An interview with GL Hoffman

Posted by Jim Stroud

July 14, 2008

I just found a very cool service for recruiters. I believe this is the first time it has been announced anywhere. I talked with GL Hoffman, the Chairman of LINKUP, and he is making my readers a fantastic offer. Read the interview below to see the special offer.

LinkUp is a recruiter’s search engine. Imagine knowing about openings and postings BEFORE anyone else, even if these openings are UN-advertised. The jobs on Linkup, which you can automatically receive, come ONLY from a company’s own website.

For $30 per month, Linkup will send you the results from up to 30 companies. ONE DOLLAR PER MONTH PER COMPANY, per chair.

Here is my interview:

JIM: GL, tell me how LINKUP is different from Indeed or SimplyHired?

GL: Those companies aggregate jobs from job boards, Linkup aggregates ONLY jobs from company websites and not job boards. As a result, the jobs we feed to recruiters are generally un-advertised and not on any job board.

Jim: But some of these jobs might be on a job board, aren’t they?

GL: Sure, but we are finding that companies FIRST post their openings on their own internal job boards. So, our recruiter partners see the openings right away.

Jim: Any idea how long it takes before a company advertises these positions, so everyone can find them via Indeed and others?

GL: It really varies, of course. For some jobs, they are never posted other places. We believe that at least 50% of jobs available are NEVER posted on a job board, or advertised.

JIM: Why would a recruiting company want to use LINKUP?

GL: The lack of knowledge is a big issue for recruiters. They need facts to do their job. â€¦they need to know who is hiring and for what jobs. Researching these openings is tedious and time consuming. With LINKUP, our partners get first notice of jobs as soon as they get posted on the companyâ€™s site. Linkup pays for itself.

Jim: How does a recruiter get started with LINKUP?

GL: It is incredibly easy. They just provide us with a list of company urls and career sections, like www.companyname.com/careersection. Every three days, we will automatically send the openings via email, rss feed or via a mini search engine tool.

Jim: Is there a set up fee?

GL: Normally, there is a $495 set up fee, but for your readers, we will waive this fee through 2008.

Jim: How about the on-going cost?

GL: There is a monthly cost, but it is only $30 per month for up to the 30 companiesâ€¦one dollar per company per month, per chair.

Jim: The cost is only $30 per month? Is there a commitment or long term contract?

GL: Nope, in fact, if recruiters do not like the service, they can cancel it at anytime. There is no commitment. We are so confident that recruiters will find this tool to be so valuable, they will not want to be without it.

Jim: Is there a way, recruiters can try the service without paying the monthly fee?

GL: Yes, for a limited time, every new recruiter partner gets the first sixty days FREE. If they want to cancel after the first sixty days, fine. There are no commitments.

Jim: What other ways are you commercializing LINKUP?

GL: We are in discussion with some companies who are interested in this as a market intelligence tool. As you know, job openings are often a leading signal or indicator for the future in a company. We are also interested in providing a simple link to LINKUP.COM to high traffic sites. As a destination site, LINKUP offers some unique results for the typical jobseeker.

We’ve also integrated LINKUP with JobDig Tracker (www.jobdigtracker.com), which is one of our new solutions. Its a web-based Talent Acquisition application designed to help recruiters become more responsive, efficient and capable of broader recruiting automation to place quality candidates using less resources and time.

The integration expands sourcing efforts by offering recruiters the ability to automatically post positions created in JobDig Tracker directly to LINKUP. Candidates can then search through LINKUP and apply for these positions. Once candidates apply, their information will be available within JobDig Tracker for review.

Jim: Congratulations on the success, by the way, of JOBDIG.

GL: Thanks a lot Jim, coming from an industry leader like yourself, that means a lot.

Disclaimer: Thank you GL Hoffman (and Linkup) for supporting The Recruiters Lounge!