Bullhorn Reach is out of beta, with those taking part already reporting that they made real placements while the social recruiting platform was in its test phase.

Andy Lord, managing director of ReThink Recruitment, which specialises in business and technology jobs, told Recruiter that consultants made several placements and gained new customers using Reach’s Radar tool. This alerts a recruiter when someone in their network is showing signs of looking for a new job, such as updating their profile.

“We spend a lot of time and money on trawling databases of people who are telling us they want a new job but Radar gives us the ability to find people who are only just mulling over whether to move,” said Lord. “It’s given our consultants the confidence to sit in front of a customer and say, ’yes, we can search the job boards and LinkedIn like everyone else, but we also have this insight’.”

Bullhorn Reach is a standalone product, and agency or direct recruiters can sign up to it for free regardless of whether they are a Bullhorn software user.

Peter Linas, Bullhorn’s UK managing director, told Recruiter that some paid-for premium add-on features may be introduced in the future but the full version of Reach would continue to be free for everyone. “The goal is not to make money but to create an engaged user group,” he said. “It’s the start of a journey by Bullhorn into the social and professional networking space.”

Reach’s value for recruiters is in the way it brings together all of their social and professional networking activity in one place and helps maximise the benefits of personal networks in these spaces. It allows them to post jobs to all of their networks simultaneously (it currently works across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter), while its Radar tool collects candidates’ updates and behavioural data and analyses usage patterns.

Lord says that this is much more effective than receiving standard LinkedIn updates because Radar can be more targeted. “I get so many updates from LinkedIn that I disregard most of them but Radar is more specific,” he explained. “You go through a selection process and ask for updates, for example, of when someone updates their profile, is promoted or connects with a recruiter.”

Reach also provides feedback and metrics on which channel is proving most effective. In addition, Linas explained that Reach allows the recruiter to build their own presence and credibility in their specific area. “A candidate can see a recruiter’s profile and whether they are active in this space,” he said, adding that a ’share this article’ feature allows them to pass information to their network to demonstrate their interest and knowledge in their sector. “What a good recruiter should be doing is building up stock, credibility and value in their own network.”

In beta, Reach acquired 10,000 recruiters globally and was attracting 250,000 jobseeking candidates each month and these figures will certainly grow now it has gone live to a much wider audience and has potential for international recruiting.

ReThink has offices in nine locations across the world, including in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Following its acquisition of Berkley, which specialises in IT, pharmaceutical and life science jobs, it has established an office in Singapore, which Lord described as “completely unsaturated” as far as recruitment services are concerned compared with the UK. “We have an opportunity to build a footprint out there and show our customers what recruitment could be like without any pre-conceived ideas,” he said. “Reach can help us give them a competitive edge by hiring a superstar before they go on the market. And that is extremely powerful for us.”

www.bullhornreach.com
www.rethink-recruitment.com