Reejig wants companies to stop firing staff and that’s earned it $17m from Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures has invested $17m in a company that wants to stop employers hiring and firing staff, and instead to ‘upskill’ them.

Reejig chief executive Siobhan Savage, chief technology officer Mike Reed and chief data scientist Dr Shujia Zhang.

A start-up that seeks to stop employers from regularly “hiring and firing staff” has raised about $17m in its latest push for growth.

Reejig, which uses Ai and algorithms to recommend new roles and transfers based on an employee’s skill set, has landed the hefty sum from Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of US software giant Salesforce.

Amid the current labour shortage, the start-up has raised eyebrows over its ability to teach companies how to retain and “­upskill” staff.

Its technology is also being used to highlight new roles for employees whose roles are likely to be made redundant due to technological advancement.

Reejig co-founder and chief executive Siobhan Savage.

Salesforce is but one of several high-profile investors, including Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, venture capital firm AirTree Ventures, Culture Amp’s Didier Elzinga and Skip Capital, which have poured a combined $38m into the business.

Earlier this year AirTree Ventures identified Reejig as one of the fastest growing start-ups in its portfolio. Months later the start-up picked up the coveted Technology Pioneer title at the World Economic Forum.

Atlassian, Airbnb and Google are all former winners of the award.

Part of the pitch which won investment from Mr Farquhar and Salesforce Ventures included a “zero waste potential” pitch.

Reejig chief executive Siobhan Savage wants to end fast staff turnover. “It’s no longer acceptable for companies to be hiring and firing the way they are,” Ms Savage said. “Unfortunately, right now for you to get a new job, it’s easier for you to go to a competitor than it is to find out what is available in your current company because of the way the technology exists inside an enterprise.

“Companies should be giving opportunity to their internal folks as a priority because not only is it the right thing to do but it can also save millions of dollars.”

Salesforce Ventures appears to be the largest investor to date.

APAC managing director Mike Ferrari said he believed Reejig had the potential to “transform the way businesses mobilise, re-skill and optimise their workforces”.

“Addressing the huge skills gap and shortage of training opportunities for working is more important than ever,” he said.

You're Fired? Not if Reejig has its way.

Locally, the US software giant is growing rapidly, having hired 1600 workers since January 2020, making up a total of 2776 who will soon work out of Salesforce Tower in Sydney’s Circular Quay.

Reejig has brought in several high-profile staff, including former Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer to serve as chairman and former Uber, IBM and CBA executive Jonathan Reyes as its North America vice-president.

Ms Savage, who co-founded Reejig with Mike Reed and Dr Shujia Zhang, describes the business as a workplace intelligence platform that, when plugged into a company, becomes the “central nervous system”.

“We give organisations a central nervous system to understand what are all the skills that are currently in their business,” she said.

“(The platform) really tells you what are all the things that an individual has done before, what all the things and skills and learnings and projects they’ve done well with the company are and, more importantly, what they have the potential to do next.”

The platform had an employee-facing portal that allowed employees to browse new roles and potential transitions with their current employer. “We ­curate information and folks are then able to tell us what they’re passionate about and the career pathways they care bout it. Reejig then makes a recommendation using ethical AI,” Ms Savage said.

The company was seeing an increasing interest from employers and employees alike as some roles face the possibility of becoming redundant due to technological advancement, she said.

This year Reejig launched a new impact fund that will allow the platform to donate its software to veteran, refugee and under-represented communities.

“When people have fair and equitable access to personally meaningful work, no matter their background, all of society can reap the benefits,” Ms Savage said.

Ms Savage said Reejig would not try to compete with human resourcing platforms such as Seek or LinkedIn, but rather would focus on growing a company’s internal HR departments.