Are you awake? Lots of changes in the online recruiting world!
There is a lot of activity in the online recruiting industry now – more than I’ve seen in many years. Money is flowing in, startups are blossoming, and established players are branching out.
So why now? Part of it stems from the (slow) retreat of the recession – more people working means more interest in finding candidates. Part comes from the rise of social media and mobile, spurring innovation and new thinking about old recruiting problems. And part is dissatisfaction with existing models – more than one of these startups is the result of an industry veteran saying, ‘Hey, I have a better idea!’
Here is my very incomplete list of online recruiting developments and companies that I find interesting (and if you want to see more, check out this fascinating thread on Quora):
- Jobfox Boost: A social media take on the traditional resume database. Allows recruiters to build ‘networks’ of contacts based on their specific criteria – but the real twist is that JobFox will ‘autobuild’ a network from its database of 7 million candidates. Includes a ‘spiff’ option that lets recruiters offer cash for referrals. The sheer size of JobFox’s existing database makes this an immediately compelling product.
- Bullhorn Reach: Similar in some ways to Boost (including the aspirational name), Reach provides a super simple, stripped down way for recruiters to communicate with candidates via social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. It has two basic pieces: “Jobs”, where the recruiter can create and broadcast a job to her network, and “Radar”, where the recruiter can track, connect, and expand her network. Extremely easy to use.
- VC money: In the past few months, money has flowed into the sector. RoundPegg (matching tool) secured $1.27 million, Glassdoor scored $12 million, InternMatch found $400K, Entreave (more matching) secured money but wouldn’t say how much, and MyPerfectGig (yep, more matching) landed $3.5 million. That’s just since December. Expect to see more (although, sadly, I doubt any of it will be targeted to job board consultants).
- Zuzu Hire: An interesting approach to candidate screening – offers video, voice, text, and multiple choice screening. Ideal for the company HR exec who just can’t make up her mind.
- JobRooster: Although some job sites have sent job ads via text messaging, JobRooster polishes and extends this idea, adding analytics and the ability to prescreen candidates. In a world where smart phones are not yet ubiquitous, this product makes sense.
- StartWire: In some ways, StartWire flips the traditional ‘recruiter-focused’ product model on its head. Aimed at job seekers, the tool lets them create their own ‘trusted network’ of friends that they can use to find a new job. The company has also promised a product in the near future that attempts to end the ‘black hole’ for job applications. Should be interesting.
- StackOverflow: The well known tech site has implemented one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that’ ideas: peer reviewed candidates. In short, programming problems are posed, candidates respond, and those with their peers vote on the answers. Top vote-getters receive high reputation scores – which inevitably will lure employers. Won’t work in every industry, but a good fit for IT.
- WorkersNow: ERE called it a ‘cloud-based temp company’, and that’s as close as anything. Candidates apply to WorkersNow online, the site screens them, then promotes them to employers. It’s aimed at the plumbers, electricians, and carpenters of the world, and leans heavily on mobile technology. (Also see: ReadyForce)
This is just a taste of what’s happening – I hope it’s given you some ideas about how you can change your own recruiting site!
[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]. [Check out the JobBoardGeek podcast archive!]This Post Has 5 Comments
Comments are closed.
Hi Jeff (aka Job Board Doctor) ,
Thanks for the coverage of Bullhorn Reach; our team enjoyed reading it!
I think your description of Reach as a “stripped down way for recruiters to communicate with candidates” was very apt. Our team strives toward making the user experience as frictionless and intuitive as possible, while making certain we’re still providing the core functions that recruiters and hiring managers want and need to leverage their social networks and search engines to find the best talent.
To that end, we also automatically syndicate Bullhorn Reach job listings to leading job boards like SimplyHired and Indeed (among others). Plus, we’ll automatically re-post the listings to users’ social networks (like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) until a job is closed. Users can either set the auto-share frequency themselves, or we’ll do it for them using our insight into what works best. Like you said, it’s extremely easy to use.
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback thus far, but we’re always open to any insights others may have on how we can make it even better. So please feel free to shoot me a note with any thoughts you may have!
Thanks again, Jeff, and rock on.
Steven Duque
@bullhornreach
Another player worth paying attention has just sprung up this past weekend.
TechHotBed.com was launched this past weekend. The site is dedicated to the I.T & Engineering industries. It is free to all Employers on an Invitation-Only Basis
I would like to add ‘Work4 Labs’ to the list: http://www.work4labs.com/
The app allows companies to post jobs on their Facebook Page either manually or with an ATS integration. Recruiters can launch highly targeted, automatic Facebook job ads, as well as distribute jobs through optimized viral features. The app contains a powerful referral system that matches a user’s friends with a company’s jobs. The user can also use multiple social features to broadcast jobs, as well as apply directly within Facebook.
The app’s powerful features have allowed thousands of large and small companies to move beyond buzzwords and to begin recruiting socially. Its 5,000+ users include Accenture, Disney, L’Oréal, Adecco, Manpower, Michael Page, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, and Roche.
Twitter @work4labs
While I agree that job boards need to be more creative in their services I also feel that there are way too many “social recruiting” networks popping up. So at what point does the social network for recruiting get over saturated? It seems to me it’s just another way of having a large database being shared on every social “recruiting” network and the end problem is the same as before: a black hole. Even though a seeker is “invited” to join a company network doesn’t mean that the company is interested in hiring them. I compare it to companies who look at jobseeker’s resume sent in response to an advertisement but rarely is that employer really looking at the seeker as a candidate for the job. i.e., how many responses gotten per resume submitted by a job seeker is about 0.1%
Twitter for social recruiting has become a big blast of tweets by multiple people tweeting the same job over and over again. They can follow anyone who RTs or checks out the link within the tweet. And what about privacy? Seekers on twitter and other social networking are exposing themselves to the same scammers they encountered on the job boards. “Networking” being the new buzzword so far in the 21st century has resulted in breaches of privacy, people being judged about who they are based on their Facebook page and on places like LinkedIn have a big chance of their current employer seeing that they are looking for a job. If they put too many privacy settings on their profiles they are told they won’t get noticed.
I could go on, but won’t bore you with my theories on social recruiting. While it might be the “it” thing right now, I will be curious to know if it will payoff for job seekers. Thanks, Jeff. Great post that gave me a lot of food (more like a buffet) for thought.
Howdy Doc! We greatly appreciate you mentioning ZuzuHire among this power list of recruiting tools! Bullhorn Reach is quite an impressive social recruiting tool, and there’s nothing better for job seekers, in my opinion, than StartWire.
You are spot, ZuzuHire is a perfect gift for any indecisive HR rep! Our hope is it’s also a great tool for companies to easily ask their applicants questions. We’ve found that by making it easy to ask candidates questions, the less companies have to rely solely on a resume up front! Our pricing model and multimedia capabilities allow for organizations to quickly screen lots of candidates quite effectively.
Thanks again for the inclusion Jeff. Great post and I’m excited to try out some of these other tools.