2017 Hot List Recipient

2020 Hot List Recipient

2021 CEO of the Year

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Creating leadership through purpose and value

A serial entrepreneur and native of Israel, HiBob’s co-founder and CEO, Ronni Zehavi, has amassed over 25 years of experience at multinational high-tech companies, including co-founding and running Cotendo, a content delivery network acquired by Akamai for $300m just under four years after its launch. Zehavi is also the strategic adviser and co-founder of Team8 Cybersecurity and a self-confessed “accidental techie” who originally planned on a career in psychology. A people-centric approach undeniably shapes his work, and he says he has “a mission to impact the way people work and make sure that they get what they deserve”. When it comes to building his own team, Zehavi’s priorities are culture and putting people first. He believes that when combined with strategy and

purpose, a strong culture can be the foundation that underpins retention and protects the business against future hardship. “As Peter Drucker said, I believe culture will eat strategy for breakfast,” Zehavi says. “So when I build a team, I want to make sure with each team member there is a fantastic culture fit, that they care about the people, and that how they get things done reflects this.” But he goes further than this. Zehavi also takes more of an integrated cultural approach that captures the values of caring, purpose, inquisitiveness, enjoyment and results. He looks to create an environment in which relationships are centred on mutual trust built on exploration and excitement, and this drives achievement. Economic ebbs and flows are part of doing business. During uplifts Zehavi says you need to ride the wave and see downturns as an opportunity to re-evaluate and optimise your business in order to safeguard it against the impacts of downturns, but also to prepare for the inevitable upswings that follow. He focuses on creating a strong leadership team around him and ensures each person is capable of being the CEO of what they do. “I'm a great believer in empowering people around you, and in delegating as much as you can.” He also values and delivers transparency; HiBob holds monthly meetings at which the team share all the data on the business, the progress they are making, and any challenges or wins. “If you are transparent with your people, there are no politics. This is how you build a very strong organisation that can scale and grow and become a leader.”

“Modern businesses will have to make sure that they're doing an amazing job on their employee retention, but that they also maintain a good experience and build amazing cultures for their candidates.” To this end, HiBob was created to offer something a step ahead of traditional HR platforms. “If you look at the evolution of the market, everything started as a system of record, then moved to HR or finance-centric platforms built from the top down to serve very large enterprises,” Zehavi says. “They helped businesses automate the things related to people – automating processes around payroll, performance reviews and time tracking.”

Bob offers what Zehavi calls a system of engagement, which puts people and teams at the centre of the platform. “It's not only built for HR or finance but also for employees, for managers, for the C-level, to allow them to engage and to communicate and to create a modern hybrid work experience.” In short, the platform has a series of modules, or in the words of HR thought leader Josh Bersin from Deloitte, Bob has an Instagram experience at the front end and workday at the back end. Bob’s Core HR module automates HR processes, seamlessly creates reports and stores all HR documentation in one easily accessible location, while its onboarding features allow businesses to give new hires a warm welcome. The platform's social-media-like interface allows them to get to know their teammates' likes and hobbies, roles and responsibilities and where they sit within the overall picture from the minute they log in, as well as providing them with practical information, task lists and resource-sharing capabilities. This interface also allows employees to celebrate each other’s achievements publicly – which comes in handy when it’s time for performance reviews. Employees receive far more detailed feedback, while the talent management module allows for clear, actionable goals and growth plans aligned to team, department and company goals. Staff surveys mean employees feel heard, and management are better informed. Going global When it came to HiBob’s global expansion, Australia was top of the list with cause. “There are a lot of similarities between Australia and Israel,” Zehavi says. “As Israel is a very small country with a population of around nine million people, expansion into other countries is required – you have to think about being global from day one, because you cannot rely only on selling or promoting a business locally.” He made the call in January 2021 to move into Australia. Step one was to analyse the market. “We saw very high scores coming from the respondents to our survey, and we felt sure Australia was the optimal market for us to launch our platform, which is around engagement and building culture.” Zehavi says the business is growing rapidly as it moves into its second year in Australia, with 25 employees on the ground and just under 100 customers. HiBob’s most recent Net Promoter Score – an indicator of satisfaction – was very high and came with exceptional feedback from customers. “I think this is due to an ultimate match between the region, country, people, businesses and culture. Most of the companies we interact with in Australia really care about people, putting people first, and they care about culture and engagement.” Zehavi also attributes the company’s early success to its hands-on approach. “If you want to build [a business] seriously, then you have to have people and a leader on the ground who are connected to the market.” He says the next phase will focus on what he dubs a “system of intelligence” allowing companies to use data and insights to help make great decisions about people. “For example, when you plan your headcount for the year, you want to know how you align with your standards about diversity or inclusion. You want to give managers more tools so they can predict things like attrition or employee burnout, or other events related to the employee life cycle,” Zehavi says.

Spotlight

Leading-edge employee engagement Reflecting Zehavi’s mission, HiBob’s intuitive and data-driven people management platform Bob was built to support the way people work today: globally, remotely and collaboratively. “It’s hard to deny the world of work has changed forever. We no longer make an early career choice or work nine to five at the same company until retirement,” Zehavi says. The way we work has also evolved, with the hybrid model of remote and office-based working becoming the norm – as has the expectation that work-life balance will be respected and facilitated to a far greater degree than it has been to date. Employees are increasingly seeking meaning from what they do. Thanks to market dynamics and unprecedented low unemployment, businesses that want to recruit and retain top talent now must also put in place longevity plans to suit the changing times.

HiBob was founded to modernise HR tech. HiBob's intuitive and data-driven platform, Bob, was built for the way people work today: globally, remotely and collaboratively. Since its launch in late 2015, Bob has achieved consecutive triple-digit year-over-year growth and become the HRIS of choice for more than 2,500 modern, midsized and multinational companies that understand that a powerful, agile HR tech suite is mission-critical and a key driver of organisational success. Fast-growing companies across Australia and the world such as Seer, Novatti, Airtasker, Gong, Fiverr and VaynerMedia rely upon Bob to help HR and managers connect, engage, develop and retain top talent.

Company Profile

GLOBAL OFFICES

610

Global employees

~3,000

Global clients

Employees in Australia

100

Clients in Australia

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Years of Experience

25+

Tenure at current position

“As an entrepreneur, I see a lot of similarities between the adventures of today's tech entrepreneurs and historical explorers”

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Toronto, Ont.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT

Founded the Cotendo business during the GFC in 2008 and sold it to Akamai three and a half years later for $300m

Ronni Zehavi

Co-founder and CEO of HiBob

With employee engagement more important than ever, Ronni Zehavi’s passion for ensuring people have the best possible workplace experience is seeing HiBob’s HR platform soar in Australia

Read on

“I’m so proud of who we are at HiBob. Culture also comes from the top. The leaders set the tone in their behaviour, in what they model to their team”

RONNI ZEHAVI, HIBOB

“Most of the companies we interact with in Australia really care about people, putting people first, and they care about culture and engagement”

RONNI ZEHAVI, HIBOB

2015

2016

2018

2019

2020

2021

Launches HiBob in Israel

2015

Opens HiBob’s London office

2016

Opens HiBob’s New York headquarters

2018

Raises $26.5m Series A funding for HiBob

2019

Launches HiBob in Amsterdam Raised $70m Series B funding

2020

Launches HiBob in Australia Raised $150m Series C funding, making the valuation of HiBob $1.65 billion

2021

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“As an entrepreneur, I see a lot of similarities between the adventures of today’s tech entrepreneurs and historical explorers”

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