Nearly 80 percent of tech workers say they face some form of unfair behavior or treatment at work, and because of the #MeToo movement and a better understanding of poor working conditions across the globe, more people are also reporting when it happens.
To help both individuals and employers better manage toxic workplace complaints in and out of the tech industry, Eau Claire startup Speakfully has created an online platform to document and address them.
Speakfully’s platform is designed for both individuals experiencing workplace harassment and discrimination, and businesses that want to use the platform to deal with internal issues.
The startup was founded last year by Zach Halmstad and Jana Morrin, who has a background in tech and information technology, and told Wisconsin Inno that she has personally experienced workplace mistreatment before.
“Through that experience, I learned quite a bit. I also learned about the lack of resources I had in that situation,” Morrin said. “The features and what is presented in [Speakfully] has a lot to do with some of what I felt would have been helpful when I was experiencing it."
Speakfully, which was named one of Wisconsin Inno’s 2019 50 on Fire winners, allows victims of workplace mistreatment to document the details of an issue in a secure and organized fashion. It ensures that victims include all necessary parts of their stories so that they have complete and coherent accounts of specific incidents. Users can upload photos, documents and other digital items to the platform that provide details on the nature of the mistreatment.
“A lot of times as an individual, you don’t even know what to write, so Speakfully helps guide you,” Morrin said. “We ask specific questions that you may need later on if you ever decide to go to your organization with these concerns.”
Once users have completed the mistreatment documentation process, Speakfully connects users to resources that help them advocate for themselves in the workplace.
Besides these features, the enterprise version also gives companies analytics into workplace harassment and culture trends across their organization.
“With our tool, they will have more visibility of what’s happening across the company, which will allow them to take steps to be more proactive,” Morrin said. “It’s hard to take action on anything when you don’t have any details.”
Speakfully, which employs eight people, has more than 100 individual users and a handful of enterprise clients. The service is and will always be free for individual users, Morrin says. But the startup charges up to $4 per user per month for its enterprise service, which launched in September.
To attract new clients and grow its business, Morrin said the startup will be raising a round of venture capital funding within the next year.
Compared to Madison or Milwaukee, Eau Claire is one of Wisconsin’s smaller startup cities, but the number of upstarts in the area continues to grow. Other promising startups in Eau Claire include Earthbound Environmental Solutions, a residential and commercial curbside organics recycling company, and SMARTcare Software, a SaaS-based home care and healthcare provider.
“I love the way Eau Claire is continuing to grow,” Morrin said. “I feel like the startup community can get really big here.”
