A Conversation With Our Founder

So, Nick – what opportunities did you see in the market and how did that inspire CloudRPO?

My background has always been in recruitment; after I left university I worked for a large recruitment business that later became a part of Randstad, and then at 25 I started my own agency and grew it into a very successful business. However, there were certain parts of being a recruiter (as well as being a company owner) that didn’t sit right with me. 

It felt like a hamster wheel at times because everybody was just doing the same thing, for the same clients. Even if junior recruiters had amazing candidates it was much harder for them to cut through the noise, namely because of the lack of accessibility, something which I fundamentally disagreed with. 

On the other side of the coin, it was increasingly frustrating for me as a recruiter how many clients had PSLs and were missing out on good talent – purely because they couldn’t handle the volume of recruiters contacting them daily. There was also nowhere to amalgamate and solidify the relationship between a company and a client, which made me think – why isn’t there a platform to solve this problem? So I created CloudRPO on the basis that it would open more doors for recruiters, and keep clients from being bombarded with sales calls every day. In my eyes, it was a win-win that enables recruitment agencies to progress, rather than regress.

Why do you think now is the time for CloudRPO to exist?

I think people in the industry are a lot more open now to trying new things. There are a lot of agencies (and clients) who are still stuck in the old age of recruitment, and that’s fine – but people want to be approached differently. Clients don’t want to be sold to, they just want good quality candidates without the extra baggage. Relationship building is important, but it also takes a lot of time – which many recruitment agencies and hiring managers don’t have, so why not serve those people?

There’s also no other platform out there that redacts candidate information to the degree that ours does, which ties in and supports the huge problem we have with diversity and inclusion. I could name countless studies that support how prejudiced hiring still is, and it’s time that the recruitment industry acknowledges that they are a part of the problem.

For those individuals that deny that there’s an issue with diversity and inclusion, likely won’t use the platform – and that’s fine, however, that way of thinking will only get them so far. Our platform can stop people from being unethical and can give businesses valuable insight into their unconscious bias during hiring. It’s not going to solve itself overnight, however, if you have a platform that educates you on how to do better – then it’s a step in the right direction. 

What was the process of building the platform like?

It’s been hard – of course it has. This type of technology takes a long time to develop and perfect, and it’s something we will consistently be improving as time goes on. We’ve done everything to make it as simple and efficient as possible for both parties, and built several algorithms to make it an incredibly agile and engaging piece of technology. 

One of the biggest problems in recruitment is speed to hire and lack of communication, so we’ve built our tech to tackle those issues in the quickest way possible without sacrificing the quality of the platform.

Technical issues aside, it’s been a great experience seeing the platform being built and refined, and having feedback from clients who are expressing how positive the experience has been for them continues to reinforce the notion that we’ve created something valuable in the market. 

What else do you think makes the platform different?

Aside from the redacted information, the platform opens up a world of opportunity to smaller recruitment companies and promotes entrepreneurship and innovation. The connectivity of the platform enables sole traders, remote recruitment businesses and SMEs to access clients that would take them months of client meetings and loopholes to get through. We were also mindful of the cost of the platform and made sure that it was attractive and most importantly – fair for everybody.

It also enables clients and recruiters all over the world to connect at the click of a button – and it’s all driven through the quality of candidates that the recruiters produce. We see CloudRPO as a positive piece of technology which will add value to both parties, and more importantly, connect candidates with the best opportunities in the world.

Interested in learning more about CloudRPO? Book a demo here.