BountyJobs – some people love the site, some people hate it. But why?
The site works like a marketplace, where an employer posts a job, with the placement fee up for grabs, and recruiters submit candidates until the employer finds one they like. Employers also can choose what recruiter to work with.
Jerry Aubin, vice president of product at BountyJobs, said the site’s value comes from enabling new relationships between employers and headhunters in a manner that can’t be replicated offline.
However, BountyJobs seems to be pretty controversial among the recruiting industry. One reason is that there are no contracts involved to protect recruiters, who are never guaranteed to receive the placement fee regardless of how many candidates they submit. Another reason, the site allows the employer to determine the fee, which is typically about 20 percent or 25 percent throughout the industry. A lot of naysayers think this practice is lowering the standard industry fees.
We’ve written about BountyJobs before and gotten some not-so-positive comments. For instance, one user stated that companies who no longer use the site still have their jobs posted and still receive “engagement” letters from recruiters. Another user said the company hired three important executives only to turn around and fire them. A third user complained that the company does not return calls or readily send commissions.
One unnamed source – who admits he has never personally had any experience with BountyJobs – has nonetheless often been outspoken about the company. He said he is “intrigued by those in the marketplace who can seemingly lie about their product” and never be called out for it.
For instance, he said, a video from CEO Jeremy Lappin can be found on RecruiterEarth stating that the company is making “thousands of placements annually,” which he doesn’t think is the case. He even complained about the company’s “cartooney” landing page video.
“Even the word ‘Bounty’ bugs me – as if to say our fee is some sort of ‘bonus’ or something we didn’t deserve,” he said. “Does my doctor, lawyer or accountant charge me a ‘bounty?’ Nope. I pay fees for services.”
A few people have said the idea for the site is good, but they quit using it because of the poor quality of recruiters and resumes. BountyJobs isn’t the only site of its kind in the industry. Others, such as Dayak, use the same basic concept.
So how is BountyJobs staying afloat, and what does the company think about all of this criticism? We asked Aubin just that. He said the company embraces feedback from users and turns it into ways to enhance the site on a consistent basis.
“Interestingly enough, we don’t get a lot of complaints from users who are successful on the site,” he said. “Criticism most often seems to come instead from folks who feel threatened by this new model and is most loudly voiced by folks who haven’t used the site much, if at all.
“Just as AT&T was blamed for replacing face-to-face interactions, online networks like BountyJobs are being criticized for affecting relationships previously nurtured via the dial tone,” Auburn added. “Platform changes like these are never smooth or easy, but our most successful users on both sides of the marketplace realize that recruiting on BountyJobs is different than recruiting offline and adjust their expectations and behaviors accordingly.”
Despite all the negativity surrounding the site, there are plenty of people who love BountyJobs. One example comes from a mid-sized health system in the Southeast. That company began using the site in order to hire staff for a new facility. Less than a year later, they had hired 66 candidates, with the majority being sourced from recruiters who were introduced to them through BountyJobs.
So, love it or hate it, it doesn’t look as though BountyJobs is planning to go anywhere anytime soon. In fact, Aubin said the company has several plans in store for the future. The company plans to add new features that will make it faster and easier for employers to gather feedback from people who need to review candidate resumes, which will drive faster feedback to recruiters and make sourcing efforts more efficient and effective. The company also is looking at taking advantage of its recruiting background by running trials of innovative new services.
“Whether it is making employers more effective users or helping high-quality headhunters stand out and be noticed, our staff’s deep industry experience makes the BountyJobs platform far more than just a simple Web site,” Aubin said. “The future looks very bright as we look forward to enabling hundreds of thousands of new sourcing relationships and steering tens of millions of dollars to our best headhunters.”
Popularity: 9% [?]
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I’ve used Bounty and was no where close to being impressed. When I voiced my concerns to rep about lack of contact from the client, lack of response from Bounty, lack of anything resembling forward motion, I got an email back from Jeremy Lapin saying that it must be my fault -that I must be one of the lazy recruiters who wants everything done for them. To the contrary, I’ve been in recruiting for the past 20 years and have successfully surived two (soon to be three) recessions. Funny enough, Jeremy edited his LinkedIn profile to the basics so we can’t see his supposed successful track record.
The Bounty site is nothing more than a crappy conduit to supposedly connect recruiters with clients. The blind connecting the blind. That’s it. Nothing more. While they bill themselves as this amazing resource that you need to be invited to and screened to join, I’m quite certain that my 8th grade niece could do a better job sourcing clients than Bounty. While they might not be in the 09 death pool, I’d bet that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting dimmer and dimmer.
Oh wait, did you hear that? It was another nail in their coffin.
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I enjoyed your article Jennifer. There is one clarification I would like to make about the BountyJobs contract. We most certainly have a contract in place that ensures headhunters get paid for their placements. The searches on BountyJobs are contingency, not retained, and we pay out according to the site’s terms of use for any fills that are made.
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:44 am
I just finished writing a piece in one of the forums regarding Bounty Jobs and it is something recruiters need to be warned about now. In brief, Bounty Jobs is a “bulletin board” where employers can post open positions to the recruiting community and be rewarded with having an endless number of recruiters work the search on contingency. I would like to point out that I believe the concept is brilliant and the folks at Bounty Jobs are well intentioned – it is largely the employers that are to blame.
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July 24th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Bounty is an interesting concept, while the concept might be good, their service is beyond horrible. I tried to set up an account and for 4 days, called every extension in the company and emailed everyone I could and got no response, that service alone will inevitably tank the company. Finally on day 5 they sent me an email asking for more information. I had a friend that had an account, I took a peak and overall all I could see is a glorified system developed for weak recruiters that aren’t willing to make 125 calls a day. Come on, what real recruiter would work a job order that is shot gunned to multiple recruiters? I guess I could see the model working on a grand scale, meaning thousands of employers, placing thousands of JO’s and thousands of resumes being sent, eventually something will connect but eventually that will peter out. Most recruiters that survive this recession will realize the only way is 125 calls a day. This business will always be one of connects and ratios, ones that think otherwise are in for a real challenge. Best of luck to them.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
wow 125 calls a day, sounds like a miserable existence
July 28th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Once again legitimate issues are brought to the table about this POS service and they do not have the balls to come here and address them. I have heard many recruiters have not been paid even though Bountyjobs WAS paid. I see multiple threads started about clients hiring people once the grace period is over.
Any business run by ignorant people with complete disregard for market reputation (in a “branding” economy) is a joke. Bountyjobs is a full on laugh! I wonder if the people pouring money into this pig realize they are a joke among clowns.
Dumbasses.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Hello Once Again,
I can emphatically state that there has *never* been a situation where BountyJobs collected on a placement and then did not pay the headhunter who was entitled to the fee. Anyone who feels they did not receive their proper fee should reach out to us with the details at support@bountyjobs.com and we will happily investigate the matter.
August 13th, 2009 at 11:50 am
I have never used Bounty Jobs or Dayak!
Two reasons!
1. I dispise companyies that give kickbscks.
2. The recruiting industry should be the one that dictaes the commissions.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Personally, I wouldn’t waste my time with BountyJobs. Although, a good concept, they seriously lack in may ways.
I’m a “recruiter” member on BountyJobs and have not had much luck with the site. Most criticize the recruiters, however I feel the problem is with the employers on the site and the lack of quality service on the part of BountyJobs in “managing” their employer accounts. Many employers have joined, posted open jobs, but fail to respond to engagement requests and many employers wait days or even weeks to even log back into the site. FYI… You can view each employers last login date on the site.
Also, some of the open job orders are a bit fishy… definitely some bait and switch going on, especially among the commission sales related positions. They post a bounty/fee but when you read the job information, they clearly state they are not going to pay the bounty and it’s purely based on what the candidate will bring in as far as sales revenue. Personally, networks like this are not appropriate for “commission only” jobs in which the employer is not going to pay the fee after the 90 day guarantee, especially if they have clearly posted a flat dollar amount and/or “bounty” on the job order.
A severe lack of quality control process on the part of BountyJobs.com to ensure that employers are respecting the marketplace thus the recruiters on the network are basically giving away their candidates and is complete waste of their time.
Also, when you join and once you are able to log-in, you will find a majority of the jobs “blocked” meaning, you cannot “engage” with the employer but you can send a “flier” aka unsolicited resume for a fee which runs around $20 or so per resume. I’m not a fan of sending or receiving unsolicited resumes and I’m surely not going to pay to do that!!
My personal experience with one employer:
They posted a job order, but they stated to send candidates to their website and have them reference the recruiters name, agency, and bountyjobs on the candidates cover letter, which they did. I understand that some employers need to run candidates through their own ATS or hiring pipeline. However, due to the 7 day period in which BountyJobs gives employers to engage with recruiters, I was automatically rejected. Since the employer had not logged into bounty jobs in over a week, therefore any engagement request over 7 days old was automatically rejected. Bounty jobs does not allow you to send messages to recruiters unless you are “engaged” with the recruiter therefore not even giving you the opportunity to work things out, etc…
I’ve sent them two candidates through their website and have yet to hear from the hiring manager and they still have not logged back into their BountyJobs.com account as of this blog posting date. Why bother even posting if your not going to actively engage in using the service?? BountyJobs.com needs to get better account managers if you ask me.
I think that BountyJobs.com needs to put more firm policies in place for employers to ensure the quality of the marketplace. They obviously let employers post jobs and go for weeks without logging in or communicating with recruiters.
In my opinion, stick to your current methods and work with clients directly as BountyJobs is destined for failure. Good concept, but you need a good internal team to make something like this successful. Something in which BountyJobs.com clearly lacks.
September 16th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Whatever happened to sites like Recruitalliance.com, Candex.com and Talenthire.com? They all seem like farces to me. Pick up the phone and recruit!
September 16th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I have been a member of bountyjobs for about 9 months and have made two placements (both of which were collected right on time).
I most certainly have had my share of frustration, but it has never been with bountyjobs it has been with end clients. Of course I have certainly had a good level of frustration with my own clients over the last year so take that for what you will.
No one should depend on bountyjobs as their sole placement source.
September 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I have used another service called http://www.skillgalaxy.com/ I think its much effective.
November 12th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Bounty Jobs is ridculous- took over 23 days for responses on resumes
never deal with hiring managers…internal recruiters who really don’t know what proactive recruitnig is…agency mentality
There should be something much better than this and they take 25% of the fee