The article below is part of our SaaS Spotlight Series featuring companies from our 2020 SaaS 1000 List, click here to view the full list of winners.
Engagedly is a next-generation talent management platform with the core philosophy of ‘people-enablement’ and a focus on continuous performance management, agile learning & development, and recognition.
Roughly five years ago, Srikant Chellappa and Jayashankar Balaraman began laying the groundwork for Engagedly, an employee performance management software. Chellappa, who has a history in consulting for firms like EY and Capgemini, began to brainstorm the software after noticing a gap within a crucial part of any organization’s health: employee engagement.
In February of 2015, Chellappa and Balaraman put in their own capital from their previous startup’s exit and kickstarted their ideas into action. At the end of 2015, Engagedly made its debut.
“We saw there was a lot of disconnect in terms of employee engagement and what organizations do to drive employee engagement, so we looked at the things that we could build into a platform that would actually help drive engagement,” Chellappa says. He wanted Engagedly to one-up other employee engagement platforms by offering more than just surveys. “People need to feel recognized at work, they need to feel like they are part of a larger mission, and that they are respected and their opinions count,” he explains. “We built a platform that addresses those key drivers.”
“We take a more holistic approach to employee engagement,” Chellappa says. With offerings such as social features to promote culture and core values, an LMS to drive development and enhance ROI, and tools to both set and track goals, Engagedly runs the gamut of employee management and engagement solutions. “We want to help companies drive better outcomes for their people and their organizations, and I truly think that is where we succeed.”
“People need to feel recognized at work, they need to feel like they are part of a larger mission…“
Since January of 2016, Engagedly, a completely bootstrapped and customer revenue-funded business, has achieved impressive capital efficiency and a stunning growth percentage of 12,778% over the four year period. “We have really high gross margins compared to our competitors due to our operational efficiency, which has allowed us to be nimble and take a more rational view of growth,” Chellappa explains. Engagedly has also achieved 100% growth year-over-year and has expanded offices into six countries to better serve customers on an international playing field. In addition to expansion, in 2019, Engagedly acquired Management Mentors, a SaaS-based mentoring company to continue to build on their thesis of people enablement.
“What we have started to see more and more often in the talent management market is people-driven approaches, and what we are betting our future on is people-enablement,” Chellappa explains. Looking forward, Chellappa believes that Engagedly’s future, really just like any good company’s, is built on going a step beyond empowerment and motivation. “You can empower employees, but if you don’t give them the right tools to develop or the right culture–where they feel like they can show up as their whole selves–the success will not be the same,” he says. “We want to provide the tools that help our clients create an environment to help their employees be more successful in their own role.”
