Zubka Blog

Zubka's new Employee Referral System

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:47:21 +0000

I am very pleased to announce our new product launching today - Zubka's Employee Referral System (ERS).
Any organisation looking to improve (and save money!) on their recruitment should look at using their employees for referrals. Zubka now provides a simple and effective hosted plug-and-play system which provides internal job-board, hirer and employee dashboards for ease of use and management and the potential for the system to pay for itself after just one placement!
Please go to http://www.zubka.com/downloads/Zubka_ERS.pdf for full details or write to info@zubka.com and we will be more than happy to walk you through what we can offer.

Armando Ruffini
CEO

EFactor

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:27:13 +0000

One of our favourite partners at the moment is EFactor. www.efactor.com (Have a look at our white label job board there under the "Do Business" tab!) The EFactor site aims to bring together entrepreneurs globally to network, find partners, do businesss, ask questions, get coaching and find investment.

I really like the site and in particular the chat lounge feature, but what I like even more is the up to 100 offline events per year they organise and the actual EFactor lounges they are setting up in major cities to allow entrepreneurs to meet and do business face to face - the missing element for me in almost all other networks.

Their next event is in London at The London Business School on 12 Nov and focusses on "Measuring Success" with a presentation by Sir Andrew Likierman. http://efactor.com/p/events/id=11.

It's free to join EFactor. I think it is a great site that any business person could find useful. Go have a look.

Armando Ruffini
CEO

Jobs are local, networks are global

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:11:34 +0000

One thing I love about Zubka is when our international network of Connectors comes good on a job. Earlier this summer a Canadian Connector referred a lady from America to a job in London. With a work visa sorted she began work a few weeks ago and today sounded very happy in her new job. £1,200 will soon be on the way to this Connector for helping someone find a dream job; a win-win situation if ever I've seen one.
The most far-flung placement this year has been in Kiev, although with Hungary and Poland Zubka sites coming online next month I expect a fair bit of local and cross-border placements to be happening out there too.
My favourite recent placement was a gentleman moving from Rome to Milan for a job referred to him by a friend in Dubai, who himself had been introduced to Zubka by his friend in Germany. Another happy employer with a new employee that had not previously been found by conventional means, another candidate happy in a new job and another referral reward earned.

We all have social and professional networks, and most of us have them online, easily and quickly accessible. Why not do yourself and your friends a favour and have a quick new look at Zubka. Join our global village and start referring - you never know where it might take you...

Armando Ruffini
CEO

Back to The Future

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:19:44 +0000

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Zubka!
A quiet period on the communications and blog front over the summer as we prepared for the next phase of growth, and now we are now ready to tell you all about it.

First of all this month is the launch of our partnership with VNU Media in The Netherlands, where we have our http://www.zubka.nl site already live and raring to go alongside VNU Media’s own Zubka white-label referral job board. Final Beta testing is in progress - more news about this great new partnership on launch day.

With our German language site also live now, and with Poland and Hungary close behind in November it is going to be a busy few months of country launches and new partnerships.

We have also updated our product with new hirer dashboard functionality and improved process flow all round. We will showcase these new updates on the site over the next few weeks.

Also new is our Zubka Internal Referral System (IRS), aimed at organisations looking to tap into employee referrals. It is widely recognised that employee referrals can often provide a better quality and cheaper way of recruiting – imagine how much you could save as a hirer if just a quarter of your hires were from internal referrals rather than from agencies. Our IRS gives a simple tracking and hiring internal job board and can be implemented in a matter of days.

So we’re back, fitter, bigger and better than ever, ready to sprint into the future of recruitment. Watch this space.

Armando Ruffini
CEO

Making Winning Zubka Referrals

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:31:47 +0000

Hello there,

Successful Zubka Referrers all have something in common: ensuring their referral is comprehensive, well thought-out and includes everything the Hirer could require. To help you make sure your contact is in with the very best chance of getting the job, earning you a valuable reward in the process, we've put together this quick and simple guide:

Don't forget to attach the CV!
Without a CV it is unlikely that the Hirer will invite your contact for an interview. A professional, detailed CV is the best way to provide a full overview of their qualifications and experience. Do read the CV before you send it to make sure it contains everything it should.

Complete all the fields in the Candidate profile, including why they are the perfect person for the job
Incomplete profiles are often rejected straight away by the Hirer. Tailor the content carefully so it matches the key requirements of that particular job to show that you have thought things through and know your contact well. Include examples where possible to prove each point you make.

Check your contact is excited about the vacancy you're referring them for
Is your contact really interested in this particular job and company? Why? They will be asked about this at an interview so going through this with them now will help both your referral and their interview preparation.

Make sure the CV and Candidate profile read well together
People can sometimes seem different on their CV to how they are in person. Get in touch with your contact and double check any areas you're not sure about, for example willingness to travel, future goals and relevant training.

We hope you've found this Zubka insight useful and that it will help you become a winning Zubka Referrer too.

Have a great week everyone - and Happy Hunting,
Zubka

Zubka extends international reach with Germany launch

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:40:14 +0000

Hello everyone,

Today sees the official launch of www.Zubka.com/de - a fully localised site and service for the German region. As the first foothold on mainland Europe for Zubka, this development heralds the start of a strategic geographical expansion programme. Headed up by Wolfgang Flatten, Managing Director, Zubka GmbH has offices in Frankfurt and is well-placed to take advantage of the country's vibrant recruitment sector.

Permanent recruiting turnover rose 19% in 2006, according to the German Consultancy BDU, while Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander reported the total market grew by 10-15% that year. Germany is however the second most challenging EU country for the recruiting of quality executives, stated a survey released by Intrinsic.

Hirers on board at launch include New Balance, Panoflex and Algorithmics, while hundreds of people living in Germany are already enjoying the new Referrer service. Referrals in recruitment are already popular in Germany, with the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) reporting that 34% of vacancies are already filled via co-workers or personal contacts. Zubka's launch in the region will empower people to get properly rewarded for these recommendations, as well as growing the overall market opportunity.

German Referrers can of course also take advantage of the global range of job opportunities where available rewards currently stand at over £4.7 million GBP, as well as those posted in their language, in their country. Increasing globalisation means we today know talented people all over the world and Zubka is built with this in mind.

Armando Ruffini, Zubka's CEO, said of the news: “As the worldwide web develops further people will naturally expect each service they use to relate to them properly. This is an important step in Zubka’s continued evolution and the first in a series of local language services we will be launching this year.”

To find out more, click over to www.zubka.com/de today.

Happy Hunting,
Zubka

Zubka in the Press

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:28:04 +0000

Hello there,

As you know, Zubka is consistently profiled in the press for its innovation in the recruitment market. We have achieved some excellent editorial over the last few months in both recruitment and general business titles focused on some recent Zubka developments. Armando Ruffini, Zubka's CEO, has also been asked for his expert opinion on numerous topics relevant to the industry.

A selection of the resultant articles can now be viewed in our newly updated Press Section. We have also updated our Media Relations section so that you can see for yourself the latest news coming out of Zubka HQ.

In case you don't have time to read them all, here are our current favourites...

The Alex cartoon in the Daily Telegraph back in November 2007 was a real treat for us to see. Produced by the incredibly talented Russell Taylor & Charles Peattie, Alex takes a humorous look at topics of interest to the London financial market. For anyone who saw the cartoon itself, but didn’t immediately get the 'Zubka' connection, Peattie & Taylor have very kindly produced a further version for us:

We also really liked the Online Recruitment Magazine feature looking at Social Media and its impact on recruitment. The writer made heavy use of Armando's comments on the topic and it is well worth a read by anyone looking to properly utilise social media sites and services for their business.

We'll keep on keeping you up to date with everything we're doing, but if there is anything particular you'd like to find out about, please just contact us or post a comment here on the blog.

All the best,
Zubka.

New Zubka features make referral recruitment more rewarding

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:26:45 +0000

Hello everyone,

Have you seen the exciting new features we've been drip-feeding onto Zubka recently? New ways to access fabulous Zubka jobs are appearing all over our award-winning referral recruitment site.

Firstly, we've got some really simple syndication of jobs - otherwise known as RSS! 56% of Europeans use RSS to access regularly updated information feeds so we've extended our Zubka RSS functionality beyond this blog to provide dynamic feeds of job postings too. We've already had some great input from people who are pulling certain types of jobs into a RSS feed folder in Outlook which lets them know quickly and cleanly whenever there is a new job posted they might know the perfect Candidate for.

Next thing to check out are the Zubka Widgets. Any regular readers of this blog will know that we have been fascinated by this area for some time now. Widgets (aka Gadgets, Snippets and Badges too!), or 'little windows onto other websites', are being incorporated as standard onto the desktops of new Mac and Windows operating systems. They are also increasingly popping up on Google home pages, Netvibes and all other good personalised online start pages. Zubka widgets give our Referrers a fun and effective way to see new jobs coming onto Zubka in key sectors, as-they-happen, wherever they want to see them.

We've also been working with some carefully chosen websites and blogs that we think will bring great Referrers and Candidates to Zubka. The omnipresent skills shortage is in part due to the fact that reaching the right people for a role is getting more impossible by the day using traditional recruitment channels. So here at Zubka we've identified the key qualifications, skills and sectors that Hirers are seeking at the moment and are working with online communities that cater for these people, giving them the opportunity to present Zubka jobs to their visitors and readers. And because all these individuals will know many others with similar interests and skills, we can be sure to deliver a steady stream of highly relevant Candidates for any role on Zubka. If you'd like to be considered as a Zubka Partner or Affiliate, why not explore further on our site today.

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Zubka and the Referral Boom in Exec UK Magazine

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Hello there,

Exec UK, the high level business strategy magazine from White Digital Media, contacted Zubka recently to find out more about our web 2.0 approach to recruitment.

The resultant article is a six page feature looking at the recruitment market in general and how Zubka is harnessing innovative technology to blaze a trail through the traditional recruitment industry with our award-winning referral model.

The full e-edition of the article can be found here and makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in how technology is shaping the future.

All the best,
Zubka

New Zubka Interview on Real Business Website

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:44:50 +0000

Hello there,

As you know, Zubka was recently commended by Real Business and Microsoft as one of Britain's Digital Elite in the category of 'Taking on the Big Boys'. Armando Ruffini, Zubka's Co-Founder and CEO was then invited into Real Business Magazine's TV studios in London to tell them more about our innovative online referral recruitment model, how we work with our members and what the future holds.

For further information, read the Zubka Commended as one of Britain's Digital Elite article here on our blog, or click over to the Real Business website to watch the interview.

All the best,
Zubka

The cost of poor recruitment practices revealed

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:09:42 +0000

Hi there everyone,

Scary statistics published last week quantify the financial impact of ineffective recruitment. Recruitment Consultant has just covered the results of a Talent Q survey into how recruitment practices affect the UK economy.

The figure quoted is £5 billion GBP lost per year, calculated by looking at the drop in productivity resulting from placing poorly assessed workers into roles within a business. The individual impact is said to be £2,400 per person incorrectly inducted into business.

When you also consider the cost of recruitment, training and all the miscellaneous items involved in getting new staff integrated and up to speed, this makes rather worrying reading. Without fully understanding the skills, personality and approach of people you are bringing into an organisation, how can you make them an effective, productive member of your company?

Zubka's model of trusted referrals by people who know the candidate best is an important and innovative way around this problem. Our referrers act like best-practice recruiters, messaging their contact and the hirer extensively through our website, exploring both the role and the relevant skills of the person being recommended. This ensures all parties know there is a good fit before interviews are arranged. If you can't get this level of knowledge via your recruitment solution, make sure that you give and receive as much information as possible before making any hiring decision. It could make all the difference to your bottom line.

All the best,
Zubka

Zubka Commended as one of the Digital Elite by Microsoft and Real Business Magazine

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:48:00 +0000

Hello there,

Microsoft and Real Business magazine have recently unveiled the results of a national search for Britain’s most innovative users of software. Called Britain’s Digital Elite, the awards are the culmination of a nationwide search for UK businesses that use technology in the most cutting-edge, innovative and exciting ways to make a positive impact on their businesses and markets. Microsoft set out to highlight these innovative British businesses by identifying the companies leading the way in harnessing the power of software and IT to help them drive sales and profitability, increase customer satisfaction, create competitive advantage and even change the traditional business model of their industry.

Entrants were judged on three criteria: excellence in execution of IT projects; support from the board for IT projects that drive growth and place technology at the heart of the business; and recognition of IT as a driver for growth – as well as success in driving this growth. The winners were decided by a panel of four judges including two entrepreneurs, Charles Orton-Jones from Real Business and Simon Hughes of Microsoft.

One of the award categories was 'Taking on the Big Boys', aimed at highlighting UK companies which are using software to innovate and disrupt existing markets. Zubka achieved a commendation in this category, just pipped to the post by Webmart, an innovative player that is taking on the established print market - and winning.

Charles Orton-Jones told us why the judges found Zubka so interesting: "Recruitment is a sector which has resisted innovation for far too long. Zubka’s brilliant idea to use recommendations via an online platform makes obvious sense – both to firms looking to hire and for quality candidates looking to differentiate themselves. Zubka is going to make the existing “headhunter” recruitment model look thoroughly dated and completely inadequate. You wouldn’t buy a TV without reading reviews, so why hire someone without knowing what their peers think of them?"

Other winners we thought really stood out were Zebtab, a company creating a desktop application that is helping transform the magazine publishing industry and winner of the consumer interaction category; and Manifest, winner of the M&A category that is changing the face of electronic proxy voting at general meetings of listed companies worldwide. Have a look at the full Digital Elite results and let us know what you think.

Have a great week,
Zubka

Facebook Friends and Zubka Jobs!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:23:58 +0000

Hello there,

Very exciting news from Zubka today - our Facebook application has just been published on the social network that has 51 million plus active members. Zubka's global selection of job opportunities can now be driven across Facebook profiles making it even easier for people to recommend those they know for a role - and be rewarded for doing so.

These valuable rewards, part of Zubka's core aim to justly recompense people for the role they play in recruitment, is set to drive massive interest and adoption in the application. For hirers and recruiters, this means that their jobs now have a potential multi-million, world-wide audience of well-connected professionals each of whom could know the perfect candidate for the job.

Zubka’s application uses Facebook's communication tools fully to help people engage with the application they way they're used to communicating already on the site. The application has been deeply integrated into Zubka’s technology to ensure a seamless transference of relevant data and information between the services. This level of co-operation between the two technologies is another core benefit of the application.

We hope you enjoy the Zubka Facebook application - add it to your profile today and let us know what you think!

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Zubka named a Tech Tour winner

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:04:20 +0000

Hello everyone,

The European Tech Tour came to the UK last week and brought together the country's most promising high growth, early and expansion-stage technology companies. Zubka is one of the 24 winners chosen from a pool of nearly 300 candidates and was selected based on detailed reviews by the English Tech Tour's Selection Committee of leading venture capital firms in the UK. The stringent selection process focused on the uniqueness of the technology, strength of the business model, vision, capability to execute on the business plan and the quality of the management team and track record.

Zubka's ability to develop and deliver a global platform that is set to have a far-reaching impact on recruitment was clear indication of our future potential. The event itself provided the opportunity to present to and meet the venture capitalist, corporate and technology attendees and gave us some fascinating insight into how closely our future plans match the direction of the market.

This award is a real achievement, especially when you consider the calibre of innovation we see all around us. As well as validating Zubka as a hot-ticket player in the technology arena, it shows just how ground-breaking our offering is.

We're only a year old and have already built a fast-growth, highly respected global business - our second year is going to be even better!

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Zubka Management Team Update

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:42:45 +0000

Hello everyone,

Zubka's management team has evolved. Armando Ruffini, Zubka's Co-founder and previously COO, has moved into the role of CEO as David Shieldhouse, Zubka's Co-founder and incumbent CEO, refocuses his energies on new entrepreneurial ventures. David tells us: "From developing the original idea, through to launching the business, securing VC backing from Balderton (previously Benchmark) and building a solid foundation of users, we have been on an incredible journey. We are all justly proud of what Zubka has achieved so far and I look forward to seeing the business realise its full potential as a global player in the recruitment industry."

Taking the business forwards, Armando is supported by the first-rate, highly experienced management team assembled. Isabelle Zammit, Marketing Director, has been with the business since its inception in April 2006. An international technology marketer with 15 years blue chip experience, Isabelle has worked with Sony, Visa International and Hoescht (now DuPont). Most recently Isabelle was VP Marcomms Europe for UGC Broadband. Tony Trozzo, Zubka's Finance & Administration Director, is another early member of Zubka and brings to the team a broad range of commercial & entrepreneurial expertise.

Colette Delaney-Smith, Operations Director for Zubka, joined in 2007 from Barclays Bank where she was Chief Operating Officer for Group Risk. During a city career spanning 10 years, Colette worked in various areas of Risk Management with highly respected international financial institutions. In these roles she was responsible at the highest level for driving the risk management strategy across all areas of risk. Tim Dennis, recently appointed Sales & Business Development Director, left the army as a Grenadier Guards Captain and moved to the City, specialising in finance and IT sectors. Previously COO of MoneyeXtra Plc and Managing Director of numerous Reuters' strategic business units, Tim excels at growing businesses for commercial success.

Armando adds: "As Co-founder, David will always be part of the Zubka family. His wealth of experience in the industry, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit, has been invaluable to Zubka's launch and the growth we've accomplished in the first year of business. Moving forwards, I am going to be leading the team in delivering to the marketplace a fantastic range of business and expansion initiatives we've been working on. I am really excited about Zubka's future."

We wish David every success with his new ventures.

All the best,
Zubka.

The Zubka Blue Debuts in London!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:34:57 +0000

Hi there,

Last week Zubka brought together a fantastic group of people comprising friends, supporters, clients and 'Zubka family' members. Having been in business for about a year now, we thought it was time to take a few moments out to focus on and enjoy some of the great relationships we've built over the last 12 months.

At the party, we introduced our very special signature cocktail to our guests - a distinctive blend of vodka, Blue Curacao and pear liqueur shaken together with lychee and lime juice. The consensus was that the Zubka Blue perfectly summed up the refreshing, quirky, tasteful and unique blend that is Zubka.

Since we launched Zubka, we've evolved our platform, built a business that is active in around 100 countries, won awards and accolades from our peers, brought vacancies onto the Zubka job board from some of the leading brands and businesses in the world today and generated (to date) over £2.5 million GBP of rewards for our thousands of referrers to benefit from.

But to be honest, people are what makes our business so brilliant. Without the referrers, hirers, recruiters and industry gurus who are joining Zubka in their droves, it just wouldn't be the company that it is. So to everyone who joined us last week, all of you who read our blog and every single member, supporter and friend, thank you for your continued passion, enthusiasm and advocacy.

Over the next 12 months we plan on bringing you closer to our fascinating user base, launching some great new features, content and partnerships - and to keep on growing our business to ensure we remain the world's most rewarding referral recruitment service. All in all, it's been an amazing journey so far and we're really looking forward to what's on the horizon!

Happy hunting,
Zubka.

PS - We'll publish a link to the party photos here on the Zubka blog later on this week...

New Zubka Competition!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:47:41 +0000

Good Morning,

There's a fresh Zubka competition running from this week, offering our thousands of referrers the chance to win a Road Angel Navigator 6000 SatNav system worth £179.99 GBP - and including 6 months of free information updates! Visit Road Angel to find out more about the suite of products and to see the optional international mapping and data subscriptions available to purchase.

To be in with a chance of winning, all our referrers need to do is recommend people they know for a role on the Zubka job board and have them accepted for consideration. Each and every time a Zubka Hirer accepts someone they put forwards in our system, their name will automatically go into the prize draw. The more contacts they refer, the more chances they'll have of winning. Get 5 people accepted by hirers, and have 5 chances to win!

The competition runs to the 31st October to give everyone plenty of time to explore the job board, find relevant vacancies, identify and obtain the interest of people they think would be great in the role, prepare and send off the referral. Zubka's technology automates every step and provides useful advice along the way, making it a simple, straightforward process for anyone who's new to recommending people professionally.

Visit our Zubka Competitions section for further details, sign up to Zubka if you're not yet a referrer, and search the Zubka job board for great opportunities you can refer people you know to today!

Happy hunting,
Zubka.

Zubka Competition Winners Announced!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:38:04 +0000

Hi there,

Zubka's August competition gave referrers the chance to win either a fabulous Budda Bag or a luxurious spa session. This created a fantastic flurry of activity with many of our referrers swelling their networks by inviting those they know to join Zubka's innovative and rewarding referral recruitment service.

The winners are as follows:

'Garforth' - a Zubka referrer based in the UK, introduced 60 new people to Zubka during the period of the competition. This makes him the person who introduced the most new people to our network - and the winner of the prize Budda Bag.

'Vadim' - a Zubka referrer based in the Ukraine, is the lucky winner of our luxurious spa session. He introduced a total of 7 new people to Zubka, which gave him automatic entry into our runner-up prize draw along with everyone else who introduced more than 5 friends to the network.

Commiserations to all of you who didn't win this time around but don't forget that you'll still benefit from taking part. Everyone you ever introduce to Zubka is automatically linked to your account, so we can give you a £100 GBP reward each and every time any of them successfully places someone they know into opportunities on Zubka's job board.

We'll be launching a new competition very soon so keep checking back often for more ways to win with Zubka!

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Launch of Mesh heralds new era of professional networking

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:15:12 +0000

Hello,

Zubka attended the launch of Mesh last week, which is an intelligent information portal built on a network of creative business professionals. Set up by the multi-faceted Kay Vasey & Jonny Emmanuel, who are both lawyers by day and creatives by night, the concept is based around a clear gap in the market for a service that enables, enriches and intertwines people's varied interests and working lives. Starting its life as an invitation-only social network, the business plans to evolve and develop into many relevant areas that will make it a premium community and destination for advice, information, entertainment and support for this affluent and untapped audience.

The attendees spread right across both the creative and corporate spectrums, and it was really interesting to see first hand just how many people out there are excelling simultaneously in normally disparate industries. The membership base of Mesh looks set to be full of fascinating people and we think this business is going to achieve great things due to its innate understanding of how people live, work and achieve in modern times.

The launch of Mesh makes us ponder its similarities to what Zubka's all about. Our membership base of thousands of people spread across the globe are hard-working professionals from numerous industries who have really bought into the idea that there is more opportunity, value and purpose for all of us than just our day job. Many of the referrals our members make are eloquent, intuitive, well thought-out and very much outside of their usual work activities. We'll have to ask our friends at Mesh whether they'd count identifying and recommending professional people you know to great jobs on the Zubka job board as a creative second life!

There is already a huge buzz surrounding Mesh, with pre-launch articles in the Sunday Times and on key 'cool-hunting' websites. Visit Mesh to find out more about how to become a member and join the MeshMinds on Facebook group to keep up to date with the latest developments as they roll out the service.

All the best,
Zubka.

Zubka on Broadbean!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:31:56 +0000

Hi there everyone,

Following comprehensive integration of Zubka's platform into Broadbean's technology, you can now seamlessly post jobs and manage referrals from inside your Broadbean account. This is great news for everyone out there who uses multiple recruitment services to find talented staff.

Zubka, as you know, makes recruitment truly rewarding for everyone involved in the process and we can now bring even more jobs onto Zubka's job board for all our referrers to recommend people they know to.

Broadbean is Europe's leading distributor of online job adverts so we're really pleased to have forged this new relationship. We're working closely with their fantastic team on our joint mission to bring you the best possible recruitment solution and will be telling you more about the exciting developments on this topic soon.

In the meantime, take a look at our Zubka on Broadbean section for further information.

Happy hunting,
Zubka.

Zubka named top ten dotcom by The Guardian

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:08:57 +0000

Hi everyone,

Guardian Unlimited, the most successful newspaper website in Britain, looked recently at the internet industry and profiled the UK's Top Ten Dotcoms. Zubka was yet again named as one of the leading young internet companies in the country, long with the likes of Zopa, Garlik, OnOneMap and Trusted Places.

It's great to see how much activity and excitement there is in the sector at the moment, and we are especially pleased to share this accolade with Mind Candy and Touch Local as both are members of our service and on the look-out for new staff, recommended by our referrers, to fill exciting vacancies through Zubka.

Zubka consistently impresses the outside world, and it's easy to see why. We now have over £2.1 million GBP of rewards in our fund waiting for Zubka referrers to claim, and over 700 live vacancies on our site. While the UK is currently the most popular location on the Zubka Job Board, Europe, the USA, South America, Australasia and Asia are also represented amongst the vacancies.

So whether the people you know are looking for work as a Key Account Manager in Dubai, an IT Project Manager in Brazil, a Service Delivery Manager in Krakow, a Software Engineer in Ireland or a job working in the UK, Zubka can help.

Referrers get the satisfaction of helping a friend get the job they deserve, and are rewarded handsomely for doing so. Companies and recruiters looking to hire great staff get access to personally recommended people often unreachable by the usual recruitment routes, at a risk-free, highly competitive price. Zubka gets the pleasure of bringing all of these wonderful opportunities and people together.

We all feel very privileged to be the early pioneers of the referral recruitment revolution and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Have a great weekend,
Zubka

Zubka Job Alerts Have Evolved!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:07:54 +0000

Hello there,

As of today, you'll notice a change to how Zubka alerts you to new jobs that match people you know. Now, rather than a quick message to let you know there are matches, we're giving you a brief overview of each relevant role - along with that all-important referral reward figure!

We know how busy you are, we understand that a quick glance through your inbox is sometimes all that you have time for - and we also know just how much you want to be first in line to refer people you know to jobs on our site.

To make sure your alerts are set up perfectly, just click over to the Zubka Job Alerts section to personalise your communications from us. Tell us which industries your friends and colleagues are working in and how often you'd like us to tell you about all the relevant, just-published vacancies so we can deliver them directly into your inbox according to your preferences.

Have a great day,
Zubka

Win with Zubka!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:23:46 +0000

Hello there,

August is a great month to grow your Zubka Network. We're running a competition for all our Referrers giving them the chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Part of the ethos of Zubka is to justly reward everyone involved in the recruitment process for the role they play. Therefore, anyone who introduces people they know to Zubka is rewarded £100GBP (or e150 / $200 USD) for each successful placement their friends make. This is a great way to get added value from being a part of Zubka's referral recruitment revolution.

To give our referrers even more rewards however, we've decided to award the person who adds the most people to their network before the 31st August a Budda-Bag. There are a huge choice of colours and fabrics available, so it's sure to perfectly complement every style of home or office.

And everyone who adds five or more people to their network over this period will go into a prize draw to win a pampering session at one of 3,600 luxurious spas around the world.

If you're not already a member, then Sign up to Zubka now while there's still time to take part. Being a Zubka Referrer gives you a lot more besides networking opportunities and prizes - such as the ability to make a really positive difference to a friend or colleague and lucrative financial rewards - so Join Zubka today and introduce your friends as well as referring people you know to great jobs.

If you'd like to find out more about the competition, then click over onto the Zubka Competition page for all the details.

Happy hunting,
Zubka.

Zubka on Intruders TV and Master New Media

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:50:56 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Another Zubka interview from Essential Web has recently been published on Intruders TV. A global network of video blogs that covers web 2.0 and the technology ecosystem, Intruders TV travels to industry events around the world to capture and publish interviews from the cutting edge.

This interview is already being referenced in articles by the blogging community - of which our current favourite is Robin Good's in depth breakdown of both the model and service on Master New Media, an online publication that provides up-to-date news on topics relevant to communication experts, independent publishers, marketing professionals, trainers, educators and presenters. We'd recommend any readers of Robin's article visiting Zubka take a look at the growing range of Zubka jobs in the media and marketing sectors which currently include roles from leading brands such as Aegis Media Group, MarketClusters, New Look and L'Oreal.

These examples are just two of many places online where you can find insightful and interesting information and comment about Zubka. If you've written about us recently, or would like to, please do email us at blog@zubka.com if we can help you out with information and comment - or if you would like us to tell our readers about your article.

All the best,
Zubka

Zubka goes to Ecademy's London meeting

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:56:15 +0000

Zubka attended a meeting of Ecademy members in London last night. The regular monthly get-togethers offer a chance for people to come together face to face, listen to a range of speakers offering information and advice relevant to their interests and feel truly 'connected' to each other, which is an integral part of the Ecademy ethos.

Hosted as usual by the lovely Penny Power, founder of Ecademy, the event was both engaging and inspiring. Penny provided some updates on the great new features incorporated onto the Ecademy service and set the room a challenge for the summer months to use the time to engage with people you can collaborate with in business to grow everyones opportunities which was a great call to action for us all.

Chantal Badjie, Senior Project Manager, Knowledge, BBC Vision spoke about her inside knowledge of big corporations, specifically how they interact with individuals and small businesses who take on many different projects for the corporation. This was valuable insight for many of the people in the audience and included some great pointers on how to gain timely, successful visibility and exposure to key people who can make or break a new business pitch.

The event was slightly unusual this time in that it included a moving talk by a gentleman who found much needed relief from the post traumatic stress suffered as a result of serving his country during the Falklands war thanks to the efforts of an Ecademy member.
David Walters works mainly within the corporate arena, helping key personnel overcome workplace stress, and has made important inroads into other areas of stress because of his knowledge and skills in this area.

As many of you already know, Zubka is an Ecademy partner because of the clear synergy between our respective goals and the additional value combining forces can bring about. As David Shieldhouse, Zubkas CEO said at the time of the announcement; "Many Ecademy members are principals of small to medium enterprises that have onward connections with individuals within the workplace environment. The Zubka platform gives them the opportunity to leverage these connections and by tapping into the referral economy they can enjoy an additional layer of income from their pre-existing contact base."

Youll be seeing a lot of Zubka activity on Ecademy over the next few weeks so please do email us at info@zubka.com if youd like to be kept up to date on things and get a sneak preview of some of our plans.

Have a great weekend everyone,
Zubka.

Facebook - a 21st Century Addiction?

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:28:33 +0000

Hello there,

With the recent evolution of Facebook's platform to allow third party services to be added to users' profiles, there have been a flurry of fabulous - and not so fabulous - applications being added onto the site. We think its a great move on Facebook's behalf and one that will increase their mindshare, user base and popularity. As with any good idea though, it has quickly been taken up by the masses and is already turning into a bit of a quagmire. There are a few really great applications out there already, but you need to hunt long and hard to find them. As Facebook applications become more widely reviewed and rated, many ill-thought out applications will fall by the wayside and down the popularity list.

Another interesting development on the website which has come about since it opened up registration has been its increasing use as a way to bring together disparate teams of workers around the globe. There are many fascinating examples on the site to take a look at if you're thinking of doing similar for your company. Be wary though of a few emerging stories on this, such as OUTLAW's recent article about the fact that your employer could legally own your profile, and contacts, when you leave if there is any work-related content or activity on there, or the fact that more and more employers are using facebook to assess the productivity and value of both existing and prospective employees. Some are even going so far as to block, or attempt to block, access to the site from their corporate network.

No matter how the corporate world views Facebook, its clear that consumers both at home and at work are finding it a fascinating way to interact with each other. The site is currently stealing a march on all other networks - with 150,000 new members signing up every day and 26 million unique visits a month. According the recent ComScore report on Facebook's figures it is now the seventh most heavily trafficked website on the internet, and the over 35's are joining in their droves, with registrations from this age range leaping up 98% to 10 million registered users currently.

So what do you think? Do you have a Facebook profile? Do you access it at work? Do you access it for work to communicate with other employees? Or has your company banned you from using the site in the office? Let us know by getting in touch with Zubka or posting a comment below.

All the best,
Zubka

European Internet Excellence at Essential Web

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:50:59 +0000

Hello there,

Zubka presented at Essential Web on Wednesday this week to an amphitheatre style audience of entrepreneurs, press and VCs. A show of hands indicated that every single person in the room had been involved on referral recruitment on a personal level, without recompense, which was excellent validation of our business model.

Wed like to say thanks to everyone who sought us out for further discussion during and after the event. Mike Butcher, journalist and new media expert, was one of the media attendees who caught up with David Shieldhouse, Zubkas CEO, for a chat during lunch and you can find the interview here.

All the companies who presented on the day offered a fantastic insight into the new wave of internet innovation but weve picked out a few we feel particularly warrant further investigation by anyone interested in companies that take the best of technology functionality and use it to deliver really useful products and services:

Rebtel - a VOIP service to make cheap international calls using local mobile call rates

Huddle - tools for work teams to share and collaborate online

G.ho.st - a virtual computer platform, a browser-based hosted alternative to desktop client systems like Windows

Seatwave - an online marketplace where fans can buy and sell tickets for concerts, theatre, and sports

Wonga - a consumer finance play - instant cash advances*

PlanQ - a stealth-stage mobile browsing play*

*Update: The final two businesses in the list are still pre-launch but we've included holding page addresses for you to pre-register or bookmark for the future.

Essential Web also included a series of 60 second pitches from companies that didnt make it into the main stream. Zubka was impressed with all of the concepts and early-stage businesses outlined, but to give you a few highlights we recommend you take a look at:

Anywr

Crowdstorm

WeLoveLocal

If anyone would like any further information on any aspect of the event, or to see a copy of David Shieldhouses presentation, please send an email to info@zubka.com.

All the best,
Zubka

Diary date - Essential Web, London 27th June 2007

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:40:35 +0000

Hello,

Next week Essential Web, the one day event that showcases and celebrates Europes web innovators, comes to London. Designed to give a platform to upcoming and already hot web businesses, at the same time as kicking off comment, question and debate with expert panelists and the audience, the agenda also includes numerous networking opportunities for the entrepreneurs, investors and corporations in attendance.

David Shieldhouse, Zubkas Co-Founder and CEO, is presenting on the day in a session entitled "Bringing people together in trust-based environments: the next wave of online communities" along with the likes of WAYN, Jaiku, LouderVoice and ParkatmyHouse. The session is chaired by expert panelists Chris Seth, UK Managing Director of Piczo Inc, Judy Gibbons, Venture Development at Accel Partners and Paul Walsh, CEO of Segala who will together look at how the battle for trust, loyalty and attention will be fought and won now that the internet population has reached critical mass.

Zubkas focus on trusted referrals from our users to companies and recruiters looking to hire skilled staff is the core of our model and something that has captured the imagination of people all over the world. In an online universe rife with multiple demands for your attention at every turn, the success to date of our business - using word of mouth alone until recently - makes Zubka a highly relevant and interesting example for the session.

The full agenda includes information on the timetable so do take a look to see who else will be presenting and please join our session or come and say Hello if you get the opportunity on the day.

All the best,
Zubka

Juicy new recruitment business!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:11:06 +0000

Hi there,

We attended a launch last week for the most fabulous recruitment resource weve seen since Zubka! Called Recruitment Juice, this company is set to reinvigorate and improve training within the recruitment industry with a series of high quality, innovative training DVDs. A totally fresh approach to recruitment training, the launch product - a box set of 6 DVDs focused on all areas of new business in recruitment - looks like it will be the first in a complete series which will build to cover every aspect that matters to the sector.

Headed up by Matt Trott and Roy Ripper, both accomplished and established recruitment professionals in their own right, Recruitment Juices aim is to motivate, educate, inspire and entertain and its safe to say that we think they have achieved this already!

If you do just one thing today, make it a visit to the site to watch the introduction clips and you'll see what we mean. Weve now watched them all a number of times and keep going back for more!

Zubka wishes Recruitment Juice all the best with its new business and has already placed an advance order for Series 2!

Have a great weekend everyone,
Zubka

Zubka Survey - Did your dreams come true?

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:26:50 +0000

Hello there,

A bit of light-hearted fun to start the day with - Zubka has launched a new survey to find out a little bit more about how your career dreams measure up with what you're doing today. The working world is very different than it was even just ten years ago and so many of us will have gone in a new career direction to take advantage of emerging markets and business models.

We know that, even just two years ago, none of us would have known we'd be working at Zubka, driving forwards new ways for recruiters and companies all over the world to access the skilled people they need to make their businesses grow. In fact, aged 17, one of us wanted to be a chef, another an architect - and one was even marked out as a pop singer! We'd love to know how your career plans measure up.

Everything is of course 100% anonymous and the survey will only take a couple of minutes to complete so please do click on the following link and we'll announce the results in a few weeks time.

Career Dreams and Realities

Have a great day,
Zubka

Vacancy Spotlight - Mourant

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:09:50 +0000

Hello everyone,

Some very interesting companies have been posting their vacancies onto Zubka recently. With hundreds of different roles on the board currently, we thought drawing your attention to some of the most exciting opportunities would probably be a useful exercise!

One that has particularly caught our eye is Mourant, the specialist services group with award-winning expertise in third party administration, offshore law and private client services. With a truly global focus, offices in the key financial markets around the world and a market-leading client base, this company has been established for 60 years and offers a fantastic range of careers for motivated, committed high achievers.

Mourant is currently looking to Zubka referrers to recommend people to roles in London, Luxembourg and Jersey. Heres a quick overview:

Lawyer (Funds / Finance), Jersey
With a referral reward of £3,600 and a salary of £60-80,000, the ideal candidate for this role will already be a qualified solicitor, barrister or advocate in a recognised jurisdiction.

PA to Chief Executive, London
With a referral reward of £2,400 and a salary of £35-40,000, the ideal candidate for this role will have a good standard of education, great experience and an ability to deal with sensitive information and engage with all levels of personnel.

System Business Analyst, Luxembourg
With a referral reward of £2,400 and a salary of £35-40,000, the ideal candidate for this role will have relevant skills, background, experience and qualifications, along with the ability to work in Jersey.

Chartered Company Secretary, Luxembourg
With a referral reward of 2000 and a salary of 30-50,000, the ideal candidate for this role will be French-speaking, able to work in Luxembourg and have at least 6 years of relevant experience.

Senior Fund Administrator, Jersey
With a referral reward of £1,600 and a salary of £25-40,000, the ideal candidate will have a few years previous experience, along with excellent communication skills and independent initiative.

With such a wide-ranging selection of positions in various wonderful cities around Europe, were sure that many of you reading this will know exactly who youd like to recommend for a role. For further information on the requirements and role or to refer someone you know today, simply click on the links above, or click here to see the latest vacancies Mourant has on the Zubka job board.

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Online networks increasingly invaluable to professional life

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:36:56 +0000

Hello there,

We noticed a great story on Onrec today about an Institute for Corporate Productivity survey which provides some strong statistics about the use of online networks by professionals. As you all know, Zubka was conceived to take advantage of this growing phenomenon for the recruitment industry and these figures certainly validate what weve always felt.

Were already seeing just how useful online networks are to the thousands of people referring those they know to jobs on our site. Many of our referrer members are active participants in a number of online networks and have decided to use Zubka in tandem to add value to the networks theyve already built elsewhere. Others are finding that joining networks is a great way of meeting, communicating with and ultimately referring more people to jobs on Zubka.

We do recommend you click over to read the article, but to pull out some of the most interesting elements:

65% of professionals use personal and professional networking sites
LinkedIn, Yahoo! 360 and MySpace are the most popular networks for professional use
31% use networks to assist professional development
35% use networks to assist them in finding a job
37% of those who dont use networks simply dont know which to use

These figures are testament to the fantastic range of communities and special interest groups that are springing up all over the world. LinkedIn is by far the most relevant to professionals, but we do feel that Ecademy is also worthy of further inspection and perhaps would have been included in the top 3 had the survey been conducted in the UK.

While there is no doubt a number of networks will fall by the wayside over the coming months and years, the ones that can truly engage with their audiences and provide relevant, pertinent, added-value features that help people do business better than they did before will survive and thrive in this increasingly online world.

The only real down-side to online networks in our opinion is the closed environment they operate in. At Zubka were all members of numerous communities that are relevant to our jobs and industry and they all feel like very separate universes.

Looking to the future, companies like the very clever Synature are developing ways for like-minded professionals to connect with each other on the web regardless of the network they belong to, which we think is a very interesting and somewhat necessary evolution.

All the best,
Zubka

Recruitment Industry summer BBQ - 28th June 2007

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:33:24 +0000

Hi there,

Hope youve all had a great week. Zubka has been busy attending internet industry debates and events, meeting with some great potential partners and taking the chance to catch up with our thousands of hirer, recruiter and referrer members.

Anyone reading this who is interested in getting together with other recruiters in the UK should visit The Recruiter's Network and register for the chance to attend their Summer Barbecue in London on Thursday 28th June 2007.

Organised by UK Recruiter and Broadbean, and sponsored by The Guardian, CV-Library and Zubka, it promises to be a great fun night of networking and socialising with some of the leading companies in the industry today. Were expecting the event to be incredibly popular so the sooner you get your name down on the list, the better!

Weve already visited the venue, sampled the food and ambience - and also taken the chance to sit in the garden enjoying the sunshine while we planned the specifics. Its safe to say that all of the sponsors are going to ensure a great time is had by all.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone, and well be back with more news and views after the bank holiday break.

Zubka.

All aboard the HR Forum!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:37:24 +0000

Zubka spent three days at sea last week on the HR Forum - a whirlwind series of meetings and networking which gave us the chance to engage with some leaders of the HR community.

The event included keynote speakers such as BJ Cunningham and Charles Leadbeater who both delivered entertaining, astute presentations on topics ranging from brand leadership to the rise of the mass innovation economy.

Many HR Directors we spoke to echoed what Zubka knows already - that good companies need better ways to find great staff. Zubka's model, which uses our global referrer community to identify and activate the highly skilled, often passive candidates out of reach of the usual recruitment tactics, certainly struck a chord. We were really pleased with both the reception we got and the excitement we generated with this impressive audience.

We'll be telling you more about some of these companies and how they're using Zubka in due course and we also have some great ideas we'll share as soon as we can about bringing to the fore the real issues close to the heart of HR professionals all over the world.

Many, many thanks to the fantastic team at Richmond Events who pulled everything together with finesse and style - we look forward to seeing you all again next year.

All the best,
Zubka.

The wonderful world of widgets

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:53:06 +0000

Hi everyone,

Zubka attended Media Widgetised, part of the inaugural Widget Week, last night - a debate organised by Chinwag and the wonderful Deidre Molloy that brought together some of the leading pioneers in this burgeoning area. Steve Bowbrick, one of the original internet entrepreneurs, chaired the proceedings with a firm hand and fabulously dry wit.

The panel was comprised of Mark Taylor, Head of Content at Eircom, George Berkowski, Head of Internet Strategy at BT Retail, Fergus Burns, CEO & Founder of nooked, Jonathan Gabbai, Solutions Manager at eBay and Kaj Häggman, Business Development Manager & Inventor of WidSets, all of whom were highly engaging and insightful commentators on the current state of play and possible future developments.

One of the most interesting and entertaining elements of the evening was the attempt to define a widget - our personal favourite was one suggested from the floor of website 'tear-off' strips, although Ivan Pope's descriptor of widgets in effect being the 'bumper stickers of the internet', which was proposed by one of the panel, was also both intuitive and very well received. The purpose of the widget was also delved into - with terms such as de (and re!) portalisation bouncing around the room.

In a nutshell we at Zubka feel winning widgets of the future will be those which provide a real, accountable value - either informative or financial - for those utilising them if they are going to realise their full potential.

While 'widget' is a new and admittedly hyped term, the concept and reality has been around for some time now - thanks to Google AdSense. We've yet to see something that has the pervasive potential of this one - but with all the excitement, development and activity in this field, we think the future holds great promise.

Anyone interested in further reading should check out Chinwag's Widget Week page for information.

Happy hunting everyone,
Zubka

A closer look at the Zubka community

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:24:23 +0000

Hello everyone,

Following a very positive response to the posting where we told you more about the kinds of people who were using us, we thought wed do it again! This time, wed like to introduce you to Greg Grimer, one of our members who is using Zubka to hire people as well as to refer those he knows to jobs on our board.

Greg lives in Kent in the UK and is the Founder of Voices in Business, a highly innovative service that invites leading experts in different fields to discuss the opportunities and challenges of their sector. Using the latest collaborative technology and publishing the interviews as podcasts, Voices in Business encourages innovation and best practice at the same time as delivering thought leadership opportunities for those interviewed.

Before setting this business up, he ran a company that specialised in high-level identification and qualification of large sales opportunities within financial services firms dealing with a wide range of organisations including banks, broker dealers, hedge funds and investment managers. Gregs previous career has seen him working with a number of international markets and has enabled him to build up an impressive network of contacts.

As the archetypal new business salesperson, Greg is always looking out for new ways to add value to the relationships hes developed and Zubka has opened up a new world of valuable opportunities for this seasoned networker. Apart from the rewards to be gained by referring people he knows to jobs on Zubka, Greg has had 39 of his contacts sign up to the service too, meaning that any successful referral by them in turn also rewards him.

Greg is also using Zubka to find the right people for his new venture. Voices in Business is currently seeking a Pharmaceutical / Bio Tech industry player to drive this sector of its business forwards. If you know anyone who might fit the bill, then refer them on and watch out for more vacancies from this company on the job board as it thrives and moves into more industries too.

He told us: I really see the value of this type of model and the additional opportunities it brings to me both personally and professionally. The benefits as both a referrer and hirer are significant and Im already working on referring people for a number of vacancies posted on Zubka - as well as looking to source Zubka referred candidates for my business.

This is just one example of the thousands of people we currently have using the service. If you have an interesting story to tell about Zubka or would like to see yourself showcased on the blog please do get in touch.

To learn more about Gregs business, go to Voices in Business or to look at the job he is currently seeking candidates for click here.

Happy hunting,
Zubka

Discovering a new world of opportunity at EREC

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:55:31 +0000

Hello everyone,

Last week was wonderfully busy due to the EREC exhibition in London. Now that the stand is packed away, the new members have been confirmed and were finally back in the office, we thought wed take a minute to let you know how we got on.

Firstly, EREC was a great way for us to meet many of our members face to face for the very first time. Thanks to everyone who made sure they dropped by the stand and we really enjoyed finding out first hand how youre getting on. We also got the chance to explain what we do and how we do it to the hundreds of new contacts we met. Everyone seemed to be really excited about our new recruitment model and we made a number of new friends which well tell you more about in due course. Many of these are now members of Zubka so wed like to welcome all of you on board and say thanks for all your great questions and ideas about how to get maximum value from being a part of our referral recruitment revolution!

David Shieldhouse, Zubkas Co-founder & CEO, presented at the associated conference too, providing some valuable insight into the concept of the referral, how it fits into recruitment and where the industry as a whole is heading in the future. A quick show of hands by attendees indicated that within the executive recruitment market, over 80% of people had already been involved in a recruitment referral which certainly validates the research we conducted before we launched and the potential of our service.

If youd like further information about the presentation or we can help you with anything else, please just drop us an email at blog@zubka.com or post a comment.

All the best,
Zubka

Recruitment in 2020

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:07:39 +0000

Yesterday Zubka attended the launch of Recruitment 2020: How recruitment is changing and why it matters - the result of a nine month research project by Demos, the 'think tank for everyday democracy'. It represents the most comprehensive and holistic review of the future of the recruitment undertaken by such a body and contains valuable recommendations about both the nature of and ideal reactions to expected social and market developments. Designed to inspire public debate, we highly recommend everyone, from professional recruiters to job seekers themselves, takes a look at the findings.

Zubka was one of more than 40 experts interviewed during the research process. As pioneers of the referral recruitment model, we have analysed the wealth of technological advances of recent years to extract the key requirements for business success in today's web 2.0 world and it is interesting to see how well they marry with the findings of Duncan O'Leary and Niamh Gallagher, the report's authors. The research includes a section on web 2.0 and how it will be harnessed successfully in recruitment. Zubka's model is presented as an evolution of existing capability due to its fair and focused reward structure and its ability to tap into the elusive passive candidate market.

At the event itself, Demos was joined by Phillipa Heard, HR Director at ITV and Geoff Armstrong, Director General of the Chartered Institute of Personnel, who both gave insightful comment about their experiences, understanding and expectations for the future to a packed room of policy-makers, industry players and press. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all at Demos for developing this research and look forward further debate both with our peers and all of our Zubka users.

All the best,
Zubka.

One week to EREC 2007

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:40:14 +0000

Hello,

With just one week to go before all the excitement and activity of EREC 2007, we wanted to give you a quick reminder of the details. If any of you are in London on the 2nd or 3rd of May youll find us on stand E9 at Excel in the Docklands so please do come by to say hello. Weve got a special promotion running at the show where were going to give away a luxury weekend for two in Paris to one lucky visitor it could be you!

Zubka works hard to create and give fair and valuable rewards to the people using our service and we felt that being whisked away to Paris on Eurostar Premier Business for a spot of shopping, dining and a night in a fine hotel would be a great way to say thanks for supporting us. You never know, you might meet someone along the Seine who turns out to be the prefect candidate for a job you see on the site, which would make the trip doubly rewarding!

If youd like to register for free to attend EREC, just click here and if youd like to book some time for a proper sit-down chat at the show, please just let us know.

All the best,
Zubka

PS Dont forget that David Shieldhouse, our Co-founder and CEO, will be talking about our revolutionary business and how it can change your world on Wednesday 2nd of May at 3.30pm.

Zubka can make you a $ Million!

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:55:06 +0000

Have you noticed the rewards piling up on the site recently? At the current exchange rate, there's now over $1 million USD in the pot waiting to be claimed by you when you successfully refer people you know to jobs posted on Zubka.

This makes us the most rewarding referral recruitment service on the market today, and gives you an idea of where we're heading in the future. We offer more rewards per role than any other similar service and are continually evolving how we work with both referrers and hirers to make sure we keep on leading the field.

As we have referrers in 84 countries around the globe, we thought you might like to get to know each other a little:

...one of you has got 241 of their friends to sign up to the service, meaning you'll get an introduction reward of around £300 each and every time they complete a referral - clever and lucrative move!

...another referrer, who lives in India, is using their international network to refer people they know in the UK to great jobs over here - great example of the global reach of Zubka.

...at a local level, we also have someone referring a friend living in the next street for a job in the same town - how's that for community service?!

...on the reward front, two of you are about to receive cheques for £4,000 GBP for referring friends you know to jobs they are going to be great at, while the highest amount we've paid out so far is £5600 GBP for a single referral.

Keep writing in to let us know your stories and successes - and keep on referring as the next big cheque we write could have your name on it!

All the best,
Zubka

Agency spotlight - Recruiters using Zubka to increase candidate flow

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:24:14 +0000

Zubka works with a wide range of recruitment agencies as well as those businesses that prefer to hire direct. In fact, many of them have been supporting our model and using our service since we started in August last year. Zubka vastly increases the talent pool they can dip into on behalf of their clients and can be used in tandem with any other recruitment method. Working with Zubka can deliver a higher success ratio, increasing their business potential and speeding up the cycle.

We therefore currently have a fantastic, growing selection of agency-managed roles for you all to refer your contacts to. Here are a few highlights:

Alexander Rhodes posted their first vacancy on the service back in October 2006. An industry leading boutique search firm focussed on the acquisition and delivery of senior and high profile sales professionals, it specialises in the internet, media and information arenas. The company is now looking for skilled people to take on various roles for a number of their clients. Click here to view the jobs now and refer someone you know to a great new job from Alexander Rhodes.

Circle Recruitment is a leader in the provision of recruitment consultancy services across several sectors, predominantly IT, human resources and statistical analysis. They are looking to Zubka referrers to recommend candidates for a total of 7 internal and client vacancies with locations ranging from key cities in the north of England, all the way to Dubai. Click here to view the roles and refer a friend.

Hays Specialist recruitment is one of Zubkas newest agency members. The UKs largest listed recruitment group and a global leader with offices across 24 countries is looking to Zubka referrers to recommend candidates for a consultant vacancy in their London office, based in the West End. Not requiring any previous experience in the industry, this could be perfect for someone looking to strike out in a new direction. Take a closer look at the requirements and refer someone today by clicking here.

The Nexus group of companies offer HR with a difference, with a suite of products and services designed to maximise their clients potential. Another recruitment business which saw early on the potential of Zubkas referrers, Nexus is looking to source candidates on behalf of their clients for 6 different roles. To see more and refer someone you know, click here.

Spring Personnel is part of the Spring Group plc, one of the UKs leading human capital companies. Specialising in IT and telecoms personnel, general staff and training, the business is one of the largest recruitment agencies in the UK. Spring Personnel was one of our earliest agency members, joining in August 2006 and it currently has 7 positions on offer. Interestingly, these are all jobs for Spring Personnel themselves rather than their clients so any referrer who has relevant contacts in the recruitment industry they feel is ready for a new challenge should click here to find out how.

Were really pleased that these and all our other recruitment agency members have joined our referral recruitment revolution and look forward to giving you further updates down the line.

All the best,
Zubka.

Report on Red Herring Top 100 Winners from VME 2007, Cannes

blog@zubka.com (Zubka) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:56:43 +0000

It seems like a lifetime away already but we left Red Herring Europe 100 Cannes just a few short days ago. Great event, great bunch of people, good food - and good grief thirty bucks for a gin and tonic?! Even so, us Zubka people are pretty happy I have to tell you. Since the beginning of the year we have secured the backing of the leading VC in our space, Benchmark Capital, and acquired the excellent skills and support of their Venture Partner, Klaus Hommels, on our board.

Here are some of the people we came across in Cannes that we thought really stood out so this is more the Zubka 5 rather than the Red Herring 100:

WAYN
The guys behind this venture certainly had a sparkle in their eyes as Alex Vieux, publisher of Red Herring, commented. Their presentation was fresh, exciting and you could see that the two presenters were so in synch with the business they can almost read each others minds. With the sea of social networks already in existence I guess they have their work cut out but they have a great offering and their passion for it was very engaging.

3V Transaction Services
I cant help thinking that the concept behind this, although not completely new, is going to lead to a successful outcome if executed correctly. While PayPal and Google Checkout do have an obvious lead in this field as the Red Herring profile on 3V says, not everyone wants to enter their credit card details online. Benchmark backed therefore definitely one to watch!

Chronicle Solutions
A company we know well as it is also a customer of Zubka. With SOX and Homeland Security creating ever-increasing issues for commercial and federal organisations respectively, Chronicles netReplay will undoubtedly make life much easier for executives trying to manage runaway employee communications.

Pixsta
The PhD grads from Oxford who came up with this have a potential goldmine here. I was blown away by the potential for not just the existing application but others too. The patented technology based on algorithms that analyses pixel impressions of an image to look for similar examples could also be applied to, well, anything you can think of. Currently focusing on the fashion sector which is a great place to start, I think these guys will be winners if they have good advice from a savvy board. The profile says they have only had to raise $200,000 to date so theyre well placed for ramping up for the next stage, whatever that is. Go Pixsta!

wunderLOOP
We like wunderLOOP as our very own Klaus Hommels is an investor, but a company that can really drill down into user behaviour and successfully harness this data and power for the web advertiser is incredible. Michael Kleindl, Chairman, made a convincing case and we look forward to seeing how they do.

OK, thats it back to work!

Best,
David Shieldhouse
Co-founder and CEO

PS We were going to add ZYB onto our list too for having the cheek to come up with a name that places them at the end of the profile section, pushing Zubka up into second to last place! Of course, their ability to provide secure management and sharing of mobile phone data online is kind of cool too