How Equalture got ISO 27001 compliant and increased sales velocity
Equalture, based in the Netherlands, operates as a neuroscience-based predictive hiring software that removes bias from the recruitment process and ensures objective hiring. Leading organizations worldwide, including FrieslandCampina, Randstad, and Vodafone rely on Equalture to power their hiring programs. The company offers game-based hiring assessment solutions for companies of various sizes – from startups to scale-ups to enterprises.
– Jaap Haagmans
CTO, Equalture
– Jaap Haagmans
CTO, Equalture
Introduction
Equalture set out to bring hiring into the 21st century, away from cover letters, alma maters, and biases, by building its assessments on neuroscience. Its game-based hiring assessment solutions now serve startups, scale-ups, and enterprises alike, with FrieslandCampina, Randstad, and Vodafone among the organizations that trust Equalture to power their hiring programs.
Moving upmarket, Equalture found enterprise sales conversations being derailed by security and compliance demands, and because it handles large volumes of personal data on behalf of its customers, those demands sat squarely on the critical path to closing deals. That made ISO 27001 a commercial priority as much as a security one.
The Problem
Jaap Haagmans, CTO of Equalture, owned the lengthy security questionnaires that enterprise sales conversations turned on, they took up a significant amount of his critical bandwidth, and some companies would also hold off on booking demos until Equalture was ISO 27001 certified. “We saw that if you answered ‘no’ to the question, ‘Are you ISO 27001 certified?’, about 160 more questions came up,” remarks Jaap.
With security questionnaires now shaping sales cycles and closure rates, Equalture decided to get ISO 27001 compliant. Drawing on his experience with compliance at previous, bigger firms, Jaap sought out a compliance automation partner, assessed multiple vendors, and chose Sprinto.
“Sprinto was very hands-on and transparent. One of the things that were nice in the sales process was being walked through the dashboard, being shown what happens, and outlining how much time it was going to take,” says Jaap.
The Solution
Equalture wanted a defined path to ISO 27001 implementation from day one. During onboarding, Jaap worked with a Sprinto CSM on an initial call to create a list of to-dos, then worked through that checklist starting with HR processes such as policy acknowledgment and security training, run through Sprinto’s Policy Management and Security Training modules.
Jaap built confidence in both Sprinto and the platform over four expert-led sessions that followed. Equalture then integrated its tech stack with Sprinto, and Jaap began implementing technical controls himself via the dashboard, with Sprinto’s integrations and Continuous Monitoring surfacing which checks were passing and which still needed work.
“Sprinto makes things visible. You can see exactly where you are compliant and not. Every time we enabled a new check, that number would go down, and I’d be motivated to get that up again. The dashboard really kept us going!”, remarks Jaap.
Handling swathes of personal data, Equalture already followed security best practices to a large degree, so to meet ISO 27001 standards, Jaap tightened up the security measures themselves and then bolstered that practice with the right policies and documentation, crystallizing compliance while making it transparent how data is handled by employees across role categories.
Jaap, who had run compliance at other, bigger organizations before, singled out the communication through the journey as what stood out most about working with Sprinto. “Every question is answered within 24 hours. Responsiveness, guidance, and the human touch definitely help,” he says. “Working with Sprinto was easy, we never felt lost, and it was always clear what needed to be done and what hadn’t been done yet. And if there’s one USP, then that’s it,” adds Jaap.
Impact
Equalture reached audit readiness in under 8 weeks, then ran its auditor engagement through Sprinto’s Auditor Dashboard, beginning with an introduction call to decide which auditor to proceed with, and the auditor had the evidence they requested in one place. With the auditor tagged to Sprinto, the ISO 27001 audit took less than a month, and certification followed 2 weeks after completion, with no exceptions.
Building on this success, Equalture also pursued compliance with GDPR. For Jaap, the biggest win was completing the entire ISO 27001 audit and certification process faster than he’d anticipated, in less than a quarter. “I had a deadline to meet and we achieved compliance well within that time frame!” he recounts.
Jaap now answers the ISO 27001 question with a yes, which closes off the 160 follow-up questions that used to slow Equalture’s enterprise deals. “Customers now have a lot more comfort in working with us, in continuing to work with us, or rolling us out to the entire organization,” notes Jaap. “With questionnaires, now it’s really convenient for us to say ‘yes we’re ISO compliant’, and them thinking ‘okay it’s probably going to be fine’,” he adds.
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HR Tech / Predictive hiring software
11-50
EU (Netherlands)
