Crowdsourcing. It is a buzz word that has been around the recruitment world for a couple of years now. Chances are if you are in recruitment, you have heard of it. You may or may not know what it is though. To me, it is nothing short of a brilliant idea. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about it, nor did I realize the benefits until I sat down with Praneeth Patlola, CEO of Jobhuk late last month.
What is the concept of Crowdsourcing? Crowdsourcing simply lets companies find hires and work with recruiters who are actually finding the candidates. Companies post a job; they receive quality resumes, and pay the recruiter who brought in the candidate. If you think about it, the recruiting world is changing DAILY! It doesn’t matter where you are or when you log on, you can source anywhere at any time. There are more independent and contract recruiters than ever before and my belief is that it will only increase with time.
To me, it is a win-win scenario. The companies get the people they want and the recruiters get paid. Recruiters know what their niche is when they are recruiting for individuals. They can do a search for candidates that they have in their network.
Jobhuk is terrific. Think about a recruiting agency and how it works. Jobhuk posts jobs for both contract and permanent hires. For permanent hires, employers can decide what percentage they want to pay for a finder’s fee. It can vary from 5-30% of the annual salary, or a fixed rate.
All of the employers have been vetted. They must have at least 25 employees and must show that they can pay the fees before posting jobs on Jobhuk. The recruiters are all 1099 and will be paid once the employee stays 30 days at the job. Currently, Jobhuk has more than 2000 recruiters on board, with 300 new recruiters joining everyday. Among these, more than 200 recruiters are highly active and Jobhuk has created a vetting process to vouch for these active recruiters who source high quality candidates.
When recruiters find candidates on a contractual basis, they will receive a percentage of the contract for the entirety of the contract. This is no different than how an agency would do something and it is a win-win, because the company gets to work with the recruiter that helped out finding the candidate.
The way you could think about this in easy to explain words is that Jobhuk wants to become the world’s largest virtual staffing company. This allows the recruiter to do real sourcing rather than just throwing quantity at a company.
Jobhuk can rate the recruiters also. You can have a “Klout” score for the people you place. Think of it as a star rating system like Bazzarvoice has. Why not get good ratings- who know what will come of it in the future? Companies may actually request to work with you. It also can show other companies how successful you have been and how viable the candidates are that you are providing over other recruiters.
The forward thinking of Praneeth proves that there are some changes coming to recruitment and it would be a great idea to embrace this way of thinking. Crowdsourcing could change recruiting. I for one think it is a great concept. What are your thoughts?
Jobhuk is an Online Recruitment Marketplace for Hiring Smart Talent. Employers can crowd-source their recruitment efforts in an open marketplace, facilitating interaction with independent recruiters and everyday people who are incentivized to recruit on behalf of the employer.