As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:
A new online recruitment board is offering cash rewards of up to $10,000 to users who successfully refer friends, family members or other contacts for advertised job vacancies.
Launched this month, Job Bounty Hunter builds on the concept of 'social recruitment', which is similar to internal employee referral processes that have long been in use within large companies.
Andrew Stuart, founder and managing director of Melbourne-based Job Bounty Hunter, expects social recruitment to widen the reach of employers by encouraging people to tap into their social and professional networks to identify suitable recruits.
"It is becoming extremely difficult for companies to find quality candidates with the battle of the skills shortage in certain industries," he said. Using social recruitment, Stuart said employers could be "potentially having hundreds of people looking for that perfect person, rather than just a few".
The site is governed by a reputation ranking system similar to that employed by auction site, eBay, whereby advertisers and job bounty hunters can post feedback on each other at the end of each transaction. This system is expected to prevent bounty hunters from spamming their contacts and advertisers with people or positions that are not suitable.
Advertisers have so far responded well to Job Bounty Hunter's offerings, Stuart said, posting a total of more than $140,000 worth of cash bounties in the past two weeks. Advertisements encompass a broad range of IT specialities as well as legal, accounting, engineering and sales industries and are currently priced at $150 for a 30-days listing.
