Who’s transforming the future of work?
I’m the unlikely innovator behind HR-AI platform GoFIGR
Innovative tech is driving progress across everything we know today.
So, as a result, the people behind these fabulous creations earn a lot of attention. They’re the slick tech entrepreneurs who capture our attention and stand out as true, quirky visionaries.
Close your eyes and picture that person.
The “tech entrepreneur”. Got it?
Well, I’d hazard a guess that, whatever image you’ve built, it’s not:
- A 40-something-year-old woman
- A university dropout
- Someone with no formal tech background
However, here we are.
These words describe me.
Hi, I’m Helena. I’m the founder of HR-AI tech and Internal Talent Marketplace platform, GoFIGR – and I know it looks like I’m not supposed to be here.
But again, here we are – and here’s why.
When you think of a tech entrepreneur, you don’t picture me.
No worries – neither did I.
But here I am, part of the team behind the latest HR tech platform that’s capturing the world’s attention, and it was all driven by circumstances, hunger and necessity. When I saw BILLIONS of dollars being spent and ultimately wasted in the recruitment/reshuffle/turnover space, I looked left and right, thinking: “someone should really do something about this.”
Then, when I saw no one, I sighed, grit my teeth and stepped up to the plate.
It all began with this (invisible) billion-dollar problem.
Yes, literally that much.
Worse, it was a hidden cost in the maliciously unseen (and just accepted) HR nemesis: employee turnover.
Having worked in both large corporations and SMBs within the HR department, my colleagues all know full well that this is a problem that has always just been there, hiding in plain sight. Even as workplaces and industries accelerate faster and adapt to constant changes, this cycle continues:
It’s a rinse-and-repeat process that businesses all over the world blindly accept (because “it’s the way we’ve always done it!”). So, it has become commonplace for every single business to simply accept that people will ALWAYS leave, shrug and then focus on replacing them – even if it costs them millions, if not billions, annually.
Over and over and over again.
The scary part is that this price tag is practically invisible. It’s just a massive, openly accepted expense that businesses keep paying because they don’t know how to do things differently (yet).
“People leave. We replace them. More people leave. We replace those too.”
I wanted to solve this problem.
The next step: questioning the employee churn status quo.
I get it – people move on from jobs.However, like so many others in HR, it is LITERALLY exhausting and frustrating for me to see people exit because:
- there are no next internal opportunities available
- their roles are made redundant without a replacement role
- their perfect next role isn’t defined enough yet
In these instances, they’re forced to leave – and in most instances, the company could have moved them somewhere else.
As a result, these dedicated employees who STILL HAVE so much potential to offer that current company are (unintentionally) pushed away – only for another company to scoop them up and offer them a role that the original company should have.
Literally, billions are being wasted on this unnecessary staff turnover
How exactly do I know this, you ask?
While I know that stopping turnover entirely is NOT feasible, I also know that slowing it starts by understanding why people leave so we can address the root cause.
So, a few years ago, when I was working in a major consulting firm, I set out to do just that.
With the help of my colleagues, I began my research.
I even went as far as checking the LinkedIn profiles of employees who had just left the company to see what new roles they had taken – and surprise, surprise – they had taken equivalent roles that we could have offered them but weren’t able to because non-linear job mobility (i.e.: thinking outside of traditional job progression) just wasn’t the norm.
Here’s an example
Someone in Sales would start to show interest in a Marketing position. However, as Salespeople don’t historically move into Marketing, they would assume (or be told) it wasn’t possible.
So, off they would defect to a competitor into – surprise surprise – a marketing role; and they would absolutely succeed in that position with EVERYTHING we had taught them in our company.
What a waste on so many levels.
That’s how it became clear that the problem was twofold:
- employees can’t often see a long-term future in a company
- top management is often unaware of this issue.
This commonly happens for organisations with thousands of employees, where people can’t see what opportunities exist elsewhere in the company AND the recruitment team defaults to hiring externally for roles that could’ve been filled internally.
If only there was better visibility between these two parties – it would solve BOTH problems.
This is where GoFIGR was born.
How my personal journey influenced the solution to this
Of course, acknowledging the problem was only the beginning.
The most important step was designing the solution – and spoiler alert – we did it.
In other words, showing internal staff where they could apply for new internal jobs next, and showing management which staff could be a good match before looking externally.
I was so proud of this. I am proud of this.
You see, having spent years in HR, (which, of course, wasn’t the career I’ve dreamt of – no one thinks “I want to work in HR” at 7, right?!), it often feels like we’re forever ladling water into a leaky bucket, with HR professionals tirelessly trying to stop the inevitable turnover. Having always hustled to advance my career, I was living proof of finding success by taking a non-linear path, and I wanted to enable companies to see this too.
So, the platform that I built with my team, GoFIGR, incorporates everything I did throughout my career to help others progress. Whether it was mentoring, upskilling or task swaps, these experiences are now embedded in our HR-AI tech.
Calling all HR Managers: it’s time to break the mould!
- How many times have you seen a valuable colleague eager to progress, only to be held back because they lack a specific skill or credential?
- Or a dedicated Executive Assistant miss out on a Project Manager role just because it’s not the usual path?
And the usual response? “That’s just the way things have always been!”
The way I see it, valuable talent is so overlooked just because that’s how it’s always done. But we can’t keep thinking like this anymore.
Several talented individuals are being tempted away by other companies because they simply weren’t given the opportunities they needed to grow. And let me tell you, that is a tough pill to swallow.
What happens when we do break this mould?
When we veer away from the way-we’ve-always-done-it mindset – and I’m telling you, this is such a dangerous way of thinking – we can help people flourish.
I came across the story of Karen Leong of Sportsbet, whose non-linear career trajectory from UX design to HR with a focus on Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) allowed her to make a true impact both for her professional growth and the business’ trajectory.
This is a great example of what happens when we empower our teams with internal opportunities. Sadly, this is something that happened by chance.
Now, think about what could happen if we could scale that kind of opportunity, if we could remove the element of chance altogether. Imagine if it wasn’t about who you bumped into at the water cooler or who happened to know someone in the right department.
Then the future of work will have more exceptional people like Karen who would not be limited by the box they were first put in. Or people like me who, by all standards, should not be where I am today, but got here because there were people who took chances on me, and I was able to chase opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to me otherwise.
We need to start making this the norm.
It’s time to break free from the old ways of thinking and embrace the possibilities.
Let’s do it together with GoFIGR.
Your future team is already working for you.
Don’t let that talent go to waste – allow them to grow their career AND drive your business into its tomorrow in ways you never thought possible.
t’s the ultimate way to build internal mobility and foster a progressive workplace culture to minimise your reliance on the hiring cycle.
It’s a great way to save crucial hours in your day as well.
Contact GoFIGR today to discover how we can help you foster a future-focused workforce using our Internal Talent Marketplace platform.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
