HR The Next Leap
AppsFlyer: “The nature of employee expectations has changed significantly”
Moran Shoham Weiser, SVP Global HR at AppsFlyer, discusses why flexibility is imperative to business continuity in Startup Nation and the need to rebuild entry-level pathways for an AI-driven market, as part of CTech's series.
“The nature of employee expectations has changed significantly,” says Moran Shoham Weiser, SVP Global HR at AppsFlyer, a marketing cloud platform. While Weiser contends that only a few years ago organizations competed for talent via perks and workplace experiences, today, “employees are looking for something much more fundamental: stability, trust, flexibility, and genuine support.”
From active and looming war threats, to AI rapidly and constantly redefining what it means to be productive, running a company in Startup Nation brings with it its own category of challenges and rewards. HR: The Next Leap takes a glimpse into the heart of Startup Nation via the HR professionals shaping its culture. We survey the executives whose jobs are more demanding and more vital than ever, as they heed the future-proofing of their workforce, while simultaneously ensuring business continuity and employee wellbeing during relentlessly unprecedented times.
Amid fears of a local brain drain, Weiser believes that a powerful differentiator at AppsFlyer has been “our commitment to social impact.” She notes that during times of uncertainty such as Israel has experienced over the past few years, with 70% of the company’s workforce participating in volunteering activities, “that sense of shared purpose, belonging, and pride in something greater than the day-to-day work has become a genuine retention force.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Company Name: AppsFlyer
Sector: MarTech
Founders: Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann
Year of Founding: 2011
Investment stage: Series D (x AppsFlyer is finalizing a new round)
Total investment to date: $300M (Per the report there is a pending financing round exceeding $1 billion at a $2.7 billion valuation)
Current number of employees: 1,300
Website: https://www.appsflyer.com/
Social Media: LinkedIn
As of March 2026, the market officially shifted into an 'employer's market'. How have your screening criteria changed, and do candidates - including senior-level ones - still hold any leverage in negotiating salaries and terms?
The shift toward an employer's market has certainly changed the hiring landscape, but not in the way many people assume. We're not raising the bar for the sake of raising it – we're becoming more deliberate about fit, impact, and long-term potential.
With a larger talent pool available, we can assess candidates more comprehensively, focusing not only on technical expertise but also on adaptability, learning agility, collaboration, and resilience in an increasingly complex environment.
That said, exceptional talent still has leverage. Senior leaders, AI specialists, and individuals with highly sought-after expertise continue to have strong negotiating power. The conversation, however, has evolved. Candidates today are often as interested in organizational stability, meaningful work, leadership quality, and career growth as they are in compensation.
How have/are you managing operational continuity and recruitment while the economy navigates the emergency state triggered by the conflict with Iran? With the threat of escalation looming at any moment, how are you and have you been handling everything from interviews interrupted by sirens to managing teams thinned by massive, ongoing reserve duty?
The reality of operating under prolonged uncertainty has fundamentally changed how we think about workforce resilience.
We've learned that business continuity is no longer a contingency plan – it is a core organizational capability. Over the past months, we've conducted interviews interrupted by sirens, onboarded employees remotely during emergency situations, and supported teams operating with significant workforce gaps due to reserve duty.
Our focus has been on building flexibility into every process. Recruitment timelines are adjusted when necessary, critical responsibilities are distributed across teams, and managers are equipped to lead through disruption while maintaining empathy and transparency.
What has impressed me most is the resilience of employees and candidates alike. People continue to show remarkable commitment despite challenging circumstances, and our responsibility as HR leaders is to create the conditions that allow them to succeed.
Beyond the role of empowering employees, which roles has AI eliminated over the past year, what percentage of your workforce was reskilled to avoid being phased out, and how has this impacted entry-level hiring?
AI's impact has been less about eliminating entire professions and more about transforming work itself.
We've seen automation reduce the need for certain repetitive tasks across operations, support functions, reporting, and content generation. However, the larger story is workforce transformation rather than workforce reduction.
A significant portion of our employees have participated in AI-related upskilling initiatives, enabling them to integrate AI into their daily work and increase their value to the organization. The focus has been on augmentation rather than replacement.
The greatest challenge is at the entry level. Many traditional junior tasks are now partially automated, which means organizations need to rethink how early-career talent develops skills and gains experience. As employers, we have a responsibility to create new pathways that allow emerging talent to build expertise in an AI-enabled workplace.
Against the backdrop of the unstable security and political climate, are you seeing an increase in relocation requests or 'quiet quitting' by top-tier talent moving abroad, and what is the most proactive step you are taking to retain them in Israel?
We are seeing more conversations about relocation and international opportunities than we did several years ago. However, I would caution against viewing this solely through the lens of geography.
Top talent evaluates a broad range of factors: career opportunities, quality of leadership, professional development, family considerations, and long-term stability.
Our retention strategy is therefore focused on creating compelling reasons to stay rather than attempting to persuade people through short-term incentives. We invest heavily in career mobility, leadership development, exposure to global projects, and meaningful growth opportunities.
In my experience, the strongest retention tool is not compensation alone – it's helping employees see a future for themselves within the organization.
One differentiator that has proven particularly powerful is our commitment to social impact. With 70% of our workforce actively participating in volunteering activities, this is not a peripheral initiative, it is a core part of who we are. In times of uncertainty, that sense of shared purpose, belonging, and pride in something greater than the day-to-day work has become a genuine retention force.
In an era where stability has replaced flashy perks, how are you addressing the deep mental burnout of employees torn between the professional and security fronts, and what is the most critical benefit you offer today in place of the bonuses that have vanished?
The nature of employee expectations has changed significantly. A few years ago, organizations competed through perks and workplace experiences. Today, employees are looking for something much more fundamental: stability, trust, flexibility, and genuine support.
The burnout we see is not simply a result of workload. It stems from the cumulative impact of prolonged uncertainty, personal stress, family obligations, and the emotional toll of living through ongoing crises.
Our response has been to invest in manager capability, mental health resources, flexible work arrangements, and realistic workload management. More importantly, we've encouraged leaders to have honest conversations about priorities and capacity.
If I had to identify the most valuable benefit today, it would be flexibility supported by trust. Employees need to know that their organization understands the realities they are facing and will support them in navigating those challenges. That sense of trust and psychological safety has become more valuable than many traditional perks.
Beyond flexibility, one benefit that stands apart is our social impact culture. The fact that 70% of our employees engage in volunteering is remarkable, and it speaks to something that no bonus can replicate: a sense of meaning, community, and pride. In a period where employees are searching for reasons to stay connected and committed, that shared sense of purpose has become one of our most powerful cultural assets.
