Tydy aims to bring people engagement and retention on a mobile platform
One of the biggest challenges organisations face as they continue to grow and expand is in ensuring employees continue being engaged and connected. This was one of the problems decade-long friends Kiran Menon and Nikhil Gurjer were hoping to solve after spending most of their careers in the corporate world.
Noticing that over close to 60 per cent of content was being consumed on mobile phones, the duo began ideating on solutions around mobile and workforce. Soon they built a platform that allowed anyone to create content and publish it as interactive experiences on mobile devices. This was a key piece of technology, but they had not found a compelling use case within organisations. They were a classic product-market fit conundrum. However, businesses had started seeing the need to engage employees and partners on mobile devices. And this is where Tydy found a niche.
How does it work
Tydy works as a people engagement and retention platform that brings easy HR automation for organisations. "Whether it's creating campaigns and content for engagement, building workflows to automate the process or analysing initiatives to see what worked and did not, Tydy gives businesses a one-of-its-kind platform," says Kiran.
The organisation works along three main modules:
- Tydy Studio - This module works towards creating mobile-friendly campaigns and content for onboarding, learning, newsletters, engagement surveys and announcements.
- Tydy Workflow- Through this module, employees and the HR team can save time by automating and scheduling the onboarding and engagement processes. This is done by creating workflows that determine what content should be sent when.
- Tydy Analytics - Helps understand what initiatives have worked, how many people engaged with the initiatives and how many are in danger of falling off.
Some of Tydy’s top clients include Stepathlon, Davita and Puma. The team claims to have engaged over 25,000 users in two years. The monthly subscription starts at Rs 12,000 for up to 50 users. The per-user price then comes down as the number of users increase.
"We are focussing on a large niche. The HR Tech space is exploding and as per the PwC CEO survey, CEOs globally rank people as their top priority. Tydy has taken a world-first approach by bringing people engagement on to mobile devices and combining a content, workflow and analytics platform for businesses," says Kiran.
Organisation and its structure
Tydy, Kiran says, is built upon a framework of transparency and constant learning. As a company and as a platform, he adds that they've released features based on customers’ requirements.
The current team is small and, like any new startup, has an open culture. "Our entire team gets a full overview of what is happening across all functions of the company. Therefore, every hire is carefully considered and evaluated. We are looking at expanding our team in the sales and mobile development spaces. To find these people, we have been using sites like Angellist and LinkedIn," adds Kiran.
The team is working on building a platform that is global and provides businesses with all the tools needed to engage employees and partners. The company is currently looking to scale the business and acquire customers in the North American and European markets.
Kiran believes that engaging people will become the largest challenge for businesses. This is especially so now, with more devices entering the workforce and with millennials and Generation Z joining in large numbers.
Challenges
While the team is positive of its growth and further plans, it believes that businesses are yet to use mobile for internal engagement. The greatest challenge Tydy has faced is in educating businesses about going mobile with their employees and partners.
"Mobile brings more than five times increase in engagement and this is something that we have had to educate and sell to businesses. The other big challenge is finding talent that is a great cultural fit to our startup," adds Kiran. The team has raised an angel round in August 2014 and is currently looking to raise their next round to focus on scaling.
HR tech space
The HR tech space is fast picking up with the need for analytics, cloud and Big Data becoming imperative for organisations. According to a HR Service Delivery and Technology Survey, close to 85 per cent of Indian organisations are looking at cloud for HR. Close to 44 per cent of Indian organisations are looking at mobile for their HR modules. Globally, similar players in the space include iMomentous and Virgin Pulse.