Know-who.com, a new online recruitment portal which allows a community of candidates, referrers and recruiting organisations to interact with each other, was launched at the end of February.

The service offers cash rewards to members who recommend friends, family and colleagues for jobs. Members can also make money by applying for positions themselves. The company says it is different to Zubka because it allows candidates and recruiters to interface with each other.

Co-founder Daniel Halstead, a former recruitment consultant, said: "The perception of the recruitment industry is not good and people are apprehensive about using recruiters. There is a large group of people who won't use recruitment agencies to find their next jobs; instead they use their friends, family and contacts."

The website has matching technology which will suggest potential jobs for members and candidates to advertisers; it also ranks applicants for the recruiter.

Posting a job on the website is free and adverts are screened by Know-who for legislative issues. The adverts are then posted on to the site within eight hours.

Know-who charges the recruiting company 5% when the candidate starts work and then releases funds to the referrer after the candidate has worked for the company for eight weeks. The money will initially be paid by cheque but will eventually work through PayPal.

Each member, or potential candidate, has a profile on the website which allows them to showcase their work. The system emails candidates to keep them up-to-date with the recruitment process.

The website allows members to easily import details and contacts from their Facebook, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts.