The coronavirus pandemic has cost jobs in every sector, but Norwich-based tech recruiter Recruitmentjunky has been taking steps to help those out of work because of Covid-19. The next stage is a free-to-use Talent Directory that is ready to go live.
Founder Rosanna Kierney explains: “When the pandemic hit so many people were facing the insecurity of furlough and redundancy that we felt we needed to do something to help.”
The firm has always taken a disruptive approach to recruitment, with low fees, 100% refunds if a hire is unsuccessful, and a focus on reducing time to hire. Now it went a stage further, offering zero-fee recruitment for anyone out of work due to Covid-19.
“We needed to find a way to encourage companies to make people who were already out of work a priority.” Rosanna explains. “We launched the initiative in March but really ramped up our efforts in the second lockdown, publicly sharing candidate profiles with our growing LinkedIn community.”
The push on social media was successful, with more than 35% of candidates finding work - but the manual process was time consuming. “We needed to optimise the process and improve reach,” says Rosanna. Aa an entrepreneur with a background in software development, the solution she came up with was a technical one: the Talent Directory.
“It’s a platform hosted on our website where businesses can come in and search our database of candidates out of work due to the pandemic” Rosanna explains. "Companies don’t even need to speak to us – they find the details on the person’s profile in the Talent Directory and contact them directly, or come to us if they'd like more information or for us to set up a meeting.
"There’s no fee. Companies don’t need to sign terms. There’s no trick to it – we just want to do something to help right now.”
The Talent Directory will be going live on www.recruitmentjunky.com
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