Employment Hero is facing new claims that it conducted aggressive intelligence gathering on its US rival Rippling when it entered the Australian market in early 2024, in the latest sign of ferocious competition in the human resources software industry.
After Rippling this week in a US lawsuit sensationally accused its American rival Deel of engaging in corporate espionage, new claims involving Employment Hero have surfaced, with former staff members at the Australian unicorn alleging they were directed to use unconventional methods to gather sensitive information on a new competitor.
Three former staff members, who spoke to on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about retribution, said Employment Hero resorted to the unconventional tactics after Rippling’s sales team identified attempts by the Australian startup’s employees to gain to access to its products and blocked them.
Employment Hero then attempted to access Rippling’s platform via small businesses operated by friends and family of staff members. The Australian startup also floated a proposal to ask one of its own customers to migrate to Rippling’s software and then share its administrator credentials with it, according to the former staff accounts.
