The #1 Reason an Uber-ised Recruitment Industry will be Brilliant

Recruber

Sorry, that’s a bad dad joke to start and I’m pretty sure it won’t be an original.

Tech is nothing New to Recruitment

I say bring it on. We all have our opinions and thoughts as to where tech is taking the recruitment industry. We are already up close and personal with disruptive freelancing models like Upwork, social media is in our every day vernacular, digital marketing, data & analytics and cloud based systems fast tracking remote working etc are all incrementally driving change.

BOOM

Nothing has really come in and gone BOOM yet. SEEK said it was going to in the late 90’s, LinkedIn said it was going to in the early naughties, what is next? Is it Facebook, Google? They, as it seems know more about me than anyone else in my life right now!

So what might BOOM look like? Given that nobody really knows, I’m going to have some fun and create a hypothetical Recruber.

We all know technology will continue to change our industry, at pace and for the most part when used well will propel success. I think tech developers whose mantra is “we will wipe out recruiters” not only don’t understand the recruitment industry but more importantly are missing a huge opportunity to positively impact how we recruiters operate within it.

The Candidate Voice

What if one of these tech super whizz kid startups realised what would happen to the recruitment industry if they gave candidates a united and loud voice. Candidates often say that they “feel like a piece of meat”; that’s horrid! What if tech gave candidates total control of the delivery of excellent customer service as Uber did for drivers and supported those who simply did a good job.

—- The #1 Reason why an “Uberised” Recruitment Industry is a good thing —-

Yes Folks, it’s Customer Service

The thing about Uber is, it hasn’t destroyed an industry; it has remarkably expanded an industry by monumentally improving and transforming it and making the experience better. If you ask any taxi driver they will disagree as of course, it has negatively impacted them, but I am not talking about them, I am talking about what Uber has contributed to the overall private transportation industry and that is the key.

For more on the reasons behind Uber’s success, this is a great article.
https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/uber

A similar transformation would be a positive game changer for the recruitment industry…..now let’s have some fun.

Imagine this Scenario for a Candidate

An app is created that in a short period of time downloading it becomes the default first action every candidate does on their smartphone when they start to think about finding a new job. “Recruber”. OK, it’s still daggy but it helps tell my story!

After every interview or interaction with the individual recruiter, the candidate goes into the Recruber App, selects the recruiter and rates them 1- 5 stars and leaves comments for other candidates, clients and peers to see.
These are marked as anonymous if the candidate chooses.

Recruber over time gathers data and starts to give an overall rating for recruitment companies based on the feedback on their consultants by candidates.
These ratings contribute to Rockstar recruitment status on Recruber and this brilliant recruiter, now known to

Recruber as Rockstar Ron starts to get preferential treatment by Recruber for looking after the candidate so well.
This also happens over time for the companies who through their team delight their candidates.
The next time an applicant searches for a role in her cluttered market, Rockstar Ron’s roles have been scraped from job boards and are pinned right at the top of the pile in recognition of his great service and not only that, the candidate is reassured she is dealing with someone who will hold her best interests near and is more likely to chose to get her next role via a recruiter.

She, of course, will be able to share her feedback across all her social networks at the click of a button further raising the good will for Rockstar Ron in his niche community.

So, great customer service reigns and technology has yet again improved the customer experience and turned an industry on its head for the greater good.

Maybe there are versions of this out there already and they just haven’t achieved critical mass yet, I don’t know, but most of what I come across seems to be focused on matching, not so much helping people to have influence where it makes a difference.

I’m not a techie, which is probably more than obvious by now, but it seems to me if I can make up this scenario (clearly pinched from Uber and probably full of holes!) in about 15 minutes, what could a team with a lot more tech nous than me concoct if they focused on instead of replacing recruiters rather on solving the biggest problem in the recruitment industry; candidate experience.

What’s Next?

This is really exciting. I don’t know what’s next, but instead of being scared about what might happen, wouldn’t it be great if we could lead the charge as an industry and do our own disrupting?

So who’s up for the challenge? I’d love to know if you think I’ve gone stark raving mad or my late night ramblings have struck a chord.

Either way…Thanks for reading

Belinda Kerr
Recruitment Garage