In the field of dreams
Published: 25 June 2008
Robbie Cowling, chief executive of JobServe Group, could be forgiven for resting on his laurels, enjoying the fruits of his labours. Colin Cottell discovered this was the last thing on his mind...
Few people have a ‘eureka moment’ in their careers. But Robbie Cowling, founder of JobServe, remembers the moment when inspiration struck. It was back in 1993 when Cowling was motorcycling 70 miles from his home in Milton Keynes to his IT contracting job in Bracknell, Berkshire.
He recalls how, as he rode along, he saw another motorcyclist going in the opposite direction — possibly even going to work as an IT contractor in Milton Keynes.
“This made me think, there has to be a be a better way of finding work,” he says.
Unbelievable as it sounds today, when jobseekers can go online to find jobs in a specific location, and even globally, within minutes, Cowling explains that back then, “if you wanted a job you would look in a magazine, and if there was a job in Bracknell you had to take itbecause you didn’t know where all the jobs were”.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in the world of recruitment, at least, the rest is history. For from such amoment of inspiration on his motorcycle, Cowling, along with his business partner John Witney, went on to create the world’s first online recruitment website, JobServe.
JobServe has since grown into a sizeable company, employing 250 staff globally, with sales of £26.7m and net profits of £11.7m in the year ending 30 September 2007. Of this, UK sales made up £15.1m, while UK profits reached £9.5m. The company now has overseas offices in the US, Australia, Thailand and Canada, and operates in 17 sectors.
Since Cowling’s early pioneering days, of course, online recruitment has grown and become a global phenomenon, with firms such as Monster, Jobsite and Fish4 entering and expanding the market.
You might think that creating a whole new industry would be enough for one man, especially when you consider that earlier this year Cowling, along with his wife Cheryl, were ranked 759 in the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List with a combined fortune worth £105m.
However, Cowling, who along with his business interests owns Colchester Town Football Club, is not a man to bask in past glories. As he says, indicating either a certain amount of disappointment or an ironic sense of humour: “We had the first job board in the world — we didn’t do that well, did we? We are not eBay or Google. So to be that far ahead we didn’t do that well. We should have done better, so we failed miserably, really.”
Asked what he thinks of his achievements to date, his response is indicative of a man always looking towards the next horizon and the next deal. “I am not nostalgic,” he says, pausing before admitting that he is proud to have created the world’s first online recruitment
website.
Then less self-effacingly, he adds that it has been quite an achievement for JobServe to stay ahead of the competition, particularly in its IT niche, where it achieves 11 applications a week for every vacancy. So it comes as little surprise that, despite his achievements, Cowling should come up with another ‘big idea’ which, threatens to shake up the industry all over again.
Indeed, if Cowling is correct, it could even dwarf everything he has done to date. “It’s going to be bigger than JobServe,” says Cowling confidently, adding that he “has an even better feeling about it” than he did about JobServe.
It’s some claim, so what is it that Cowling is so excited about?
Having played a pivotal role in online recruitment over 14 years, Cowling says he has a growing realisation that the way job boards have developed no longer serves the best interests of employers, candidates or even job boards themselves.
“It dawned on me that outside of IT in the UK, job boards had become a very fragmented market. For somebody wanting to advertise in sales there is not a single job board,” he says. “You need to advertise on six to 10 boards to get a decent response.”
The same is true for sectors such as accountancy, marketing and engineering, he adds. This has caused a lot of problems for SMEs in particular, he says, as well as for agencies and candidates, though it’s not so bad for them as they “tend to stay in their niche markets”.
Cowling’s solution has been to create what he describes as “a way of aggregating job boards together”, which allows jobs to be advertised “to all four corners of the recruitment world”.
This will be achieved by creating a network which allows those with jobs access to a much wider pool of candidates. (See box on p31 for further details.)
To make it work, those generating jobs will be charged by JobG8 and those submitting candidates paid [by JobG8]. However, as Cowling is keen to point out: “It’s a true pay-for-performance model” so money only changes hands when candidates actually apply for jobs.
The resultant network called JobG8 (pronounced JobGate) was launched on 3 June, though Cowling stresses that this was a ‘soft launch’ and it will be six weeks before it gets ‘traction’ in the market. So far, Cowling says £500,000 has been invested in the project.
Cowling says that feedback has already been very positive, with only two job boards out of 22 saying they are not interested in signing up.
Indeed, he says the response compares favourably with that to JobServe. “If two people like this idea, it’s two more than JobServe. The
response has been much more positive than JobServe,” he says. Cowling is soon off to the US to launch it there. Indeed, so confident is he of the project’s success that he has handed over the running of JobServe to his brother John. Cowling himself is now devoting his
energies to the success of JobG8 as its managing director, though he remains chief executive of the JobServe Group.
John is more of “a corporate animal”, he explains, whereas he himself is “more entrepreneurial”. “We are quite different,” he adds.
Indeed, Cowling admits that start-ups are more his natural home. “It’s the setting up and the creative aspect; these are the things I find most exciting,” he says.
One of the key reasons why Cowling believes that JobG8 will be successful is because “everyone wins”.
On the face of it, this is an unlikely claim in the ‘dog eat dog’ world of recruitment. However, Cowling is adamant it is essential to the success of the new enterprise. “It’s only going to make money if it makes money for other people,” he says, explaining that only if the job source gets placings, and the candidate source gets a fee for generating candidates, will JobG8 make any money.
So what’s in it for agencies?
“It should give them an element of certainty that when the job goes out onto the JobG8 network they will get a better response,” says Cowling.
He is certainly setting his sights high for the new venture. “I believe I can make JobServe Holding worth £1bn,” he says, adding, “I will have failed if I don’t.”
For Cowling, JobG8 is another example of his constant desire to be at the cutting edge of online recruitment. As he explains: “We have always tried to innovate. No matter what we do we always think, how can we do it better? Innovation is a lot of our psychology.”
So is he worried that the ‘big boys’ such as Monster could come in and hijack his idea?
“In 15 years I have never lost a minute’s sleep worrying about business, so I wouldn't say I get too concerned about anything.”
Indeed, rather than worrying about his larger competitors, he sees the relatively small size of JobServe as an advantage. “I think a smaller company, whose owner is still very much at the coalface, is an advantage and allows JobServe to be more agile than the bigger boys.”
So will it work?
Cowling is confident: “I think this is the best idea I have had because it works well, and I do think everybody wins. I would hope that this will transform online recruitment the way the last one did, and I think there is a very good chance of it doing that.”
JobServe’s company slogan is ‘Fulfil your potential’. If JobG8 comes off as Cowling expects, there’s a good chance that this restless entrepreneur will finally realise his. Then again, few would be surprised if this trail-blazing businessman doesn’t have another bright idea up his sleeve.
ROBBIE COWLING: FACT FILE
1977–81 apprentice, Vauxhall garage, Clacton in Essex
1981–84 self-employed mechanic
1984–86 IT programmer, Town and Country Building Society
1986–88 IT programmer, Abbey National
1988–94 IT contractor, Ministry of Defence
1993 founds Faxme, a fax service for jobseekers
May 1994 launches the world’s first ‘Jobs by email service’ for jobseekers, with fellow IT contractor John Witney. Launches the JobServe website in November of that year. Managing director, JobServe
2008– sets up JobG8 Chief executive of the JobServe Group of companies and managing director of JobG8
| Job Title | Job Location | Job Position |
|---|---|---|
| Operations Director/Divisional Manager... | All | Permanent |
| Sales or Marketing Recruitment... | North West | Permanent |
| Manpower Professional – Branch Manager... | North West | Permanent |
| Senior Consultant... | South East | Permanent |
| Team Leader/Senior Consultant... | Scotland | Permanent |
| Work Life balance in London...YES in... | London | Permanent |
