Irving-based ShiftKey—a healthcare staffing platform that became a double unicorn in January with a valuation in excess of $2 billion—has announced new leadership moves along with today’s unveiling of its new website and visual identity.
ShiftKey Founder and Board Member Tom Ellis
ShiftKey calls itself “the largest marketplace for independent licensed professionals to connect with healthcare facilities.” In May, the company announced that former Chief Revenue Officer Mike Vitek had replaced ShiftKey Founder Tom Ellis as CEO. Ellis remains with ShiftKey as a member of its board of directors.
Addressing the CEO transition, the company offered this statement to Dallas Innovates: “Tom Ellis had a clear vision for ShiftKey—he saw an industry in crisis and a solution in empowerment for both the licensed professional and facilities. His vision, leadership and creativity remain core to what we do, as founder and now as a board member. Amidst this next phase of growth, Mike Vitek has stepped into the role of CEO, bringing his 20-plus years of leadership, team management, and business operations experience to build on Tom Ellis’ legacy to leverage technology to support the broader ecosystem of healthcare and scale the ShiftKey platform to make empowered work a reality for licensed professionals across more industries.”
Vitek, the company’s new CEO, told Dallas Innovates that Ellis’ impact continues to be felt as ShiftKey pursues further growth.
“ShiftKey’s technology was born out of an authentic, inspired, determined drive to empower people into stability, growth, and freedom through Tom as our founder,” Vitek said. “That’s so much of what you see reflected in the new brand.”
Additional leadership moves
In other leadership moves, former CFO Jeffrey Lawrence, who joined ShiftKey in August 2022, left the position in June to pursue “another leadership opportunity,” according to the company. Lawrence, who joined Shake Shack as an independent board member in May, continues to serve ShiftKey as a senior advisor to the CEO. ShiftKey’s chief strategy officer, Brian Scott, has taken on the additional role of CFO.
ShiftKey’s Brandon Tappan has been promoted from EVP to chief revenue officer, replacing Vitek in his former role.
‘Taking a disruptor POV on technology, workforce, and healthcare’
An image from the new ShiftKey website reveals the brand’s “people-centered” positioning.
Founded in 2016, ShiftKey offers a scheduling and credential management platform that aims to disrupt the way healthcare facilities find licensed and certified professionals to fill available shifts.
In a recent LinkedIin post, CEO Vitek said ShiftKey “is taking a disruptor POV on technology, workforce, and healthcare.”
“If traditional models were working, we wouldn’t currently be facing such a critical gap in the healthcare workforce,” Vitek told Dallas Innovates. “For more than a decade now, there’s been conversation around how we have an aging workforce, and people aren’t entering it as quickly as we need to make up for that gap. At the same time, these professionals are burned out. Because of ShiftKey and the optionality to pursue work on their own terms in an independent capacity, we’re seeing more professionals come into the workforce—and more come back into the workforce—because of the optionality and empowerment we offer.”
That benefits hospitals, clinics, and care centers, too, Vitek noted:
“At the same time, these independent licensed professionals provide a relief valve for facilities’ full-time teams and our technology provides facility leaders with the data and insights to make long-term, strategic workforce planning decisions.”
“What we know is that in order to build a more inclusive workforce and economy, we need to give people choice,” Vitek added. “Some may choose to work in a W-2 model because it’s what they need. Others may choose to work independently because that’s what they need for their family or lifestyle. But they should have the choice—and when they’re trusted and empowered to make the choice for their own life, that’s when everyone wins.”
New brand identity, website ‘put the people we serve at the center’
In the works since last year, ShiftKey unveiled its new visual identity and website today. The company partnered with Instrument, a Portland, Oregon-based creative branding firm, to develop its new brand look and feel.
The landing page of ShiftKey’s new website reveals the brand’s new logo and visual identity.
“We felt like it was the right time to bring our brand and storytelling into alignment with our core identity, in order to continue making an impact for workers, facilities, and the people they serve,” Vitek said. “For us, this was really about taking our identity and story and sharing it with the world in a way that tangibly shows what we’re doing—powered by tech, motivated by people, driving community impact.”
An image from ShiftKey’s new website.
“The new ShiftKey brand reflects who we are now and who we’ve always been,” he added. “It showcases our disruption as a technology company, empowering workers and bringing solutions for healthcare communities. But, most importantly, the brand puts the people we serve at the center, powering ‘life on your own terms’ for every person who uses our technology, including independent professionals, our customers, and the people they serve.”
‘Fully integrating’ ShiftKey’s investment in OnShift
ShiftKey also announced today that its 2022 strategic investment in Cleveland-based workforce management software company OnShift has come “full circle.” ShiftKey said it has fully integrated OnShift’s technology into its own suite of tech solutions “to provide customers with the network, the data, and the infrastructure to power business scalability.”
The OnShift integration follows ShiftKey’s earlier introduction of SAMI, which leverages ShiftKey’s marketplace for licensed professionals and facilities, and OnShift’s scheduling platform, to address persistent workforce challenges.
“The impact we’ve already seen from the SAMI product in just the last few months—significant reduction in unfilled shifts, revenue savings for facilities, and an uptick in resident occupancy rate—reinforced this investment and made this a natural next step,” Vitek said in a statement.
More than 50 million hours of shifts posted on ShiftKey’s platform
Since ShiftKey’s launch, healthcare facilities have posted more than 50 million hours of shifts on its platform, interacting with hundreds of thousands of licensed professionals looking for flexible work, the company said. The company sees its OnShift integration as reinforcing “a data-driven lens for facilities tapping into the vast network on ShiftKey’s platform as a ‘relief valve’ for their own teams—equipping facilities with the tools and insights to fill critical gaps and make long-term planning and growth decisions.”
Eying expansion into categories beyond healthcare
Vitek is keen to position ShiftKey broadly—and hinted at a possible future expansion into industries beyond healthcare.
“We’re not a staffing company, we’re not a healthcare company,” Vitek said. “We’re a technology company transforming access and integrity in the workforce. We’re grounded in trust, balance, choice, innovation, empathy, and expertise.”
So what’s coming next from ShiftKey?
“We have a lot of exciting products and tech evolutions that build on our pillars of data, scale, and empowerment,” Vitek said. “We look forward to sharing more soon, but for now that’s what we can tease.”
Then he teased one thing more.
“Our focus is licensed professions,” he said. “That’s a big part of what our platform and model is built to do—verify and house credentials. We’ve started to explore therapies and dentistry, which still fall into the broader healthcare industry. But ultimately we see this technology and model as scalable to other industries that require licensed work.”
Two other C-Suite moves were announced in January
ShiftKey execs, left to right: Thomas Fredell, chief product officer; Ryan Bonifacino, chief marketing officer; and Regan Parker, general counsel and chief public affairs officer [Photos: ShiftKey]
In January, ShiftKey announced earlier C-suite moves, including the addition of Thomas Fredell as chief product officer and Ryan Bonifacino as chief marketing officer. Both remain in those roles.
Regan Parker, seen above at far right, has served as ShiftKey’s general counsel and chief public affairs officer since August 2022. She joined the company in November 2021 as general counsel.
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