65% of employees experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Only 10% report it to their employers.

The way organizations deal with workplace conflict is broken for both employees AND employers. 

Employees don't report workplace discrimination and harassment due to fear of retaliation and opaque internal processes.  Hotlines, anonymous reporting tools, and harassment prevention training do little to increase trust and resolve conflict.  As a result, employees end up working in toxic environments suffering from a loss of productivity and well-being.

The low reporting also hurts employers who lack visibility into key challenges facing their organization. In addition, due to disconnected internal processes, HR spends more time gathering information than resolving cases, leaving employees feeling even more frustrated and distrustful.  Poor work culture leads to costly talent turnover, high litigation fees, and can negatively impact a company's brand.

The People First Platform: A better way to resolve workplace conflict

Customers are seeing immediate improvements with the People First platform

People First’s resolution-based software platform works for both employees and the employer.  It’s designed under the premise that:  

transparency + accountability + closure = great workplace culture

Employees are guided through a safe and transparent reporting process that allows them to state their desired resolution. Employers have a central repository of all case data and customization capabilities that allow them to map cases to the right internal staff and quickly resolve cases. 

Easy to use for EVERYONE. Because software shouldn’t complicate an already difficult problem.

An employee completes a report describing the incident (who, what, when, where), and the desired resolution.  This report can include identifying witnesses and uploading photos/files.  All the data is safely stored and the report only becomes visible to a pre-designated person in HR once the employee submits it.

Once submitted, the employee follows the progress of their report and marks it resolved after an agreement has been reached to close the case.  After a case is marked as resolved, the app checks in periodically for any potential retaliation. If no resolution is reached, the employee has the option to file the report with the EEOC, based on local laws.

Employers (HR, Senior Management, or whoever is designated in the escalation path)  work with all parties to resolve cases.  A dashboard shows all open and resolved cases with time left to resolution.  The workflow management functionality reduces processing time by up to 50%, helping companies achieve resolutions faster.  

Proprietary product with 58 clients and 3,200 users

In May 2019, we launched the product with 12 customers and have grown over 4x in the last year.  We are tracking to $450,000 in revenue for 2020.

Our customers are resolving workplace conflict across all categories including, unwanted sexual advances, interference with work performance, and insults or put-downs.  

Awards

For all levels of an organization: from C-level executives to HR to Legal to Compliance

C-level executives know the value in connecting their HR, Diversity & Inclusion, Legal and Compliance departments to resolve workplace conflict.

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"We're committed to providing the best possible environment for our team.  I believe the transparency and accountability mechanisms People First leverages help us do that."

Paul Cristiano - CEO, Nexteligent

Subscription tiers allow for companies of all sizes to resolve workplace conflict

People First has two pricing tiers for companies to decide what best suits their company size and budget.  The premium product offers different escalation paths, anonymous reporting, and automated HR reports and analytics. 

Our enterprise version will launch in early 2021.

$64 billion total addressable market by 2025

Our business strategy and model is supported by the evolving legal and cultural landscape around discrimination, harassment, and bullying.  Since 2017, 16 States have adopted workplace discrimination mandates that increased worker protections by one or more of the following elements: increased training, limited NDAs, expanded types of covered workers, and extended timelines to file claims. We expect more states to adopt and implement legislation creating greater urgency for secure and transparent reporting systems for workplace misconduct.

At the same time, US companies are spending more on HR tech. The global enterprise, governance, risk, and compliance software market is expected to be $64.2 billion by the year 2025. 

To note: We often think of workplace misconduct as being limited to physical space but much of it happens with no physical contact, e.g., exclusion from projects, reduced hours, poor performance reviews. With the increase in remote working, discrimination and harassment have migrated online - with a greater likelihood of the inappropriate behavior being recorded digitally (in messaging apps and email). 

Proprietary workflows for companies and employees 

Unlike existing products, which focus on automating reporting forms, People First addresses the core issues perpetuating the lack of reporting:

1. Fear of retaliation
2. Opaque internal processes

Our product allows employees and employers to continue through to resolution, thereby creating a better workplace for all.  We are the only company to provide both HR and compliance functionality for all types of workplace harassment and discrimination.

Launch Enterprise version of the platform

Our Republic fundraising goal will allow us to finish our enterprise software product and acquire enterprise customers reaching our goal of 150 customers and 100,000 users by mid-2021.

Short-term goals

• Launch enterprise version of the platform
• Hire regional sales managers

Long-term goals

• Expand to global employee coverage (EU and Canada)
• Create an AI-based resolution recommendation engine
• Develop an organizational inclusion & equality score

Currently raising $2M Seed Round

Our platform launch was funded entirely by bootstrapping. Post-product launch, we raised $355,000 from angel investors.

Co-founder & CEOShantanu Rana:  Seasoned marketing executive with 20+ years of experience building award-winning comprehensive digital marketing solutions that leverage content and relationship marketing, social, e-commerce, merchandising, search, UX/UI, media, and loyalty programs.  Founded Louder Communications, a digital marketing consulting firm with over 40 employees, and prior to that worked with KBS, Rosetta, R/GA, and PwC.

 Co-founder & COOKamael Ann Sugrim:  Over 20 years of experience in software and social impact.  Launched operations, expanded globally, and developed new products at salesforce.com, SAP, and Impact Hub Network.  Board chair and advisor to global social impact and tech startups.  Frequent speaker and writer on culture, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and beyond. 

Co-founder & CTO

Keath Chan:  Led large transformative initiatives with clients such as Verizon Wireless and held technical leadership roles at frog Design, R/GA, and Droga5.  An advisor to Fruit Street, VitalScore, and several healthcare startups.