Workhuman, a human resources software company co-headquartered in Framingham and Dublin, is in expansion mode.
The company said its gross revenues reached $876 million in 2021, up 28% on the previous year, and its net platform revenue was $287 million. Alongside this growth, Workhuman announced it was investing nearly $2.9 million, or €2.8 million, to expand its Ireland presence with a new facility. CFO Scott Dussault told BostInno this is only the beginning of Workhuman’s growth plans.
“We are obviously looking to continue to invest in our business where appropriate. We recognize we’re in an environment that from a macro perspective is challenging. But we know our opportunity is such that investments are important,” Dussault said. “So we’ll continue to make investments in the right area of the company. We’re doing the same here in the United States. Our next office expansion will be in Framingham.”
Growth driven by a ‘new normal’
Workhuman was founded more than two decades ago in Ireland. At its founding, Dussault said the company’s mission was to “make work human for every employee on the planet.” Workhuman sells its social-recognition platform to companies like Merck and LinkedIn.
“Social recognition is really peer to peer, crowdsourced feedback recognizing employees for performing in a way that enhances company values,” Dussault said.
At first, Dussault said, Workhuman focused on selling its products to international companies with more than 10,000 employees who needed a tool to connect their teams. But in a world where employees are working remotely or hybridly following the pandemic, Dussault said they’ve seen an expansion in the type of companies who are interested in their offerings. Dussault said the vast majority of their customers now have between 2,500 and 10,000 employees.
“Coming out of the pandemic, every company in the world, of every segment size, is looking for a solution that increases company connection, because we’re all in this new wave of how we work,” Dussault said.
Dussault said Workhuman has around 7 million people on its platform.
In addition to the external factors boosting Workhuman’s user base, Dussault said the company’s recent data analytics work also drove growth. Around five years ago, the company began taking behavioral-based data from more than 400 customers on its platform to quantify the impact of recognition.
“Now we’re able to go back to our customers and show them how frequency of recognition does a lot of good in terms of business outcomes related to things like employee engagement, like retention, like wellness,” Dussault said.
Expansion in Ireland, Massachusetts
Workhuman’s latest expansion is a 15,000-square-foot facility next to the company’s current office in Dublin’s Park West. The space is set up to be more collaborative and includes wellness, fitness, learning and development spaces.
Workhuman has just under 1,300 employees globally, Dussault said, with 650 in Dublin and the rest in the U.S. About 450 of those employees work out of the Framingham office. Dussault said the company is hiring, especially for its technology team based in Dublin.
The company occupies a couple of floors in Crossing Boulevard in Framingham and is looking at expanding.
“(We’re) thinking about it in the same way of, how do you create an office environment where employees can come and collaborate and not just sit at their desk and be transactional,” Dussault said.
Considering an IPO
When Dussault joined Workhuman in mid-2021, he told the Business Journal that Workhuman had the right profile to go public. Dussault previously led the IPO of Burlington's Demandware.
Workhuman — previously known as Globoforce — filed to go public in 2013 but changed its plans the following year. CEO Eric Mosley said at that time that the offering was postponed "until market conditions are more favorable."
Workhuman has been profitable since 2005 and has raised just $14 million in total equity funding.
Dussault told BostInno an IPO is definitely of interest to Workhuman.
“An IPO, it certainly, I think, would do a couple things for us. It would certainly raise our profile. But it would also give us more cash, as well as a currency in the form of equity, to execute M&A, which I think is part of our long-term strategy,” Dussault said. “But we’re in no rush. We can continue to just build a great business…and see where things are when the markets open up again.”
Sign up for The Beat, BostInno’s free daily innovation newsletter. See past examples here.
