Our Why

I came up with the idea for Conferrr after speaking at a private business conference in Washington, DC.  During a break following my keynote on ‘Top Megatrends Occurring in the Workforce’, numerous attendees cornered me in the restroom, each one inquiring for personal time to talk about confidential issues they were facing at work.

While such requests were not new to me because I had honored more secret “I need your advice, Karan” HR advisory meetings over my career than you can imagine, my ‘ah-ha moment’ came when one of the attendees stated, “I’m really struggling to navigate my situation alone, and I’m vain about letting anyone at my company know.  I would treasure bouncing ideas off of you to gut-check my thinking, off the record, of course.”  The others who had gathered in the group nodded in agreement to their fellow attendee’s statement.

The encounter caused me to reflect on the numerous times that friends and colleagues referred individuals from other employers to me because they knew that I was knowledgeable, trustworthy, and passionate about helping people in distress. When making the initial introductions, the referrers frequently stated that they hoped that I would privately provide advice and counsel to their friends and help them tackle whatever workplace challenges they were facing.  It also piqued my curiosity as to why many of these individuals were dying to consult with me, even though they had access to their own internal HR and management personnel.

My punch-in-the-gut moment came when I realized that I, too, had suffered during my corporate career when I faced issues at work.   Just as they had, I shied away from being publically vulnerable while working at my employer.  I didn’t want my reputation or the perception of my job performance to ever take a hit. As a result, my stress levels skyrocketed, and although I made it through, I was bruised by the emotional battle scars. This realization made me wonder how many others out in the world were suffering a similar situation?

After extensive market research with a wide range of ideal customers, my team and I validated a clear void in the marketplace for private, objective HR advice and counsel, and as a result, I decided to launch Conferrr.