career as she’s supported high-growth technology start-ups and public companies throughout her tenure. She defines herself as a true HR generalist and has touched on all aspects of HR in her more senior roles. Jocelyn has strong expertise in creating and executing HR strategy, managing employee relations for multi-state and global organizations, developing a diverse and high-performing work culture, owning organization development and change management, and crafting the total reward, talent development, and talent acquisition strategies.

In addition to HR, what has also remained consistent in her career has been technology. Jocelyn has worked for technology companies most of her career and, as an HR executive, has had the privilege of supporting executives and departments in all functions across the organizations. In her role as CEO for VirgilHR, she’s displayed proven success in building a venture-backed technology company from the ground up. She has held previous roles as the Vice President of People, North America for Ocado Group, as well as Vice President of People for Cybrary, a Series-C start up. She’s spent a majority of her career working with a range of tech companies from Pre-Seed to Post-IPO.

SHRM24 Interviews: G-P's Head of HR Laura Maffucci Talks AI & More

Laura Maffucci is G-P’s Head of HR, and she leads the company’s global workforce, talent, and employee experience. She operates from a people-first mindset and strongly believes that diversity of thought is paramount for a healthy workspace. We chatted about AI in HR and their new AI powered onboarding tool.

Laura previously held leadership positions in the Global Total Rewards team at G-P, from Sr. Director to VP. Before this, she led Total Rewards & HRIS at Progress, a tech company focused on products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact applications. Prior to Progress, she held roles of increasing responsibility with Ocean Spray Cranberries, where she was awarded HR Award for Innovation and Creativity (2016). Her tenure at Ocean Spray Cranberries was preceded by roles with an emphasis on compensation and HR practices.

In her 20+ year career in HR, Laura has spoken on global and national platforms about compensation, employee well-being and mental health. She’s a staunch advocate for the employee experience and creating a culture of inclusivity. Laura is passionate about the future of work, normalizing the value of work everywhere, and enabling employees across the globe to be their best selves and add value wherever they go and whatever they do.

Recorded live from the G-P booth in Chicago at SHRM24.

RecTech Media Travel Sponsored by Jobcase

Vendor Interviews form Unleash America 2024

Travel sponsored by Pillar.hr

I roamed the show floor at Unleash America to chat with some vendors with something to say.

ORDER of APPEARANCE

• Blue Saturn

• Hiring Branch

• Sense

• BrightMine

• Flockity

• Nexxt

• Nestor