Comments on: Three Innovative Recruitment Businesses

By: Playfair & Noble: Rewarding Recruitment | IDDICTIVE.COM | Innovative Business Ideas

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:55:37 +0000

[...] few weeks ago we wrote an article about innovative recruitment companies. After it was published, the founder of another innovative recruitment agency got in touch to tell [...]

By: Playfair & Noble

Playfair & Noble — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:59:12 +0000

The future is in the networks, referral systems, and free communication.

In the UK recruitment agencies have made things very difficult by generally charging between 15% and 25% of a professional’s first year salary to employers for a successful match. These fees have a major impact on employers being able to recruit, particularly SMEs.
In the current climate this is crazy. How can professionals get back into work if the recruiters who should be helping them go against them?! A dramatic change has been desperately needed for a long time.

I would recommend checking out Playfair & Noble (www.playfairandnoble.com), a company with an innovative and ethical business model who has recently launched and is aiming high by taking on traditional recruitment agencies.

They remove the restrictions imposed by agencies, by providing a platform which allows employers and professionals to communicate directly and discreetly, without the interference and prohibitive cost of a ‘middle man.

The cultural innovation P&N bring to the table is that it pays 50% of the fee it earns to professionals who find work through its website and also rewards referrers with 10% of the fee.

Crucially, the website empowers professionals and employers by giving them controlled visibility and the freedom to speak to each other, a fundamental value that the recruitment industry, acting as a self-serving entity, has prevented.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:55:58 +0000

I agree with you entirely re: LinkedIn and social networking and fully expect to see more recruitment businesses incorporating this into their business models – perhaps following the crowd-sourced / social headhunting models.

The niche question is one that comes up a lot. On one hand, marketing to a niche limits the size of your market, on the other it can be an excellent differentiator, lead to more referrals, help limit costs and make it easier to become an acknowledged expert in a field.

Nearly everyone says they are specialists – but where they fail is in not taking full advantage of what that entails. They need to live and breathe the niche and not simply pay it lip service. If they do, then they can arguably provide a better service than a more generalist firm – in any sector.

Of course, nearly everyone plays to a certain niche. Even a generalist recruitment firm in a local market must be experts in that market. What the Internet does is make smaller, non-geographic niches more viable.

For my money, the nichier the better.

By: Jobsguru

Jobsguru — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:46 +0000

I am surprised that recruitment agencies would choose to market themselves into such tight niches given the current market. Specialisation is important and having the relevant sector expertise will be the difference between solvency or receivership for many agencies if the recession continues in its current vein. Service will be more important than anything else though. Service creates loyalty and referrals. It can be further enhanced by adding newer phenomena such as social networking to your existing business, or as in the case of BabaJob, making it the core of your job. Many people are turning to LinkedIn for hiring and jobseeking but as yet it remains a source that has not been tapped to anything like it’s full potential. The advantages of hiring somebody that comes with recommendations from various sources, some of which will, no doubt, be linked to you are very clear. It is like having multiple reference checks pre-interview. Very nice for an employer.