Employment Hero looks to make Canadian business profitable following Humi takeover

Employment Hero came to Canada looking for the next big opportunity. An Australian HR software firm with existing presence in the UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia has found its way into Canada by acquiring the country's only real 'live' competitor. Humi from Torontoat the beginning of 2025.

“Our focus right now is just on Canada, Canadians and Canadian SME owners.”

Ben Thompson
Hero of Employment

While the Busy Hero reached milestone after milestone globally in 2025, its newest market still needs work: it needs more customers, more revenue, and is not yet profitable. But CEO Ben Thompson is ready to invest in Canada.

“We will continue to invest in our brand, in our services, in this local market and attracting customers to the point where we get to the breakeven point,” Thompson told BetaKit. “If it takes years, then that’s what we’ll do; it's all about persistence.

Founded in 2016 as a cloud-based, web-based employee data storage application, Humi helps small and medium-sized employers manage HR, benefits and payroll. Employment Hero offered many of the same HR features to the same target market, but with a five-year head start in that space.

Humi officially integrated with Employment Hero and launched its employment operating system in Canada in September, Humi co-founder and former CEO Kevin Kleeman told BetaKit in a separate interview. The new head of Employment Hero Canada called the process “amazingly fast,” and Thompson noted that Employment Hero effectively restored Humi during this time.

“We have a more mature offering,” Kleeman said. “We have deeper and more diverse functions, so we are a better fit for more companies across Canada, which is really exciting.”

In pursuit of a larger share of the Canadian market

Kleeman said Humi (now Employment Hero) has a new learning management system, mobile app, and new scheduling and recruiting features. The updated product is slightly different in Quebec, where it is still known as “Humi by Employment Hero” due to “unique compliance requirements and operational challenges,” Thompson said.

The duo hopes that these new features, as well as future features such as earned wage access (which allows employees to get paid before payday), will lead to increased Canadian market share and thus make the country a more significant line item on its balance sheet.

“We've spent a huge amount of time and effort on UK businesses over the last… three or four years and our focus is now just on Canada, Canadians and Canadian SME owners,” Thompson said.

In October, Employment Hero said global annual recurring revenue (ARR) had reached A$300 million, achieved profitability and was on track to post its first full earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) positive year. The “vast majority” of this year's A$30 million in revenue growth is organic, Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Employment Hero Canada serves more than 4,000 of the company's 350,000 business clients and is not itself profitable, Kleeman said. Kleeman said he is preparing Employment Hero to become a $100 million business in Canada by improving the product and expanding the team.

“The more value we can offer to companies, the faster we can grow and the more value we can generate in the region,” Kleeman said. Thompson agreed, explaining that software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies like Employment Hero need a lot of small business customers before they can achieve profitability.

CONNECTED: Humi acquired by Australian HR software company Employment Hero

“You're trying to make your product as cheap and accessible as possible for small businesses that don't have a ton of spending power,” Thompson said. “It's a model we're obviously very familiar with, and you reach a certain point where you overcome it and become profitable.”

While Employment Hero said it doesn't have any country-specific numbers, the company's significant growth is roughly reflected in Canada. Kleeman and Thompson said the company is growing about 30 percent across the board, including headcount and revenue.

“Canadians with funny accents”

Apart from the pursuit of profitability and growth, Kleeman said little has changed at a company level since the acquisition, other than more evening meetings to sync with the Australian time zone, working “a little faster” and adopting some of the parent company's “successful habits”.

“It’s really nice, Australians really feel like they’re Canadian with a funny accent,” Kleeman said. “The teams are very well coordinated.”

When Thompson was informed of his subordinate's comments, he responded that “Canadians feel like Australians with a funny accent.”

“All these Commonwealth countries have so much in common,” Thompson said. “Every time I come to Canada, I feel at home…we have much more in common than what divides us.”

While both leaders tout the Employment Hero culture as a positive, it is the component of the company that receives the most scrutiny. In October 2024, the Australian publication Capital Brief reported that Thompson faced criticism from female leaders in Australia's startup scene for a post on X highlighting allegations of sexual harassment against WiseTech CEO Richard White, which Thompson downplayed as a “bad dad joke.”

In subsequent months, Capital Brief reported that numerous stories on Employment Hero's allegedly toxic workplace culture, including noisy off site which led to the dismissal of employees, several former employees describing the company as a “vile workplace” where a “culture of fear” rules and internal complaints sudden changes in strategy.

When asked about the Capital Brief reports, Thompson stood by his company and said he was “immensely proud” of its culture. He said any business of the size of Employment Hero, with more than 1,700 employees, would result in “one or two” leaving dissatisfied.

“We only had 180 employees in 2020; the vast majority of those employees who were working at that time are still with us,” Thompson said. “We have a culture that people want to be a part of.”

When asked if Employment Hero has implemented any workplace culture policies since these reports, Thompson referred to the “EH Way,” which describes the company as “mission first,” “remote first,” and “AI first.”

“We're working very hard to make employment easier and more valuable for everyone,” Thompson said, adding that remote work is more inclusive, flexible and gives people more autonomy and trust.

“Culture shock” after takeover

Kliman may have said that not much has changed at Humi since the takeover of Employment Hero, but Capital Brief reports this. that employees felt culture shock a few weeks after the deal closed. According to the report, Employment Hero quickly eliminated Humi's established benefits, including its 4.5-day workweek policy, and employees felt uncomfortable with the new parent's “no benefits” workplace philosophy and high-performance management style.

“I believe you have to work hard to achieve results, and I think that’s part of our culture.”

Thompson acknowledged that Employment Hero had to “normalize some terms” at Humi, saying that as a global business trying to be inclusive and treat everyone as equals, everyone should be on the same terms. Thompson added that he's “pleased to go on record” that he believes you have to “work harder and maybe longer to get things done.”

“I don't think any gold medalist has ever won a gold medal by training less,” Thompson said. “I believe you have to work hard to achieve results, and I think that’s part of our culture.”

Although the global power of the Employment Hero flowed into Canada through Hoomi, it was not a one-way street. Healthcare, pensions and benefits are either government-funded or borne by the worker in Australia, making Canada a market for learning and growth, Thompson said.

“We've learned a lot about delivering benefits at scale in the Canadian market, and that's something we can leverage and apply in other markets,” Thompson said.

Image courtesy of Humi.