Ironing Wrinkles out of Contracting – discussion
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Friday, 31 October, 2008 | Tagged in Media | Written by Kristen Barrett
As profiled in the New Zealand Herald, Crackerjacks is ironing the wrinkles out of contracting with a new-age take on professional contract recruitment.
We are not a job board nor are we a list of CV’s. Crackerjacks is an online recruitment solution for professional contractors and businesses, which is the first of its kind.
Never before have businesses had a versatile talent management tool that acts as a channel extension for HR Managers and employers to source professionals. Businesses can easily source and track a range of professionals after they have posted a job in the business section and a success fee is only charged after a business has found a suitable contractor. We provide a cost effective alternative to sourcing professional contractors and charge a flat monthly fee, which is more compelling than percentage mark-up fees agencies charge.
For contractors Crackerjacks provides a platform where they can source contracts and market themselves to potential clients. Contractors can create a rating for themselves through initial reference and performance feedback from past employers and Crackerjacks contracts they have completed. The higher the rating the higher the contractor’s details will appear on search lists conducted by businesses. There are also exerts of positive feedback added to contractors profiles.
We have reinvented contract recruitment by taking a completely different approach to traditional models where a company would have to either search through past contractor files or call a recruitment agent where they would have to pay an average 20% mark up on the contractors hourly wage and leave it with the agent to arrange it.
Crackerjacks gives more control to the contractors and businesses who use the site while still equipping them with the tools to find and secure suitable roles and professionals. In essence we are a ‘low-touch’ equivalent to a traditional recruitment agency.
We are interested to hear your thoughts on the difference between new age contract recruitment and older models. What do you believe the main differences are and what are the consequences of this? Please leave us a comment with your thoughts…
November 3rd, 2008
Crackerjacks’ comparison of its recruitment model to older agency models is similar to the difference between how my ex-employer sought to operate and the older model of its competitors. They sought alliance-style contracts with integration of some business systems while the competitors stuck to traditional bid-and-win contracts. Where the ex-employer lost out was that the alliance contract became stale, and the benefits of close relationships were lost through stubbornly increasing distrust. I believe they have been sent back to compete with their competitors in the traditional way. Perhaps it could’ve continued to work had they regularly brought out something new to keep the client attached to the idea. However I’m pretty sure they made plenty of money during the alliance’s success, so good luck.