What do you get when you combine social networking and talent search?
If you said LinkedIn, you’re close. But I’m talking about Vawch.com. Founded in Singapore, Vawch is an online recruitment marketplace that combines the concepts of employee referral programs and social networks to help companies source for talent.
The premise is simple. Sign up as a referrer, and you can refer up to three of your friends for each job posting on Vawch by providing their names and email addresses. If a person you refer gets the job, you get a referral fee when that person completes three months into the job. Recruiters can post jobs on the site for free, and pay only upon a successful placement. There’s also a credibility rating for users to ensure the quality of their referrals.
“By offering financial incentives to individuals to vouch for their friends, companies can leverage social networks to take their referral programs externally and fill positions with qualified candidates that they might not have otherwise found,” said Benety Liew, co-founder and director of Vawch. “If there is match, it is a win-win for everyone, the employer finds the right candidate, the referrer gets rewarded and the candidate gets a new job.”
Liew acknowledged that Vawch‘s challenge – and the key to its future success – is to quickly expand its user base. “(The) more referrers, the stronger the value proposition we have to employers since it becomes more likely we’ll be able to fill their positions. From there it’s a positively reinforcing loop,” Liew said.
Since Vawch‘s referral process is non-invasive – there’s no need for users to provide confidential information other than the industry they’re currently working in – there’s a good chance for Vawch to grow. However, Vawch will somehow need to ensure that it gets quality leads from its user base. Users, on the other hand, do have to consider the possibility of a backlash if they over-commoditize the relationships they have with their personal networks.
