Finding a new angle on sourcing and recruiting approaches is something all recruiters like to take a crack at. And even more so now, given the war for talent. Placing a bet and winning, however, is not so common. But New England-based startup Appcast believes it may have hit the jackpot.
In a combination of business models, Appcast, founded last year, applies the framework and some technologies from click-based advertising — where ads are placed around the Internet and companies only pay when someone clicks on their ad — to sourcing and recruiting. The result is a sourcing system that places job ads in front of potential candidates browsing their favorite sites online. Appcast dubs it the “pay-per-applicant” approach, as companies pay for completed applications rather than per click.
“For years now, sales and marketing departments have efficiently reached out to their prospective customers using sophisticated ad exchanges. Now recruiting departments and staffing firms can do the same thing to engage new candidates,” says Chris Forman, the company’s founder and CEO (previously a senior executive at SourceRight and AIRS).
Appcast first imports open jobs from a company’s website. Then, recruiting departments or staffing firms decide which jobs need applicants (i.e. which are the “hot” ones), and set the price they will pay for an applicant, which in turn affects exposure rates. Appcast takes those jobs and puts them in front of millions of active and passive candidates online. The hiring companies or staffing firms pay for each submitted application.
“Most sourcing today still relies on humans using tools to search for candidates. With Appcast, we’ve taken the tried-and-true methods and technologies of programmatic ad buying, and we are putting them to work for talent-starved businesses,” says Forman. The approach is catching on quickly, with more than 100 enterprise clients now using the service, he adds.
Talent acquisition professionals can log in to see if any requisitions need more attention from candidates, set additional rules/parameters for their ad campaign (think Google AdWords), and activate or stop the campaign.
The Buzz
In the competition for scarce talent, Appcast casts a very broad digital net into cyberspace to help recruiters cost-effectively pull in fresh candidates.
Andrew Karpie contributed to this article.
