Competitive recruiting sites give businesses a boost
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008A new form of e-commerce has been impacting many industries lately: competitive bidding sites. Freelance graphic designers, writers, and photographers use these sites to bid for projects, and sites like E-lance have been getting a lot of buzz. Another industry in which bidding sites are gaining fans is recruiting, and BountyJobs.com, RecruitAlliance.com, and TalentHire.com are giving smaller recruiting firms access to big name clients. These sites, which operate as Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors, have added a Web 2.0 element to the recruiting industry.
Traditionally, large companies seeking job candidates would contact a well-known local recruitment firm. They would draw up a contract and that firm would put forward the names of candidates for the position. If they were lucky, they would find the right person for the job. Online competitive bidding has changed this process. The sites allow any recruiters, large or small, to “bid” on the task of finding a candidate.
Typically, the process follows a pattern: Companies looking for new hires post job openings on the site, and recruiters can contact hiring managers with appropriate candidates. If they like what they see, the employer can them request to see more information about a potential hire and set up interview. If a firm’s candidate gets hired, then they earn a finder’s fee. TalentHire allows headhunters to set their own prices, which adds an even greater element of competition to the process. Most sites either charge a percentage of that fee or charge a membership fee.
One of the reasons this new system has caught on is that it benefits both recruiting firms and employers looking for the right candidates. As an employer testimonial at BountyJobs says, “I get to try new search firms without all the hassle of getting them signed up with a contract.” Contracting is not only a hassle for large companies, but also can lead to a stagnant pool of qualified candidates. On the flip side, recruiting firms and lone headhunters get access to powerful clients without making endless cold calls or wasting time with negotiations. A recruiter testimonial raves, “BountyJobs allows me to focus on what I enjoy doing the most, which is recruit!”
While there are some snags in the systems, most of the sites have protocol in place to prevent major problems. For example, sometimes job hunters work with multiple search firms, and this can lead to them being recommended for the same job by two different people. Awkward, to say the least. However, most sites have a feature, rather like a time stamp, that allows the employer to see who put forth the candidate first. This ensures that if he/she is hired, the commission goes to the correct person.
Competitive recruiting sites are not yet popular enough to compete with large job boards like Monster or HotJobs, and they target a different audience. The site’s give recruitment firms and individual headhunters access to larger, more lucrative clients. The pricing scale, competitive candidates, and ease of transactions have opened up this industry like never before. It’s no wonder sites like this are taking off.
By Haley January Eckels
May 21st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Frustrated with the lack of talent on the large job boards we looked for alternatives. And found there seems to be a new generation of companies coming along, that are combining the best aspects of free marketplace models into a recruiting platform.
I used Dayak for my company’s last open position and it worked out well, costing us much less than the 30% salary industry standard. Dayak also guarantees an employer’s money back if the new hire doesn’t work out within a probationary period.
These sites are a win-win for any employer, you have a nationwide network of recruiters trying to fill your positions.