'Great Resignation' impact: THIS start-up monitors unofficial chatter among employees to reduce attrition

Attrition is a reality that every organisation has to face and companies have been trying newer and innovative methods to address the issue that appears to be getting bigger as an increasing number of firms move away from remote or work-from-home setups.

While companies continue to work towards retaining employees and making their workplaces a happy abode, a Gurugram-based start-up has come up with an innovative solution to address common issues that trigger attrition, including overall culture and toxicity.

This assumes significance as a study by MIT Sloan showed that a toxic corporate culture is 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting a company’s attrition rate.

HRTech SaaS start-up CultureOS helps organisations do predictive attrition analysis by providing an internal social platform wherein employees can go completely anonymous and express their views on issues related to the company.  

The start-up thereafter processes the unofficial employee conversations using natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) to compute three core indices - overall cultural health, toxicity, and predictive attrition

While the start-up was launched early this year by Mohit Tripathi & Nilanjan Maiti, it has already received angel funding. While Tripathi has earlier worked with companies like SmartQ, O4S, and Qdesq, Maiti had stints with Kindle VC, Wedyut, and vakilsearch.

“The notable phenomenon of the ‘Great Resignation’ observed in 2020 piqued our interest in conducting a thorough analysis of the determinants of employee retention within organisations,” says Tripathi.

“We have developed a platform that empowers employees to express themselves freely and anonymously, eliminating the fear of being identified. Furthermore, our platform enables real-time measurement of organisational culture, allowing companies to proactively address issues before they escalate beyond control,” he explains.

The aim of the start-up is simple.

It wants to democratise culture building process in an organisation through employee participation. It is already working with three companies and is in the midst of discussions to onboard three more large clients that have a headcount of over 1,000 each.

While employees get a platform to air their views freely, employers get a deep-dive report on a fortnightly and monthly basis to understand the pulse of employee issues and trends that, in turn, help the company to design policies to enhance retention rates.

While the company stands to gain from the analysis provided by CultureOS, the start-up also makes money in the form of a typical SaaS rental model – a fee that it charges per user per month basis. Its revenue streams also include value-added services like consulting, training, and coaching.

“Our current operational framework follows a conventional enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) model, where we employ a per-user, per-month pricing structure for our corporate clientele. However, as part of our future endeavours, we aim to delve into alternative avenues for generating revenue by creating additional value for our customers,” says Tripathi.

Going ahead, the start-up plans to launch its operations in the US next year and thereafter in Australia, Europe, and South East Asia in the subsequent years. Its growth plans also include launching a vernacular platform and building capabilities that help in deciphering culture by analysing voice, pictures, and videos.

“Looking ahead, the next five years are poised to be a period of great excitement and challenge for our organisation. Our unique approach to solving this problem not only sets us apart in the Indian market but also positions us with a competitive advantage on a global scale,” says Tripathi.

The start-up is also in the process of raising another round of funding and is expecting to close it by the end of July.