Well it seems that although mypeoplebiz.com may not have a huge amount of vacancies, the ones they do get are being filled and half of which are being filled by a few canny recruiters.

Mind you I cannot blame them, as all the new business has been done, the recruiter just needs to find a candidate and earn their fee. I am sure those recruiters would prefer that I do not mention this small fact, so they can keep it all to themselves. Whatever the case the site has to be ideal for those independent recruiters, who may be finding it a little hard at the moment. It’s also a way to to open the door to major corporates who have a PSL, who wouldn’t normally give you the time of day, a frustration I am only too aware of.

This post may be a little soon after my previous digg at the company, but it proved worth while as Frank Varela was kind enough to show me around, and took the time to point out some of the less obvious functionality.

I am glad he did, because although the site needs more vacancies the company have really made an effort to get the back office functioning superbly, because they have understood what companies and recruitment agencies need.

Probably one of the most frustrating issues for us both is duplicate applications, no longer is there an embarrassment to find out the client has already received the cv from another agency or even the candidate, because you get an immediate response that the CV has already been submitted. This on its own is a huge saving of time for agency and company, a far cry from reading the time stamp on the fax header, sorry for showing my age there!

Another major facet is the ability for the company to control the fee available to the agency, although this can be frustrating it does mean there is no confusion when the candidate is placed, I suppose you could say take it or leave it. Saying that the company have some flexibility as some positions are harder to fill so offer a better rate and visa versa, which has to be a positive.

The site may not have many vacancies as of yet, but at least the vacancies are genuine not duplicates.It also surprises me that recruitment companies have not advertised their own recruitment positions here, when you consider how much they hate using REC2REC companies. At the end of the day it is free to advertise and you only pay on success and it doesn’t need to be via an agency, now where have I heard that before!

While I write this I suddenly realised that it would be a huge benefit to our industry, because I am sure it would be a way to get those companies that do not use recruitment companies starting to see the benefit, as my ex boss said “think of it as a sweet shop come in and have a look around, you never know what you may find”, in the end it really does come down to who is the best candidate for the job.

Although there are more technical aspects of the site, one thing that does appeal to me as a recruitment consultant, if I was looking I think I would prefer to apply direct and get that “golden handshake”, well wouldn’t you….