By Uwin Lugoda
The days of print and radio job ads are slowly dying away, with most businesses serious about hiring top-notch talent moving their recruitment ads online. This has given rise to hundreds of job boards as well as apps, aggregators, social media channels, networking groups, and staffing company websites for corporations and job seekers.
While most of these platforms exist, they rarely give companies the type of compatibility they look for and the level of transparency many job seekers want. This is where Rooster Jobs comes in.
Billed as “the future of recruitment”, Rooster is a Sri Lanka-based start-up that helps bring compatibility, balance, and transparency into the recruitment process.
According to Rooster Jobs Founder Bhanuka Harischandra, the concept behind Rooster was inspired after he had experienced the struggle when it came to recruiting. He explained that job boards only look at the number of CVs and jobs, which really does not address the core of the problem.
"Businesses need to find good, compatible talent and it should be focused on a good candidate journey while helping businesses process candidates’ efficiently using technology. Fortune 500 companies use a category of products called 'Applicant Tracking Technology (ATS)’. So we wanted to be able to give the same kind of tech to smaller companies," Harischandra said, speaking to The Sunday Morning Business.
ATS is a software application that provides recruiting and hiring tools for companies. These systems collect and sort thousands of resumes before sending them directly to a recruiter or hiring manager.
Rooster uses ATS to help businesses source, screen, and get onboard their next best performers by managing all candidates, automatically sending pre-built messages to their applicants, and integrating the business’ career page with Rooster’s job portal in under 60 seconds.
As for job seekers, Rooster has taken a transparent and “candidate first” approach by giving the candidates a positive experience by always letting them know what stage of the recruitment process they are in. These include letting them know if they have passed the initial screening process, if they have been shortlisted, and even if they have been rejected during any stage of the process. Harischandra stated that this level of transparency is one of the main reasons for them to stand out from the rest of the platforms.
[caption id="attachment_87957" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Rooster Jobs Founder Bhanuka Harischandra[/caption]
"Candidates often go to interviews and wait for months without any feedback. We want to change this and enforce a level of transparency. Rooster automatically notifies the candidates if they have been rejected while giving businesses the ability to give constructive feedback so they know why they did not get selected. We believe this can help cut down the lag time from application to decision and that's incredibly important."
He stated that they had been working on Rooster for several months but only went live on 11 May. Despite being only about a month old, he claimed that they have generated over 20,000 page views across 4,000 visitors.
"We have visitors from all over the world as we are primarily a technology platform; we are not really focusing on serving any specific region. As long as you need help tracking and managing your hiring pipeline, you can use Rooster."
Harischandra explained that their primary aim is to help reduce unemployment in the local economy and believes that transparency is the way to go.
"The Sri Lankan job market is very opaque with employers getting away by hiding information from their employees. Talking about your salary is taboo and money is an ugly subject. We're working on changing this because it helps everyone benefit."
Harischandra stated that their features cater to both the employer and candidate. Employers can manage and sort out large groups of candidates with automated hiring workflows while connecting a single platform to their website's careers page. He stated that Rooster is automatically synced so that any HR professional can manage their jobs without speaking to IT.
As for the candidates, he explained that they can search for job openings from wherever they are and filter based on the industry. Every job available on the website is live and relevant with businesses that are responsive and do not take the candidate's time for granted.
"To use Rooster effectively, you need to be open-minded, transparent, and progressive as a business. This is why we initially started working with technology companies in Sri Lanka. In the three short weeks, we have now got about 100 opportunities listed with a majority in the technology space."
According to Harischandra, the site is location-agnostic and therefore is open to any business in the world to use their recruitment software to streamline the company's hiring. He stated that as of now, the site has got businesses across eight different countries, with about 70 jobs active and several other businesses currently inactive.
"Most importantly, we have 95 businesses that believe in the values we have, and we have more joining us every day."
As for revenue, he explained that the platform will always be free for start-ups and small businesses, and will only charge $ 20 per month from businesses that are hiring multiple roles.
"Our pricing structure is also incredibly fair; you do not pay for job posts or any amount of CVs. You are paying to license the technology and you can use it with no restrictions," Harischandra added.
However, due to the current economic environment caused by Covid-19, Harischandra stated that they have decided to keep the platform free until April 2021.
He went on to state that they were going to do this using data generated by the site, such as those answering questions like how many applications does a candidate have to send to get hired? How does that change in industry and geography? How do they help match organisations together and build something of true value?
“We are really looking at understanding the behaviour of employers and candidates to build a better experience for them," he concluded.
Rooster Jobs Founder Bhanuka Harischandra[/caption]
"Candidates often go to interviews and wait for months without any feedback. We want to change this and enforce a level of transparency. Rooster automatically notifies the candidates if they have been rejected while giving businesses the ability to give constructive feedback so they know why they did not get selected. We believe this can help cut down the lag time from application to decision and that's incredibly important."
He stated that they had been working on Rooster for several months but only went live on 11 May. Despite being only about a month old, he claimed that they have generated over 20,000 page views across 4,000 visitors.
"We have visitors from all over the world as we are primarily a technology platform; we are not really focusing on serving any specific region. As long as you need help tracking and managing your hiring pipeline, you can use Rooster."
Harischandra explained that their primary aim is to help reduce unemployment in the local economy and believes that transparency is the way to go.
"The Sri Lankan job market is very opaque with employers getting away by hiding information from their employees. Talking about your salary is taboo and money is an ugly subject. We're working on changing this because it helps everyone benefit."
Harischandra stated that their features cater to both the employer and candidate. Employers can manage and sort out large groups of candidates with automated hiring workflows while connecting a single platform to their website's careers page. He stated that Rooster is automatically synced so that any HR professional can manage their jobs without speaking to IT.
As for the candidates, he explained that they can search for job openings from wherever they are and filter based on the industry. Every job available on the website is live and relevant with businesses that are responsive and do not take the candidate's time for granted.
"To use Rooster effectively, you need to be open-minded, transparent, and progressive as a business. This is why we initially started working with technology companies in Sri Lanka. In the three short weeks, we have now got about 100 opportunities listed with a majority in the technology space."
According to Harischandra, the site is location-agnostic and therefore is open to any business in the world to use their recruitment software to streamline the company's hiring. He stated that as of now, the site has got businesses across eight different countries, with about 70 jobs active and several other businesses currently inactive.
"Most importantly, we have 95 businesses that believe in the values we have, and we have more joining us every day."
As for revenue, he explained that the platform will always be free for start-ups and small businesses, and will only charge $ 20 per month from businesses that are hiring multiple roles.
"Our pricing structure is also incredibly fair; you do not pay for job posts or any amount of CVs. You are paying to license the technology and you can use it with no restrictions," Harischandra added.
However, due to the current economic environment caused by Covid-19, Harischandra stated that they have decided to keep the platform free until April 2021.
He went on to state that they were going to do this using data generated by the site, such as those answering questions like how many applications does a candidate have to send to get hired? How does that change in industry and geography? How do they help match organisations together and build something of true value?
“We are really looking at understanding the behaviour of employers and candidates to build a better experience for them," he concluded.