Personio launches Conversations to help SMEs achieve greater efficiency and build a better employee experience

HUG London, 4th October 2022 – Personio, Europe’s leading HR software company for small and mid-sized businesses, today announced the launch of Personio Conversations, an HR helpdesk for SMEs to help HR teams easily prioritise and answer ad-hoc employee requests, and improve employee experience. This marks the latest step on Personio’s drive to help HR teams at European SMEs improve ways of working and boost business impact.

With economies across Europe likely heading into recession, gains in efficiency provided by technology only become more important for stretched teams. This is top of mind for HR professionals, with Personio’s latest research* finding that the majority feel held back by inefficient processes (58%). At the same time, HR teams rate better processes as the most important lever to help companies to navigate through challenging times (37%).

HR teams are inundated with day-to-day questions, ranging from the simple, such as ‘What is the policy on parental leave?’ to the more complex such as ‘How can I help my employee relocate?’. Two thirds of European HR managers also state that the number of channels where employees make HR-related inquiries has increased since the pandemic and they spend on average 3.5 hours per week answering employee questions. 

Conversations centralises all employee requests from different channels. An intuitive chatbot-style interface is provided to employees on common workplace apps such as MS Teams or Slack. Additionally existing group inboxes can be easily connected so that HR teams can manage, track and respond to requests quickly in one place. Employees benefit from asking questions and getting answers fast without having to switch tools. The launch follows Personio’s acquisition of employee experience solution Back earlier this year, integrating the technology into Personio’s all-in-one solution, and making it available in a total of six languages for the first time. 

Hanno Renner, Co-Founder and CEO of Personio said: “European SMEs are facing economic challenges even as they try to bounce back from the disruption of the past couple of years. At a time when great company culture is as important as a robust people strategy, Conversations boosts efficiency, giving HR teams the time they need to focus on the big issues by helping with the day-to-day. Now, requests become easier to manage for HR teams, while employees have a far better experience in their interactions.”  

Anna-Lena Pesch, People Operations Manager at Getsafe, an insurtech company that has been using Conversations (formerly Back’s technology) since 2021: ‘When we introduced remote work due to the pandemic, the number of employee requests increased rapidly and we had to review and distribute them internally, before they were prioritised and finally processed. This was a very time-consuming process for us. Thanks to Conversations, we were finally able to take the employee experience to a new level by increasing efficiency. Everyone in the HR team can see the status of requests at any time. This made our internal communication much easier, more effective and more transparent.

Customers are now able to register their interest in taking part in the early access programme for Custom Workflows. Custom Workflows enables the easy creation of automated company-specific processes – such as approval flows for promotions or parental leave – in order to ensure consistency and to reduce manual tasks. 

The new developments support Personio’s strategic direction to advance and expand the People Workflow Automation category, which enables HR teams in SMEs to work efficiently across departments and tools.

The announcement today took place at the HUG on Tour kick-off in London, Europe’s most inspiring HR conference. There will be further stops in Berlin and Madrid (both on 6th October) as well as Amsterdam (10th October) and Munich (14th October). Remaining tickets can be purchased here: https://hug.personio.com/ontour/

Find out more about Personio Conversations at www.personio.com/conversations.

* Personio HR study conducted by Censuswide; n=3509 HR Managers in companies with 10-2000 employees across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Finland and Italy (19.08.2022 – 05.09.2022)

About Personio:

Personio is the People Operating System for small and medium-sized companies with 10 to 2,000 employees. Based in Munich, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Dublin and Amsterdam, Personio’s mission is to make HR processes as transparent and efficient as possible so HR can focus on what matters most: people. Personio does that by offering an all-in-one HR software that includes human resources management, recruiting and payroll, enabling HR to go beyond HR. Thanks to People Workflow Automation technology Personio helps more than 7,000 customers across Europe to remove delays and realise opportunities.

In June 2022, Personio raised an additional $200m through the second closing of its Series E funding round, at a valuation of $8.5bn.

Press Enquiries:

Personio GmbH Matthew Tubbs Senior Communications Manager Tel: + 44 (0)7788163261 E-Mail: press@personio.de

UK & Ireland – Firstlight Group  Rosie Stafford Tel: + 44 (0)7769618500 E-Mail: personioteam@firstlightgroup.io