Here at AnyGood? , we’ve been working hard to raise the funds needed to propel us into our next phase of development. Fortunately, our efforts have not gone unnoticed, and our crowdfunding campaign has gone from strength to strength. So much so, that we’re now ‘public live’, and have currently raised £174,888, which is 47% of our total target! We’re delighted that so many people are choosing to invest in a leaner, more efficient, and fairer hiring process. So, what better time than now to talk about how much waste there is in traditional hiring, and how taking advantage of personal networks can cut that down drastically, and create a more efficient, smooth recruitment process!

Waste in the hiring process: Creating a smooth recruitment process

As many of you know, I have been very critical of traditional recruitment and hiring processes. One of the main reasons for this is the huge amount of inefficiency and subsequent wastage in hiring just one candidate. Simply put, companies are wasting enormous amounts of money that could be better spent elsewhere. For instance, the average cost of replacing a member of staff has been estimated at £30,614. However, for a bad hire, the sums can be far greater. A poor hire at mid-manager level could cost a business up to £132,000. Clearly, these are far from trivial financial concerns.

Recruitment companies don’t help

This is only made worse when we factor in recruitment companies, who compound the problem in a number of ways, including providing candidates that are unsuited to the job in an effort to get as many placements as possible, and charging extortionate rates for this service. On top of this, there are a multitude of other factors further causing terrible candidate experiences, which will certainly be less than helpful for employers, including: Long interview processes (with companies taking on average 22 days to interview a candidate), endless pre-employment tests and questionnaires, automated one-way interviewing systems and much more. However, none of these processes are actually necessary for making a good hire, and mostly lead to the opposite of a smooth recruitment process. This could all be improved by changes to the method with which we hire.

Power of Networks

By using the power of networks and peer-to peer recommendations, we can remove these wasteful processes, save money (and time), and ultimately increase the quality of talent that is hired. Trust in traditional recruitment, and in many other aspects of society has fallen. This has led to people putting more stock in their networks to make decisions. We now use recommendations for everything from checking out companies on Glassdoor, hotels on TripAdvisor and star ratings on Uber. We want to bring these systems to the recruitment industry. This is why, at AnyGood? , our business proposition is built on the power of the crowd, with members recommending connections for jobs they know that they’d be perfect for. The benefits are numerous:

  • For hiring managers, if you’re receiving candidate recommendations from a member of a trusted platform, you will be far more likely to have someone coming in that is genuinely suited for, and interested in the job, making for a smooth recruitment process that is far leaner and transparent.
  • For candidates, you are certainly more likely to have a good experience, and be put through far less needless processes. There is also a greater chance that you end up in the running for roles that you wouldn’t necessarily consider yourself for, with research from our Trust in Recruitment debate showing that people are 90% more likely to put themselves forward for a position if recommended by a personal connection.
  • For members, on top of being able to help out connections and be recommended for roles yourself, there’s a financial incentive, meaning you can monetise your network and potentially earn thousands for successfully recommending candidates.

Bring the trust back

Ultimately, traditional hiring is in need of a shake-up. While I’m sure some will debate this, at AnyGood?, there were five indicators that we used to consider whether or not the recruitment industry needed disruption. These were: limited access to information, intermediaries, waste in the process, too much complexity, and trust issues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take an insider to see that these are all present, and must be overcome to create a smooth recruitment process for everybody involved. Our way to do this is by tapping into personal networks. We are all so widely connected online nowadays that opening up these networks is essential. If we harness this ability, we will eliminate much of the waste in hiring. The sooner professionals and businesses embrace the idea of peer-to-peer recruitment, the quicker we can truly make a change.

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