Case Study
As told by:
Emily Wright-Moore, Bloom Works Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer
Key Background Info
Bloom Works partners with all levels of government and purpose-driven organizations to create and improve services that benefit the public.
Company Size: ~50 employees and 15-20 contractors
Partnership length: 12 months
Collaboration tools: Slack, Google Workspace, Zoom, Miro
Client Relationship Timeline
The Challenge
At an early 2024 All Hands we shared our intentions for the year. We announced little to no headcount growth as a goal, which was unexpectedly met with disappointment from the team. We wanted to understand that sentiment better, but we needed both bandwidth and more seasoned expertise. HR work was also taking up a large portion of my time, which was pulling me from other priorities. I needed advice.
Why we
chose Verge
Verge is a trusted source, so I reached out. I liked your advice!
It wasn’t “here – let me give you our stock thing.” You said: “We don’t know why this is happening, so let’s find out.” Discovery is how we approach most client challenges, so that was familiar to us. You also worked with similar orgs, so some of the things that are unique about us would be familiar to you.
Results
Aligning leadership + team on priorities
Verge’s initial and ongoing insights led us to focus on a few key priorities that would introduce quick wins. When we received your first report out, there were a bunch of things. They were the right things, they were important things, but also: how do we do these things? No one has time!
We took the time to really process internally and came to the conclusion that we don’t have this covered, and yet getting better at these things was core to who we are at Bloom. We needed to hire to improve our capacity.
Money well spent
Clearly defining who will own priorities
It was a journey! Initially you recommended a manager level role, which was appropriate. If you would have recommended a leadership role we would have said, what?! As we got really clear about what it would take to oversee and implement the roadmap, you helped us see that we could explore different paths, which led us to a Head of People type role.
Verge plugged in as an acting HR leadership bridge
As we figured out the profile for our Director of People role and then launched the search (with Verge facilitating), we retained you to advise on relevant, active initiatives. You also helped us respond to unexpected issues, and brought in exemplary consultants from your network like Sembramos when it benefitted us. Reflecting back, what would we have done without you?
We hired an incredible Director of People
Our new Director of People started in early March 2025 and already we can feel the wind behind the sails. The outcomes we valued most from Verge managing the search include:
Running the hiring team through a prioritization exercise to align on top competencies
Building the JD and assessment materials based on that alignment
Convening the hiring panelists to walk through the process and materials
Making clear to panelists that all top competencies were covered, they were to focus on their assigned competencies
Stellar recruiting results outside our network
A highly qualified diverse cohort of finalists
After our initial six months in partnership, we needed to analyze whether or not we’d run the search for a Director of People internally, or invest the money to outsource the search to Verge. We ran a pre-mortem and ended with: We need to hire Verge.
Investing in HR and hiring expertise was the right call, and we’re scrappy. Sometimes it was a tough sell to make continued investments, but I won’t have to sell it again. Our lives are meaningfully better because of our partnership with Verge. That means a lot.
Emily Wright Moore
CXO, Bloom Works
