Company: RiseSmart, San Jose, CA
Entry Submitted By: Idea Grove
Company Description: RiseSmart is a leading provider of contemporary career transition services that strengthen employer brands, improve retention and re-engage talent. RiseSmart's contemporary approach to outplacement combines personalized services from trained professionals with unmatched technology delivered through a convenient, cloud-based platform.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: RiseSmart: Reinventing Outplacement

Tell the story about what this nominated organization has achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

After more than 21 years in the corporate world, RiseSmart Founder and CEO Sanjay Sathe found himself “right sized” out of a job. While the outplacement services his former employer provided did not help him find a job, they did inspire him to found a company. Knowing something had to be done to improve the results from this outdated offering, Sanjay created a business model that would better leverage technology and provide more personal attention to quickly deliver to laid off employees what matters most: an ideal job. Out of this model he conceptualized, built and launched RiseSmart, the nation’s leading provider of contemporary career transition services focused on employee engagement and retention.

With RiseSmart Spotlight, which uses RiseSmart’s revolutionary job matching technology called “SmartMatch,” displaced workers are no longer forced to painstakingly crawl through overcrowded job boards jam-packed with irrelevant leads. Using semantic search technology to narrow down the millions of jobs available on the web and intelligent ranking to better match job seeker profiles to open requisitions, RiseSmart’s SmartMatch helps job seekers block out the noise and focus only on job leads most likely to produce results.

In addition to SmartMatch, RiseSmart Spotlight also includes a Contact Discovery Engine that reveals relevant contacts at target companies whom the participant already knows—and introduces them to the best contacts at those companies whom they should know. Unlike any other solution, RiseSmart Spotlight provides contact information for people who are not already in the participant’s network, along with phone scripts and email templates to help participants start the conversation. From friends and professional connections to hiring managers and other employees connected to desired roles, RiseSmart Spotlight facilitates and speeds networking and helps potential candidates get their feet in the door faster.

RiseSmart’s outplacement solution combines this SmartMatch technology with professional job sourcing agents to hand-pick job opportunities (including hidden opportunities, such as those on niche job boards) customized to the profiles, experience and preferences of each and every participant. Unlike traditional outplacement services, RiseSmart’s Spotlight platform takes the job out of the job search by surrounding each participant with a highly accessible team of coaching, resume writing and job sourcing experts to do the heavy lifting, while providing 24/7 access to proprietary career transition resources and a revolutionary job matching engine. RiseSmart Spotlight also improves communication and transparency on the backend by keeping each participant’s team in sync, while providing employers with on-demand reporting and measurable ROI.

RiseSmart knows that each displaced individual has a unique set of needs and circumstances. That’s why the solution is customized to each and every participant. RiseSmart extends its programs beyond traditional career support to include tools such as executive outplacement services designed specifically for high-level employees, family relocation support to help relocating spouses find new jobs, and redeployment designed to improve employee retention and reduce costs by helping a displaced employee discover another role within the organization.

Today, RiseSmart has reinvented the outplacement industry with their next-generation solution. RiseSmart sales have grown exponentially since 2011, and the success of RiseSmart’s approach can be easily measured: 80% of participants land a job during their program, 71% land equal or higher paying jobs, and participants land jobs 64% faster than the national average, as tracked by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this organization since the beginning of 2014 (up to 150 words).

• RiseSmart is the only outplacement provider with proprietary job matching technology created specifically to augment the power of its one-to-one, high touch outplacement services
• Created SmartMatch™ Job Matching Engine, a semantic search and intelligent ranking tool that scours the web for relevant jobs
• Created Contact Discovery Engine that comprises intelligent algorithms that identify key contacts at target companies—both those that participants already know and those participants should know
• Improved upon messaging tools that allow participants to connect with their Transition Coaches without leaving the Spotlight platform
• Created a convenient mobile application for an on-the-go job search
• Helps individuals find new jobs 5 months faster than the national average
• And to date, RiseSmart has secured contracts with more than 300 companies, including more than 56 Fortune 1000 firms. RiseSmart has raised $24.85 million in venture capital and angel funding, including the most recent $11

Of the following types of innovation, which ONE do you want the judges to most appreciate about your organization's story of achievement since the beginning of 2014?

Product Innovation