Matching, AI, marketplaces, and other intriguing new sites

January 21, 2020
JobBoardDoctor
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Although I think we’re past the high point in funding for the recruitment marketing industry, new sites and marketplaces keep popping up. It’s been a while since I last surveyed the landscape, so I thought it would be good to see what’s out there. The following is a highly unscientific and eclectic look at sites that were new to me:

HeyJobs: This Germany-based hiring service – which has actually been around since 2017 – uses “a combination of machine learning, marketing automation and a matching algorithm to deliver more quality candidates at lower cost than any other platform.” How does it work? The recruiter posts a job via HeyJobs, which in turn puts it out on more than 1000 channels, while at the same time automatically producing more than 50 marketing campaigns aligned with the ad; via matching and AI wizardry, applicants are then sent back to the recruiter. Being in Germany, it also promised ‘full data privacy compliance.’ Sounds impressive!
Vahan: Speaking of sourcing and matching, India-based Vahan uses WhatsApp – which has 400 million users in the country – to promote a job, engage job seekers, and then guide them through a series of qualifying questions to determine which seekers should get an interview. The automated process has already placed 20,000 candidates, and handles about 5,000 application interactions per day. Perhaps not surprisingly, the next step for Vahan is offering training courses for its job seekers.
DirectShifts: This site promises health care job seekers that they can avoid recruiters and staffing agencies by using DirectShifts to land clinical jobs. It almost sounds like…a job board! But DirectShifts has a few twists: they promise online credentialing, free licensing and insurance, tax filing, and travel reimbursement. So maybe more like a staffing firm? Honestly, I couldn’t tell. But it was interesting.
PeakSeason: PeakSeason melds several existing job board models to come up with an interesting mix: a geographically focused job site with lots of content and graphic appeal. The site helps job seekers “find year-round and seasonal jobs in mountain towns and resort destinations”, primarily in the Rocky Mountains. It also has guides to the various locations highlighted. I suspect it will be expanding to many other resort and travel areas.
MarketerHire: It’s a marketplace – for marketers! The site claims to vet the marketing freelancers on the site; when an employer submits a project, MarketerHire ‘hand-matches’ freelancers to the project. It also says it will handle anything from a one-off project to the hiring of an entire marketing team. One interesting twist: MarketerHire breaks out typical hires into categories, such as ‘Amazon Marketer’, ‘CMO’, and ‘Content Marketer’. Hmm, maybe I should sign up!
Invitation-Only: This is actually a service of Mogul, an “ecosystem that enables top diverse talent to reach their goals & realize their full potential” – in other words, a hub. Invitation-Only is aimed at female job seekers that are “VP, SVP, EVP, President, C-Suite, or Board Member.” The basic idea is to expose these candidates to openings that typically are only exposed to male candidates. As the name implies, job seekers have to be ‘nominated’ – although they can self-nominate. I would be curious to see how this is playing out – it’s a good idea.
Jumpstart: Jumpstart focuses on improving diversity and including by primarily on filling entry/early-stage roles in “knowledge worker” positions such as engineering internships, junior-level marketing roles and business analysts. How? The company – founded by a high school dropout who became a recruiter – uses AI to recognize ‘success patterns’ in candidates, apart from the traditional markers like education and certification. This is combined with a take on the talent pool model, where candidates opt in to become part of Jumpstart’s larger pool of job opportunities.