Create, Manage, and Work With Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces.
Each week, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Peter Zollman of the AIM Group, along with guests from the world's leading job sites, analyze news about general, niche, and aggregator job board and recruitment marketplace sites.
Is the unsettled economy and investment markets likely to impact your TA tech business?
George LaRocque, the founder of WorkTech, which gathers and publishes the best data on mergers, acquisitions, and investments in the HR tech space and advises HR tech vendors on how best to go to market. He’s also the foundering partner of the Impact WorkTech Accelerator. Oh, and he’s also a member of the Board of Advisors of Steven's company, College Recruiter.
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Steven Rothberg: Welcome to the Inside Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces podcast. I’m Steven Rothberg, the founder of College Recruiter, Job search site at College Recruiter. We believe that every student in recent grad deserves a great career.
Peter Zollman: And I’m Peter Zollman, founding Principle of the AIM Group. We are the leading global business intelligence service for marketplaces and classified advertising companies. We consult with recruitment marketplace companies and we publish AIM Group weekly, Recruitment Intelligence, and a free weekly digest. We also host the annual Rec Buzz conference.
Steven Rothberg: This is the podcast for you to learn more about how to create, manage, and work with general niche and aggregator job boards and recruitment marketplaces.
Steven Rothberg: Hey, Peter, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever it is, wherever you are.
Peter Zollman: It’s afternoon where I am, which is in Florida, and um, I know you’re in Minneapolis. Uh, so it’s afternoon for you too. Uh, you’re soon to be in Europe for your month long sojo, but, uh, you know, it, it will all be good
Steven Rothberg: And winter is still way off into the future or so. They assure me
Peter Zollman: If, if you’re a Minneapolis, winter is never way off in the future.
Steven Rothberg:
Peter Zollman: Two, two weeks max. And I lived in Buffalo for five and a half years, so I know Winter
Steven Rothberg: Well, and our guests who will get to in a minute, um, he also knows Minneapolis Winter is quite well, which is one of the reasons that he no longer lives here. But, uh, so Peter , what kind of stories is, is in group following right now?
Peter Zollman: Well, I’m working on a, an very interesting one now about TikTok. Um, as you probably know, TikTok did a TikTok resumes experiment, which lasted, I don’t know, three months, four months or something like that. And, and they put it on ice. I’m sure it’ll be back in one way or another, but TikTok is just this massive audience. And, um, a lot of people are using TikTok in various ways for recruitment, not, uh, the TikTok resume story. So what do you do? How do you do it? Um, what’s it cost you? And that sort of thing. And, uh, it’s early stage as so many of these things are, but it also is not going away.
Steven Rothberg: So these are recruitment videos by employers that you’re seeing a lot more of.
Peter Zollman: Some are recruitment videos by employers. Some are employment employee engagement, some are employees commenting much as you would on Glassdoor about a particular employer, uh, positively or negatively. And one of the questions is, you know, how do you deal with a negative, negative comments on TikTok? Cuz you can’t take ’em down, you’ve gotta, do you respond? Do you not respond? It’s a subject that ain’t going away?
Steven Rothberg: Well, my to feed consists of basically three things. One is outrageous car accidents, um, seen through the eyes of a dash cam video. The second would be standup comedians. And the third, and definitely my favorite are drama Queen Huskies who are told by their owners not to do something. And then they just how and how and how. And, and that definitely brightens my day.
Peter Zollman: And are you in category number two, or are you making an appearance in category number three?
Steven Rothberg: I have no idea what that means.
Peter Zollman: Well, you you said you have the, you said you have the, you have the crazy car accidents. Oh, and you have, and you have the, uh, drama queens. And I wondered which, which category you were posting in.
Steven Rothberg: So I think that my wife would say that I would be the drama queen for howling and howling and howling when I don’t get to do my, my thing. But, uh, speaking of howling, today’s guest .
Peter Zollman: Oh,
Steven Rothberg: How’s that?
Peter Zollman: That was terrible.
Steven Rothberg: Yeah, so far he’s still connected, so I don’t think he’s taking offense to it yet, but we’ll see. Well, we’ll, we’ll push it. Um, so today’s guest, one of my favorite people is George La Rock. He is the founder of Work Tech, which gathers and publishes the best data on mergers, acquisitions, and investments in the HR tech space. Uh, he advises HR tech vendors on how best to go to market. And if that’s not enough, he’s now also the founding partner of the Impact Work Tech Accelerator. Um, oh, and in full disclosure, he’s also a member of the board of advisors of my company, College Recruiter.
George LaRocque: Hello? Am I supposed to howl Is that, is this where I howl
Steven Rothberg: I think, I think the Howling will come after Peter asks you the first question. We’ll see how that goes.
George LaRocque: All right. Well, thanks for having me. I’m, I’m, and congratulations on this podcast. I’m looking forward to this.
Peter Zollman: Thank you very much. We definitely, we definitely need to know a little bit more about your data and the information you provide. But let’s start at the beginning, which is, you know, right now job boards, recruitment marketplaces, there are a ton of worries about the economy. There’s still a lot of jobs out there, but growth is definitely slowing down. Um, what’s, how’s the, how’s that impacting the work tech industry, job boards, recruitment marketplaces? What do you see?
George LaRocque: Uh, there’s a lot to unpack there in that question. Um, let’s see. I think there’s, it’s certainly a, uh, a challenging time. Um, it’s challenging not just because of what’s in front of us from an economic economy perspective, but also because nothing’s happening in the way that it’s ever happened before. So, you know, normally when we’re talking about recessions, we don’t have job growth like we do now. When we talk about a recession being imminent, we don’t see wages, uh, continuing to surge. The consumer spending, uh, is not what it, not what is usually reflected with a, a recession. So everybody’s scratching their heads on this. And, uh, I think the, from my perspective, what I’m, what I’m seeing is that I haven’t had a, a technology provider, uh, yet talk to me about serious, uh, pipeline stagnation or reduction in sales. I’m seeing a lot of hesitancy on, on the part of employers, but they’re still hiring, they’re still budgeting for technology.
George LaRocque: They’re, I think a lot of them are trying to avoid the mistakes that they made at the beginning of the pandemic where it was treated like the resulting economic impact. There was going to put a freeze on everything. And those who really cut fast and deep ended up being caught without the, they’ve never been able to recoup that staff or, um, or those teams ever since. So it’s, it’s a time where I, you know, I’m not seeing the impact in this HR tech work, tech recruiting tech space that I’m seeing in broad B2B tech. I’m not, I don’t have rose colored glasses on. I think that there’s going to be impact. It’s just going to be, you know, um, lumpy. Uh, there are going to be folks who are focused within, in your question, centers on, um, job boards and, and job board marketplaces. Folks that, that are, are businesses that are focused on talent that will still be hard to find or things like, uh, diverse diversified diversity talent, or right now a big focus on early career talent because that’s, you know, where we find we’re finding more diversity there and we’re finding, um, a more economical hire in this time and more focus on providing ancillary services like maybe skills certification or education or even those that are providing contractor freelance resources.
George LaRocque: I think we’re going to see, still see a lot of growth and a lot of focus there. I think if, if you are focused i, on an industry that’s being hit really hard right now, um, that it’s clearly going to have an impact on your job board if there, if there isn’t a lot of hiring being done. So, I don’t know, I I I don’t know if that clearly gives you any clarity on a, from, from an answer perspective, but that’s, we’re just not where the rest of the B2B tech market is. And I, I think we’re, it’s very surreal as a matter of fact, how less impact we’re
Steven Rothberg: Seeing. Well, you know, from, I know we’re just one data point, but I, I’m, it was really struck by your comment, George, that we’re not seeing, you know, pull back from the employers and stuff. And I, I can definitely say that that is a hundred percent the case with what we’re seeing at college recruiter in past recessions. You know, we’re an entry level job board. We tend to be a bit of the canary in the coal mine where we said tend to see recessions coming before some of, some of the other job boards might or other, uh, work tech companies might. And boy, I remember with, with Covid, we were feeling it in January that there was a slowdown, and we just thought, Oh, this is some kind of weird seasonal thing. And in February it’s like, no, this is really happening. And then the floor fell out in March. But for a lot of our indirect competitors, the general sites, the niche sites, and that, that weren’t our entry level, they really started to feel it like late February, March. So yeah, fingers crossed that it becomes continuing to, to not have that floor fall out from us. So, you know, related to that, in terms of the business that’s coming into the job boards and recruitment marketplaces, let’s shift over a little bit to the investment side. How are you seeing investments in job boards and recruitment marketplaces differ from the larger HR tech industry? Well,
George LaRocque: In a couple of ways, I’ll say that you’ve heard me say this before, Steven. The, uh, job boards have a, they get a bad rap. Um, I think from a, but from an investor’s perspective, they’re one of the most loved categories of investment. It is by far on an ongoing basis since I’ve been tracking this directly, the leading category for all investment, because it’s a marketplace, because it’s a, it’s an environment where it’s a, it’s a business model with that has a consumer play as well as the B2B play. And, um, I think investors can un get behind that. They can understand that they can add value in that environment. Not that it’s not complicated, but, um, when you’re dealing with some of the nuances of, you know, some HR software, you know, investors don’t really, that’s not their domain, right? But they understand a marketplace.
George LaRocque: At the same time, job boards have really led the way in specialization. So before any other HR technology, recruiting technology products, were really narrowing in on, you know, in your case it’s early career and entry level jobs. Um, you know, job boards were, were really first in driving value through that specialization. And sure, it makes good sense. We’re going to focus on a certain type of jobs or geography or category, but now we’re seeing more B2B tech in our space doing that, right? Healthcare or STEM or, you know, whatever the, the focus is because you, you know, you actually get bigger by, by having a, a more narrow focus. It’s a little counterintuitive for some founders who wanna solve everybody’s problem, but that’s one area that they, they’ve led another area that job boards have led. And I think investors, see this is, I was referencing it earlier.
George LaRocque: You know, I’m seeing some really interesting models with folks that are providing, um, education along with job access. So it might be, there are some, um, these are all startups and, and emerging, you know, small businesses, but some are focused in underserved markets, uh, like, uh, the African continent or Latin America, and they’re providing, um, education and training and skill certification, and then opening up that talent pool to employers around the globe. And now as distributed work and remote work are more and more prevalent, they’re creating lots of opportunity for that talent pool, but also providing more talent. Now, on the other hand, I’ve seen in the US folks that are delivering a similar model for sales for healthcare. So it’s a consumer play to the job seeker who is, you know, increasing their skills, increasing their value to the job market. And it’s a B2B play to the employers who, if they’re behind this platform, they’re really nurturing a talent pool and can direct some of the curriculum or certifications or minimally just get first dibs on internships, apprenticeships, or new hires.
Steven Rothberg: We’ll
Steven Rothberg: Be back right after this break. Welcome back to the inside job boards and Recruitment marketplaces podcast.
Peter Zollman: We’ve seen a lot of the, um, crossover between education and recruitment marketplaces, and it’s not all the small marketplaces at all. Some of the very big ones. We wrote a whole in depth report about it, I would say a year ago. Now it’s, it’s very, very common because it’s a transactional revenue generating model where a recruitment marketplace can add a great deal of transactional revenue. That doesn’t always come from the job seeker. Frequently it comes from the companies that are willing to pay for the certifications and the like. True. Do you think that is going to become essential to a recruitment marketplace, having an education component?
George LaRocque: Uh, I, I don’t know if I would say it’s essential. Um, I think that whatever your value add is, if you are able to deliver talent with the, you know, the right skills, either in, uh, in both, you know, volume and quality, if you’re able to demonstrate that my dollar spent even fractionally, uh, on a job board, uh, brings me results or in any channel, then I think you are. Uh, that’s what’s essential. And if you are, if you’re doing that by solving, or not solving, but contributing to solving the skills gap problem or access to more diverse candidates, which is another driver, big driver these days, your, you know, you stand apart from a generic source of talent. But yeah, I, I don’t know that it’s, I I would call it essential, but I think it’s certainly differentiating.
Peter Zollman: One of the big ones that’s very, very engaged in, in, in, um, education by the way, is seek, which is the giant job board based in Australia, but also has, uh, South Asia has some LA in involvement and so forth. They got involved in, uh, educational products early and, and have a whole division of educational products. So they’re out there with, uh, a lot of educational tools and services. No, Korean, India as well, or not nore, but their parent company, Info Edge. So big boys as well as the little guys are very actively, very actively pursuing that. While we have a chance, before we run out of time, and we’ve got a few minutes left, but tell us about Impact Work Tech Accelerator. What does that, what does it mean, and, uh, why should these people, many of whom have never heard of it, care?
George LaRocque: Well, if you are a, uh, there, there are three types of people who should care. One would be a founder who’s got a product or an idea and is looking to get input, you know, from operators and investors in this space to help accelerate or launch, uh, into the market. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s an accelerator. We, we bring in a co we bring in cohorts of companies focused in this, uh, work tech and HR technology space, and then provide, um, mentorship and guidance. We’re a little different than the broad, uh, sort of generic accelerators in the sense that we’re not taking a huge chunk of their business to participate. We’re also not, it’s not a second job. It is, you know, uh, two sessions a week with a little bit of, uh, prep work, but the value is immense. Uh, that’s what the first cohort has, has told us.
George LaRocque: The other two that should be interested would be individuals who want to give back to the industry operators, um, you know, executives who are interested in getting a view to what’s coming down the pipe for new technological innovation and want to help these founders learn what they wish they had learned, uh, back, uh, in their in their early career. And then of course, investors, We’ve got investors who are involved, and that’s, uh, we’ve got a few firms that are involved, but, uh, we’ve, we’ve launched a, uh, syndicate for investments. So if there are individuals who are looking to get involved as an angel and participate, we’re going to bring this next cohort, you know, through that syndicate for access to investors there as well. So it’s, you know, the what differentiates Impact Work Tech over other accelerators, I think is its industry focus. And what the founders have told us is it’s more like an onboarding, a really rich onboarding into the industry and less like a bootcamp, uh, if you, if you will.
Steven Rothberg: Is it primarily for, for startups or is this something that if there’s a job order recruitment marketplace that’s been around for 5, 10, 15 years, but has a new product that they wanna roll out, is that also an organization they should be looking?
George LaRocque: Yeah, the accelerators really for early, earlier stage startups, I would say, um, you know, we, we like to see, uh, a product, uh, so it could be an MVP or it could be, uh, early stage, or you’ve just got it in beta or you’re looking to get to that stage. But these are generally pree or seed, you know, to put some that means less and less as each day goes goes on. But these are fairly early stage, uh, startups on the, for a more established vendor who’s launching a new product or going to a new market or something like that. That’s advisory that would come through work tech versus, uh, the Accelerator. Yeah.
Peter Zollman: And are all of these companies based in the US or where, where are they from?
George LaRocque: It’s global and I mean, it’s global. Uh, it was, it started to be global. My partner in this is Gareth Jones, who’s in, uh, the, in, in the uk. He’s in the London area. Our cohort has largely been the US and Europe. We’ve had submissions from around the globe, and it’s important to us to be not just US centric, uh, you know, and to reflect the market at large.
Steven Rothberg: That’s very cool. I’m gonna plan on reaching out to you, George, about, um, being on the, um, and I don’t remember exactly what words you used to describe it, but the, been there, done that, um, group of people. Great,
George LaRocque: Great. I think you’d, Yeah, you’d be great for it.
Steven Rothberg: Yeah. I I I would be happy to, to, to give back. And, uh, I, I’ve never been involved in a group like that where you’re essentially acting as a mentor where you don’t walk away with more than you than you give. But even if you give more than you get, that’s, that’s okay too. Um, thank you so much for, for sharing.
George LaRocque: Yeah, my pleasure.
Steven Rothberg: Peter, any closing words?
Peter Zollman: Um, no, it is fascinating and I wanna learn more about it as well. I am embarrassed that I didn’t know about it. I should. And, uh, we’ll follow up. Cool.
Steven Rothberg: I smell a story in one of the, uh, aim groups, reports coming out on, on this.
Peter Zollman: Um, that’s, uh, a good nose there, Mr. Steven
Steven Rothberg: .
Peter Zollman: Yeah.
Steven Rothberg: Well, George, thank you so much for joining us today. Um, for the listeners who wanna learn more about work tech, you personally, whatever, how, how would you like them to do that?
George LaRocque: Uh, they can go to one work tech.com or find me, you know, on Twitter or LinkedIn or all the usual places.
Peter Zollman: When you say one work tech.com, is that the numeral one or is that o e or both?
George LaRocque: They both get you there. I thought I thought of that one. Yeah. Good
Peter Zollman: For you. You’d be amazed at the number of people who don’t think of that one. That’s
George LaRocque: One of those, been there, done that type things. You know, ,
Steven Rothberg: I think, I think what our guest today, George La Rock is saying is that he is not as dumb as I look. ,
Peter Zollman: I won’t touch that. Steven and I will suggest that faith not touch it either. ,
Steven Rothberg: Thank you so much, George. Thank you, Peter.
George LaRocque: Oh, thank you both.
Peter Zollman: Inside job boards and recruitment marketplaces is a co-production of Evergreen Podcasts College Recruiter and the AIM Group.
Steven Rothberg: Please subscribe for free on your favorite app, review it. Five stars are always nice, and recommend it to a couple of people you know who wanna learn more about job boards and recruitment marketplaces.
Peter Zollman: Special thanks to our producer and engineer, Ian Douglas. I’m your host, Peter Oman of the AIM Group, the leading global consultancy in the field of marketplaces and classified advertising. Find out more about our reports on recruitment marketplaces, job boards and classifieds, including our new recruitment marketplaces annual at aim group.com/reports.
Steven Rothberg: I’m your host, Stephen Rothberg of job search site College recruiter. Each year we help more than 12 million candidates find great new jobs. Our customers are primarily Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and other employers who hire at scale and advertise their jobs with us. You can reach me at [email protected].
Steven Rothberg: Cheers.
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