Online recruitment marketplaces are gearing up to take advantage of a more cost-conscious employer and recruiter as the economy emerges from recession.

Such sites allow employers to post a vacancy along with the fee they are prepared to pay a recruiter for placing a successful candidate. This summer saw launches both sides of the Atlantic and those in the sector are bolstering their offerings.

US-based RecruitHire acquired the Dayak online recruiting marketplace which features more than 6,000 recruiters and 1,500 employers, while UK site TalentPuzzle has added a new user feedback facility which allows employers to rate and review agencies according to criteria such as suitability of CVs submitted, communication and responsiveness.

RecruitHire claims to be unique from other marketplace sites because of a ratings algorithm that focuses on the quality of the candidate put forward by a recruiter. Although it largely features employers and agencies from North America at the moment, it is aiming to be a global network and chief executive Alain Templeman told Recruiter that the UK and Canada are “priorities” for expansion.

Alan Whitford, industry expert and founder of the RCEuro.com network, said recruitment needs new models such as this but believes it may have more chance of success if it expands from the UK outwards. “I think someone needs to find a way of expanding the model from the UK outwards to countries like Germany, France and Holland to take advantage of the unique shape and size of the UK recruitment industry,” he said. “The Channel can sometimes seem as wide as the Atlantic but I think it [the model] has more chance of working from here rather than expanding from the US outwards.”

Virginia Raemy is the chief executive of TalentPuzzle, which has around 300 agencies active on the site and said people were responding well to the new model even if they needed educating in how it worked. Beverley Giles, founder of recruitment company Pinnacle HR Solutions, recently placed someone via TalentPuzzle and said the site offers a valuable channel for new business. “I recently placed someone and the company has come back to me with another vacancy. It was for an aerospace organisation, which was a new sector for me,” she said. “I asked one company what made them go to TalentPuzzle, and their view was that recruiters can sometimes appear a bit greedy.”

www.recruithire.com
www.talentpuzzle.com
www.phrs.com
www.rceuro.com