Just got back from another trip to Philadelphia for the IAMPHENOM event put on by the team at Phenom. It’s essentially their user conference and this year had over 1,600 attendees. They announced that next year it will move next door to the Philadelphia Convention Center so they can make it even bigger.

This year's event was held at the Marriott downtown and I went to Analyst day on Tuesday while the main event kicked off Wednesday.

The company announced a slew of new features at the event which you can read about here, but the big headline here is they are doubling down on automation and AI in an effort to simplify the process for all stakeholders.

In Phenom, every type of user from recruiter to hiring manager to TA leader has their own dashboard tailored to their needs. Phenom says “We are the experience layer, not the compliance layer”, so don't think of them as a typical HCM platform.

Here’s the notes I jotted down during the day for more context;

Mission is still “Helping a billion people find the right work”

Complete onboarding in 16 weeks is typical (core platform takes 4 to 6 weeks)
Went from 3.7 to 4.1 in their onboarding NPS score
For example: Instead of asking client for brand assets they on day 1 took the existing logo and created the career site based on those colors and images.
Reduced time to completion for client change requests by 50%
Monitoring alerts: most common problems would be job not posting, candidate application failed…
“Were better were faster and are improving support for customers every day”
700 + customers now, up form 600 over last years number
Still have issues with implementations (last year too) because it is so complex with many clients…but they do offer client centric approach to implementations with a more collaborative approach (if you pay for it) …they also have a ton of partners to help with implementation (i.e. TalentEXP, Deloitte)
Numbers Highlight: 70k active users 850k interviews completed, 72 million leads in last year
5 million recruiter hours saved via automation
IAMPHENOM 1600 attendees new record
Starting regional user groups this summer
Screening completion rates around 89% for one client (new screening enhancements)

CEO Mahe Bayireddi

Tsunami of change happening in technology right now
By 2030 korn ferry predicts an 85 million people shortage
For every 14 days a human works AI can achieve 20k years of progress (quote from Sam Harris)
AI is still 5x behind human experience/interaction
Focusing Phenom platform on automation and augmentation to make life easier for recruiter
For every dollar we raised we earned $1.50, says they are profitable now

Outcomes shared:

Auto interview scheduling—77k hours saved, 79% interviews scheduled within 24 hrs
Chatbot: 36% of candidates who engaged bot turned into a lead
Phenom Evolution: from app to suite to a platform….data + integrations + AI
“We are the experience layer, not the compliance layer”

As someone who has been following the company from its start I am impressed at how far they have come. Phenom has some talented people on its staff and they are poised to become a dominant player in the years ahead. They have not had the kind of executive turmoil that has hit many HR Tech firms in the past few years and that will only make them stronger. I find their team to be very driven when it comes to their mission.

That is not to say they still have their own issues to deal with around implementations for clients. Its still a pain point they acknoweldge. With growth, the Phenom platform is powerful but has become more complex. They also need to not over promise and under deliver one attendee told me.

But that is a common complaint I hear about big HR technology vendors. Phenom’s growing partner network is there to help and most clients seem to need that expertise to make Phenom work to its full capacity. You can hire firms like TalentEXP, Deloitte and others to help guide you. I’m told they have over 200+ partners already in their ecosystem.

Next year's event will be March 11-13, 2025 in Philly.

Full disclosure: Phenom paid for my travel and housing.