Q & A with David Heron, CEO of Jobs 2U Direct
Q. What made you decide to create Direct Hiring Solutions?
A. I have always felt that recruitment is a very inefficient and ineffective sector that needed to change. The concept that employers need to advertise their roles in the hope that suitable applicants apply seems ridiculous in this modern world. Recruitment is also one of the most important functions of any company and to leave it to chance is crazy. For a longtime I had the vision to move recruitment to a more traditional purchasing model where employers can source all their requirements online, so I thought, let’s do it!
Q. Doesn’t this conflict with your NET Recruit recruitment business?
A. Yes it does, however it is important to embrace change and we are now able to provide employers with a complete recruitment solution. Employers will always prefer to recruit directly to keep costs to a minimum; however, the reality is that sourcing top talent is challenging, and often a recruitment agency is required to provide a more proactive head-hunting solution.
Q. So what is different about your platform to other job boards?
A. The difference is that job seekers can directly promote their profile confidentially & anonymously to employers. This enables the 33 million people in the UK who are in permanent roles to now proactively get their profile in front of employers without fear that their current employer will find out. This opens-up more job opportunities, including access to the estimated 60% of jobs that are never advertised, and enables them to hear about roles even when they are not actively looking. For employers, it opens up a larger talent pool and significantly reduces recruitment costs.
Q. Why do you have separate employer and job seeker platforms?
A. The employer platform is DirectHiringSolutions.com and the job seeker platform is Jobs2UDirect.com. Jobs 2U Direct is also available as an App. The reason we have separated them is that the domain names clearly reflect the service they deliver and when you are entering a market with an estimated 50,000 job boards globally, brand recognition is important.
Q. What sectors and functions does the platform support?
A. The platform supports permanent, temporary and interim positions as well as graduate placements across all job functions and sectors. So, no matter what your requirements, you can run a search on our platform to find what you are looking for.
Q. What if the platform doesn’t have suitable job seekers that match an employer’s requirement?
A. Employers have the option to advertise their opportunities through the platform across the leading job boards at no cost. This supplements the search with applications being held exclusively against the employer’s job. We also enable its sister recruitment business, NET Recruit, to upload a maximum of 5 CVs against the job so that the employer can benchmark candidates. They will not contact the employer unless requested to do so.
Q. How is the site monetized?
A. Both job seekers and employers can register for free. For an employer to invite a job seeker to review their role they will need to purchase a Contact Credit. The Contact Credit is only spent when the job seeker accepts the job invitation and the employer gains access to their contact details. Should the job seeker reject the role, or not respond within 7 days, then the Contact Credit is returned and can be re-used. Contact Credits cost between £20 to £70 for a successful introduction. This makes the platform the most cost-effective recruitment solution available in the market.
Q. What are your plans to roll out the platform
A. We are currently conducting a soft launch across the South Coast to gain feedback from job seekers and employers and stress test the platform. We are learning every day and making enhancements to the platform. At the time of this interview, we are close to having 3,000 active job seeker profiles available for employers to review and this is growing daily. We also have a wide selection of employers registering every day ranging from major corporations to SME businesses, and it’s great to hear that they are already hiring through the platform. The next phase will be to open up the London market and then the whole of the UK. We also want to take the platform international and will achieve this primarily through licencing agreements.