BlackbookHR's Sense software named top product for HR in 2013

Local startup company BlackbookHR announced that its cloud-based software, Sense, has been named one of the Top Products for HR in 2013 by Human Resource Executive. Human Resource Executive, one of the most trusted magazines in the industry, has been holding this competition for 25 years.
 
“It’s a real honor for us,” says Chris Ostoich, Founder and CEO of Blackbhook HR. “An award like this gives us instant credibility; I’m fairly certain we’ll be able to leverage it to create new customer opportunities.”
 
Sense is a platform that gathers instant insights about employee engagement and provides valuable data to improve engagement, retention and culture.
 
“It draws on more than a decade of research by Dr. Brooks Holtom at Georgetown University on talent engagement, individual retention and attrition drivers, and employee flight risk,” Ostoich says.
 
The innovative software goes above and beyond what’s currently on the market and, in some cases, turns it totally on its head.
 
“We take the idea of the traditional employee satisfaction or engagement survey and we smash it,” Ostoich says. “Measuring and tracking employee engagement is one of the best ways to prevent voluntary turnover—but the way we've been addressing it is wrong.”
 
Sense is able to communicate with employees over the course of a year, rather than gathering feedback all at once, and layers in several factors such as “outside the workplace” aspects like connection to the community and number and depth of friendships to develop its analysis.
 
Blackbook was founded in 2008 with the mission of simply helping companies and communities retain their top talent. Since then, it has developed a broad list of clients that includes companies like Macy’s, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Florida International University,and the Miami Foundation. Ostoich credits Cincinnati as an ideal location to grow the business.
 
“We have one of the best early-stage investment communities in the nation … and it’s only getting better,” he says. “A couple of years ago, the issue was the lack of capital available in the post-seed, pre-venture stage. So the city and its corporate partners came together and built Cintrifuse to solve the problem. That’s what I love about this place; we’re doers and we’re humble about it.”
 
By Mike Sarason