Tech recruitment is a hot spot for startup activity because of the demand for talent. Circular.io, a startup based in Madrid, is opening to in-house tech recruiters in London from today.
It is also revealing $10 million in combined seed and pre-Series A funding as it emerges from stealth.
Over the past 2.5 years, the startup has signed up more than 5,500 in-house recruiters to its recommendation-focused community, as well as claiming more than 19,000 candidates.
It claims to have developed a new model for hiring that encourages companies to recommend tech talent they were unable to hire to Circular. The top-line claim is that the approach can make it, because it has resulted in candidates converting 10x more than conventional recruitment methods.
Candidate Labs wants to be a modern talent agency for techies
Candidates who sign up to the platform do so discreetly, meaning they open themselves to job opportunities available via the network without needing to commit themselves to a public disclosure or active job searching themselves.
Circular supports tech talent to nail down its next role through a team of what it callstalent advocates, who provide assistance to candidates on locating suitable roles and on getting the initial in-house recruiters recommendation that will increase their chances of being hired.
Companies that have signed up to use Circular's approach to hiring include FORM3 and Echobox.
In-house recruiters have been introducing talent they liked but didn't hire to colleagues or friends in the industry for many years, and it has happened in low. It is a new recruitment model built on top of existing recommendation based behavior.
The recommendation effect creates efficiency in the industry because companies are already spending time and money attracting and interviewing candidates which they eventually don't hire. We allow them to recommend this talent to their peers and gain access to other recommended candidates in return.
Circular ignores a lot of the recruitment activity that has been going on since LinkedIn burst onto the scene.
It leans into human referrals vs machine-matching by encouraging in-house recruiters to pool existing effort undertaken in vetting potential candidates which they ended up being unable to hire.
It suggests that the main incentive is to improve the candidate experience.
Circular's follow-on claim is that it is creating a new category or changing the way hiring works.
We enable them to easily recommend that talent instead of a hard-stop for the great talent that in-house recruiters were unable to hire. Recruiters who are hiring get access to a trusted flow of high quality candidates. It suggests that candidates benefit from getting straight to the best companies.
One question to consider is whether this approach will scale, given how few job seekers there are.
Unless conditions to access its recruitment network are less stringent, the classic ratio suggests a limited pool of candidates who could be recommended to/through Circular.
Circular helps you get recommended on behalf of signed up job seekers.
It confirms to us that candidates can sign up organically, not only via direct recommendations.
In a section on how the platform works, Circular writes that candidates can create a profile in less than 3 minutes and that they can get an optional recommendation from in-house recruiters, colleagues or our team.
The startup is dangling some platform reputation kudos and other incentives to encourage in-house tech recruiters to make the effort to refer talent they don't hire.
Tech recruiters know that they're after the same candidates as everyone else. They know that there is no advantage in pure competitiveness. The traditional recruitment model leaves candidates with a poor experience and a negative perception of their business, and most of them know it's better to pool their efforts to find talent and fill roles quickly and painlessly. As they refer candidates and help their peers, their reputation in Circular grows.
Circular is zeroing in on tech talent, but it believes its model could work for other industries as well.
It argues that the model can be replicated across the board. They give transparent information, keep them in the know, and give in-depth feedback. All of it is confidential. Candidate experience is very important to us. Candidates in Circular rate their interview process when they are done with it.
Its own business model is to charge companies a flat annual or monthly fee for access to its recruitment network, rather than taking a traditional success fee approach.
Circular notes that as it opens in a new market, it will give customers the first few months of free.
Circular's recruitment network is live in Barcelona and Madrid.
Could the Great Resignation force techies to get career agents?
Worksome pulls $13M into its high skill freelancer talent platform
All Rights Reserved © 2024
