Liquid HR: Zubka review: open the HR pipeline

Zubka.com is a combination job / board referral site, where members can collect a bounty by placing somebody in a job that's posted on Zubka. That is, it's a website where anybody can effectively be a recruiter, and where hiring companies are encouraged to post more jobs because they only pay if a match is made. The success-oriented fee (bounty) solves a big problem in HR, as many companies pay to post jobs on job boards, only to receive a flood of applications from unsuitable candidates. Zubka effectively charges companies to target specific candidates with jobs, by turning its members into job-candidate matchmaking engines. On the other side of the transaction, Zubka provides member-recruiters an online referral collection mechanism: a way to make money from their networking skills.

OK, I like it. But there are some minor problems. Little tech-teething issues (I often get an exception thrown and not caught), and there are not so many jobs just yet. I tried searching for management consultancy positions, and project management positions, and it looks like all of them are being advertised by, guess who? Recruiters. OK, this isn't so surprising, but I can't help but feel the waters are a bit muddied.

Zubka creates value by either 1: disintermediation (replacing recruiters with Zubka members) or 2: Improving effectiveness of recruiters already in place (Hiring company-> recruiter -> Zubka member ->more and better pre-screened candidates). So, the first big question is simply whether companies can spend less on recruiting because Zubka is in the mix.

The second big question is whether members will be able to successfully collect on bounties. As resumes, CVs and jobs are increasingly available on various online channels, it becomes increasingly difficult to claim a bounty, without dispute, for a referral. Personally, I'd be a bit afraid to refer candidates to recruiters, as they might claim they already had the candidate on their own database despite my time and energy invested. This could lead to a multi-party legal dispute.

My Angle:

Remember, in order to foment the Liquid HR revolution, we must have bi-directional flow of HR data, standardization of HR data, and liquidity of HR data. Data has to flow everywhere. And, in order to be a player in the Liquid HR economy, a company must be either a conduit for HR information, an information provider (about candidates or jobs), or a matching engine that matches buyers and sellers (candidates and jobs).

Zubka motivates everyday people to act like recruiters. It encourages them to send job info to candidates, and candidates (resumes / CVs) to companies. So Zubka contributes to the liquidity of HR data, and acts a bit like an HR data conduit. Furthermore, assuming its members are at all selective when referring jobs to candidates, Zubka is acting like an HR matchmaker; or a pre-screening service of sorts. So, indeed, Zubka is adding value to the Liquid HR environment.

What's the danger? Well, in the abstract, as HR information becomes more liquid and standardized, Zubka will need to depend on its members' matchmaking efforts in order to be valuable (and make money) in the Liquid HR economy. Of course, in the meantime, Zubka will gain a lot more traffic (as a conduit), upon which it can capitalize. Furthermore, there are the classic Internet issues -- more ambitious, incumbent job boards can just add a bounty mechanism, assuming it wouldn't cannibalize their own revenues.

Verdict: I think this company is going to make it. We'll be watching.

Comments

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Saw your blog post about Zubka and as you may be aware I understand that Zubka have now pulled the plug. Out model I believe learns from Zubka and addresses what for me was one of their prime weaknesses - lack of any definable sector or function focus.

Posted by: rubyoxy | August 17, 2010 at 12:24 PM