THE Internet has emerged as a powerful tool in the HR industry.
THE Internet has emerged as a powerful tool in the HR industry.
Late last year national, online job-search site, seek.com recorded 40,000 positions on their web-site.
Perth company Big Red Sky have capitalised on the success of the Internet in the recruitment market and developed software to help streamline companies recruitment process.
“I watched the emergence of the Internet and started working on a theory that a recruitment service could be delivered (that way),” Big Red Sky managing director Gavin Burnett said.
Big Red Sky’s software provides a seamless link from a client’s website to a form where the applicant can fill out their details and send a copy of their CV.
Unlike some other online recruitment sites this information is then collated and the client can go into a database, look at all the different applications and even indicate which applicants they are interested in for later reference.
Mr Burnett believes he has a sound understanding of the changing employment marketforce.
Most Australians will now work in several different industries in their lifetime, as Mr Burnett well knows from his own experience.
He has worked in many industries including journalism, public relations and, most recently, recruitment.
“I saw a lot on inefficiencies in the processing of information. I recognised clients wanted greater control of their recruitment and transparency, they wanted to really see what was happening”
More importantly the information that is collected on applicants remains the property of the client and can be accessed the next time they are recruiting.
With external recruitment companies the information relating to the unsuccessful applicants remains out of reach of the client, he said.
Big Red Sky offers software that links to a company’s existing website.
“Clients can continue to use their electronic job-boards on their own website, the ‘jobs’ icon on their site will just link through to our software” Mr Burnett said.
Seek.com, one of Australia’s biggest on line recruitment sites, fulfils a quite different role to Big Red Sky; it works as an intermediary linking applicants with potential employers.
Seek.com charges clients $90 + GST to post an advertisement on their site.
Responses to the advertisement are then sent directly to the client and they collate their own data or pass it onto a recruitment company to analyse.
Mr Burnett envisages that software like his will eliminate the need for clients to use recruitment companies to sort through applications to find suitable candidates.
“Over time the client will build up their own database that they can refer back to when ever they are recruiting.” Mr Burnett said.
“It’s an inexpensive way to conduct recruitment and eliminate administration and automate the process” Mr Burnett said.
Working with a medium that is up and running 24 hours a day, clients can shortlist applicants for a job in a matter of days without ever having to leave their desk.
For Big Red Sky the plan is to release NetResult – designed for small to medium sized businesses, early in the second quarter of this year. The corporate version of NetRecruit will have a full commercial release early in the new financial year.
For now the challenge for Big Red Sky is to seek out partnerships and alliances to help achieve market penetration as rapidly as possible.
“I’m interested in entrepreneurs, people who value business as something more than a mechanical system,” Mr Burnett said.
