We rate everything these days. Restaurants, employers, doctors, dog walkers — pretty much everyone and everything is under the microscope. That’s why it’s no surprise to see the launch of Recruitsy, a site that wants to build a directory of headhunters around the globe that’s reviewed by the candidates they’ve placed.
“Ratings matter in the information age,” said Recruitsy founder Kurt Smith. “Recruitsy is bringing online reviews to the public for the staffing and recruiting industry and offers agencies real-time insights, so they take control of their public reputation to accelerate issue resolution, boost satisfaction ratings, and drive move revenue through referral leads and client retention.”
A geek with a computer degree from Purdue, Smith was inspired to create Recruitsy after layoffs at his last employer. “Coworkers were asking me where they should go to find good recruiters,” he said. “I didn’t have a good answer for them, but thought there should be a directory of headhunters with reviews for people when they need work.”
The site is currently in beta, having launched in November of this year, and looks to service three primary consumers: Candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters. Recruiters can claim a free, publicly accessible profile on the site, which will make them available to job seekers. Although corporate recruiters can join, it is primarily for third party folks.
One big difference comparing Recruitsy to most reviews sites on the web is the fact that Recruitsy is not anonymous. Job seekers and those who have been placed must register with the site, complete with email verification. This may skew reviews to lean positive, but Smith believes it’s an important element to the success of the business.
“The recruitment process is broken in many ways,” said Smith. “Your resume goes into the blackhole of the ATS. You get ghosted by recruiters and hiring managers. There is no feedback loop throughout the process. There has been no way to hold any of these parties accountable.”
Candidates will be able to leave reviews and access them for free. The site will be free for the first three months for recruiters, but will eventually move to a fee structure. Although exact dollar amounts are TBD, Smith said recruiters will probably pay $99 per month, and agencies will be charged $250 per month for each branch office.
Staffing agency Modis is a “big supporter,” according to Smith, and will be piloting the solution as it evolves. The benefit to an agency is it’ll be able to access reports showing them which recruiters are performing the best, based on user reviews. “Our mission is to give agencies never-before-seen analytics into their staffing operations,” he added.
To promote his bootstrapped startup, Smith will focus on advertising via LinkedIn, as well as using his existing network. Content marketing will be a focus as well. He also believes search engine optimization opportunities for finding recruiters is currently an open field. Jacksonville, Florida, the company’s home, will be an initial focus and spread throughout the U.S., assuming things go well.
No doubt ratings and reviews are trending and not going anywhere. Is the world ready for a review site for staffing professionals? I guess time will tell, but it’s certainly a nano niche at best. Getting recruiters and agencies in the directory will be tough (surprisingly, there’s no database to tap into, according to Smith) enough.
Getting candidates to leave reviews will be the higher hurdle. I can’t see them doing it instinctively; the staffing pros will have to push adoption. And pushing candidates to Recruitsy is also potentially pushing them to the competition, as opposed to pushing them to LinkedIn profiles for endorsements.
Smith remains optimistic nonetheless. “I believe a ratings and review platform that promotes accountability and performance through transparency has the potential to change recruiting as we know it,” he said. “Gone will be the days of spray-and-pray recruiting, ghosting, and little-to-no feedback. Recruitsy will become the globally trusted mark for recruiter and agency benchmarks and analytics.”