Zen and the art of networked hiring: a new startup in India makes ripples

When we want to hire somebody for a position, we first reach out to our contacts. That’s because referrals are more efficient than sifting through job applications or spending time on job boards.

But reaching out to our ever-growing network of contacts on email and social media can be quite daunting. Often we miss out the very contacts who could have given us the best referrals for a particular job. ZenRadius, launched this month in Bangalore, wants to turbo-charge this with analytics.

ZenRadius founder Nitesh Mishra is quick to make a distinction between his “networked hiring” model and the referrals on sites like US-based Talent.io, which raised US$2.2 million this month. “The moment you think about referral hiring, there are 20-odd companies that rush to your mind. But each one of them is into random referrals, which is mostly incentive-based – you come to the platform, refer a friend of yours, and if she gets hired, you get US$20,” Mishra points out.

The fourth degree contact

What the ZenRadius engine does is to use analytics to find the right people to make referrals for the job descriptions you post. At the same time, it widens your circle of referrals by tapping into your contacts as well as the contacts of your contacts.

As Mishra explains to Tech in Asia:

When there is a network present, and data available, why not harness them? Maybe your fourth degree contact, whom you have no clue about, knows the right guy for the vacant position in your company.

Usually, when we sit down to write an email asking for referrals, just a handful of people pop into our mind. And we may keep asking the same five people for referrals, even though there may be contacts who are better placed to refer candidates for those jobs. ZenRadius wants to change that – in two clicks, you could send an email to 40-odd people who matter for a job posting.

The radius of contacts for the referrals keeps getting extended step by step. For example, you might select your team in office to participate in a job hunt. As soon as they accept the invite, their contacts get added on to the network being searched for referrals.

Not all contacts are equal. The hiring engine knows who you interact with more, which of your contacts opened the job posting mail and when, and so on, to help you follow up more efficiently. It also has an algorithm to create groups of contacts automatically, depending on requirements.

Mishra says the engine is useful both for a large company such as Goldman Sachs, which always begins with internal referrals to fill positions, as well as a startup that typically adds one member at a time to build a small team.

In search of a massive problem