A new type of job site has launched today with a promise to make modern recruitment fit for purpose. CareerZoo rejects the outdated, broken model of using recruitment agency middlemen, helping connect employers and candidates directly through an interactive, video-based platform, designed to make the recruitment process easier, fairer and more effective for everyone. CareerZoo will support a wide range of industries but is first launching its support for the PR and Communications industry, with other sectors, including Advertising and Marketing, set to follow in the coming weeks. The platform also offers additional support for candidates and HR consultancy for employers who need additional ad hoc support.
Ex-headhunter, Alex Robinson is the poacher-turned-gamekeeper behind CareerZoo, “Ask any company about their recruitment goals and the last thing they will say is that they want to pay a 20% commission on every new candidate’s annual salary, in return for what is essentially, a basic email introduction. Yet they still allow themselves to be convinced that working exclusively with an agency is the best way to fill open roles with the best candidates. Employers don’t appreciate that this automatically limits the diversity of candidates that they might see. If they only work with one or two recruiters and the perfect candidate is with a different agency, they will never be introduced and that individual could miss out on a dream role.”
Many candidates agree to exclusive representation by a recruitment agency as they believe that it’s an easy way to share their CV to a wide selection of potential employers, via a trusted intermediary. However, many don’t realise the automatic disadvantage that the 20% “recruitment tax” creates for them when in competition with direct applicants and don’t realise that they will only be introduced to those employers with whom the recruiter has a commercial agreement. Alex comments, “We see more companies, particularly PR agencies, making hiring announcements on platforms like LinkedIn and trying to drive direct candidates to their careers pages. However, these posts are dwarfed by the number of agency-driven ads – often for roles that are no longer open – aimed at driving more candidates to recruiters so they can be ‘sold on’ to employers or used to establish new commercial agreements.”
CareerZoo allows employers to post their jobs for free on the platform or build a more in-depth, verified employer profile through which they can post multiple verified jobs and manage their applicants. They can also help potential candidates get a deeper understanding of the organisation by adding a company culture video and invite speculative candidates to contact them via an integrated form. Pro subscribers can also create an interactive, video pre-screening Q&A, helping to streamline the selection process for the in-house recruitment team. CareerZoo also offers a team of recruitment, digital marketing and HR specialists who can provide additional consultancy and support as needed, effectively levelling the playing field across large and small employers to attract top talent.
With company culture, values and purpose increasingly driving the decisions of candidates, and the need for diverse skillsets across roles, the notion that the best candidate can be found from a CV and an employer can most effectively present a role in a written job spec is outdated. Alex adds, “We know that the PR industry has a diversity issue and companies are also now starting to appreciate the value of a more neuro-diverse workforce. By levelling up the interview process with other media like video and audio, companies and candidates can show their personalities, describe their passion and explain their unique value directly. The CV isn’t dead but it’s only a small part of our process, which is inherently fairer, more transparent and human.”
Candidates can sign up to new job alerts and search for live jobs according to their industry specialism, or alternatively browse through the listed employer directory to discover more about individual companies and apply to them speculatively. When applying for a role, candidates are given the option to create a private profile, streamlining future applications and allowing the CareerZoo team to match them to more potential jobs.
“We see CareerZoo as having huge potential to reset the recruitment process and make it fit for purpose in this day and age,” concludes Alex. “Today’s launch is the first step in a bold and ambitious plan and we look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks and months.”
