Hoojano Powers StaffSearcher BY MYOB

 

New player in the ‘Reward for Referral’ space Hoojano has officially launched today. Mike Wilkinson is CEO of HooJano.  He was formerly Group Manager, Innovation at Sensis, and has held senior marketing roles with both MyCareer and CareerOne.  He has spent the last 18 months developing the business and preparing it for launch.  

Mike has also been busy luring high profile partner in MYOB. Powered by Hoojano, they have launched StaffSearcher.com.au in the hope of leveraging from their more than 700,000 businesses and accounting practices in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Superficially, this concept is great.  It’s an innovative way of approaching the roundup of suitable candidates.  And it’s exciting that HooJano is finally off Alpha status and is ready to do some business. But what’s with Staff Searcher’s pitch “Forget Recruiters”?  

I’m clicking my tongue here.  You know that “click click” your mum used to make when you’d done something both stupid and disappointing?  Usually this sound was followed by a sermon steeped in Capital letters, like That Was So Immature and I Expect More From You.  

My mum, she could bowl guilt with more spin than Warney (and she’s pretty nifty on the old texting too:)).  Point is, mums have what they call “moral authority”, and I’m about to dish some of that out right now.  So if you’re on a diet, look away.

Of course, my investment in this discussion is skewed.  I’m a recruiter, and I want my industry to continue to flourish.  It feeds my family.  But there’s more involved in my perspective than my personal interest.  Recruiters do more for businesses than simply find resumes.  We must think of creative ways of attracting candidates, we’re often on the phone for the most part of the day, ringing contacts, social networking, getting the goss on so-and-so who wants to leave their current role and move into something different.  Most of us interview, we represent the clients and candidates, bartering for both their interests in trying to reach an agreement between the two.  Sometimes we’re like goddam matchmakers, or farmers, trying to get a cow and a bull to do the wild thing when both just want to chow down on some grass.

Hoojano/StaffSearcher, knowthis.  Probably a better approach to your marketing would have been to engage recruiters, rather than rally for their departure from the recruiting process.