It’s a line we’ve all read at some point in our careers: “due to the volume of applications, we cannot guarantee a response”. 

But the job description is vague and general and there’s no salary bands in sight. 

And then employers are surprised when 250+ people apply for it.

“Applicants” are thrown together in a homogenous pool of talent - given the same copy, asked the same questions. It yields the same results for employers - $3,000 in job board fees spent on a heap of unsuitable candidates to sift through. 

Employers are all looking for that unique spark. But current services for finding it address everyone in the same way - or barely address them at all. 

And very few of them are doing what Outhire is doing: reaching candidates who are “not actively looking” by deploying diverse and targeted campaigns across the places they hang out. 

And those “not actively looking” make up 70% of the global workforce.

Job board hate

With unemployment at 3.7% in Australia and job mobility at 9.5%, diversity consistently overlooked, and toxic, exclusive cultures still running rampant, it’s really rough out there for job seekers and job givers. 

Not to mention the emotional tax on struggling parents, broke graduates, and older applicants facing ageist attitudes who are just trying to eat and maybe do something fulfilling at the same time.

As much as 75% of applicants never even get a straight “no” or a “thanks for coming”. 

In the viciously competitive tech landscape, employers throw salaries at candidates with no communication of the company brand or employee value proposition (EVP).

And it’s not just in tech. Few employers know how to crystallise the brand values, company culture, or flexible working arrangements that top talent now expects to see as standard.

That same competition makes the job seeking process excruciating for applicants. And that’s where Outhire addresses a real pain point: job board hate.

Slogging through job boards provokes a kind of animosity - especially when you’re time poor. Their interfaces are tired. They make you upload your CV then retype it all out in a form. Often they’re asking you to complete tests without even advertising the salary.

Think of the difference between that and an informal chat on LinkedIn. That’s the kind of experience Outhire creates - where things feel a bit more personal, but without all the manual profile hunting. 

The missing link

Profile hunting on LinkedIn is still an okay way to recruit - as is meeting people IRL. But it’s time consuming, which is why most employers resort back to the standard job board… time and time again.

To improve their chances of hiring the best candidates, they pay those job boards – whether LinkedIn or SEEK – for the privilege of more eyeballs. But what good is that if a) all of their competitors are doing it and b) it’s only targeting people already “on platform”.

There are plenty of industries where LinkedIn is neglected entirely - seen as a stale corporate hangout that inhibits creatives and excludes manual workers. 

Employers can cast an even broader net, deploying paid ads across Google or social media to drive traffic to their post. But in truth, few employers have the time or skill to spin up ad accounts on TikTok or Meta’s Ad Manager and run a coordinated omnichannel campaign.

Outhire outshines

Instead, Outhire humanises human resources by carefully considering the employer and candidate journeys.

It uses the natural habitats of passive candidates to reach them at multiple touchpoints - whether that’s niche Reddit, Slack or Discord communities, private Facebook or Linkedin groups or mainstream socials like Instagram, X, or TikTok.

Rather than singular job ads, employers can run a full company brand campaigns circulating across socials (organic or paid) in minutes - building their reputation, differentiating them in a sea of samey recruitment media, and generating a pipeline for future talent.

Outhire wants employers in any industry, not just tech, to be able to find talent in the online spaces they’re most likely to hang out.

And with its assistance in writing and deploying the ads - AI tools that make a tired old system better for both sides - it’s kind of like a recruitment manager, copywriter, and brand manager rolled into one.

Meet the founders 

Outhire founders Matt and Will were the first engineers at Sine (acquired by Honeywell in 2020). Matt led engineering and grew the team by 400% over 18 months. 

During that growth phase, he found that the best candidates were often those “not actively looking”: the passive talent.

He tried countless strategies to access them: manual sourcing, events, external recruiters, and every job board under the sun - but cost (and time) quickly stacked up. 

This led Matt to question whether he could directly target job ads at these passive groups, in the places they hung out, whether it was X, Slack, Discord, or Reddit.

“I ended up trawling through these niche community groups on Slack, Discord and Reddit, and spotting really exceptional talent that I would have never seen otherwise”. 

Those gainfully employed hires - not looking, but would move for something better (who wouldn’t?) constitute 70% of the workforce. And incumbent job boards have no way of accessing this untapped pool. 

Because they’re not sticking their heads above the parapet, they’re not easy to spot in the wild. But the Outhire founders know where to find them. 

“Whether it’s SaaS operators, AI enthusiasts, Javascript developers, salespeople, marketers, Web3, Fintech, or any number of other niches, there really is a community for everything”. 

Many of these niche communities have dedicated job finding channels. These aren’t the people chancing their arm on jobs way over their pay grade - they’re entrenched in the industry, well connected, and passionate enough to be talking about their jobs in their spare time. 

Meet the product 

Outhire generates job descriptions including unique EVP statements for talent teams (something many get wrong or don’t bother with in the first place).

Using that description, it generates a job ad that includes text copy as well as the option of an image or auto-generated video (ideal if posting to socials). 

It then selects the best distribution channels, whether that’s one of the hundreds of Slack, Discord, LinkedIn and Facebook groups it has access to (with a total 1.4m audience reach), or paid ads on platforms like TikTok or Instagram where it can use the niche targeting criteria available to show your post to appropriate candidates.

Outhire can integrate with 30+ applicant tracking systems (ATS) like Lever and Ashby, but small teams who haven’t invested in one can track candidates within the platform. 

The insights start at the top of the funnel, allowing employers to track interest and manage applications. 

A Q&A feature allows candidates to submit ad hoc questions, and employers can respond within Outhire, giving a little kickstart to the relationship. Being able to answer dealbreaker questions early on also helps screen out unsuitable applicants - before they get to the interview.  

Outhire also does what incumbents don’t - help employers diversify. It delivers insights on masculine-coded language, diversity cues, and cues to a positive work culture. And it shows employers where they are on average salary ranges. 

Positive experiences matter. Because bad ones get talked about amongst industry talent, and alienates applicants who weren’t qualified at the time, but might’ve been an excellent acquisition 3 years down the line.

The future of hiring

Job boards used to be the first and only stop in hiring efforts. Now they’re just a part of the recruitment marketing mix. 

Outhire’s tiered subscription service is extremely affordable compared to job boards and other channels. And yet its distribution in private online communities increases both the reach of its ads, and the quality of inbound leads. 

Most talent professionals and employers aren’t copywriters or digital marketers. They don’t have the skill sets to build employer brand strategies, write engaging job descriptions without technical or exclusive language, or build targeted paid/organic social media strategies..  

They don’t know they need to sell the job, highlighting benefits, culture, growth opportunities, and the unique aspects that make it better than any other option.  

We’re excited by the giant vision Matt and Will hold for Outhire - which is to become the global hiring platform, disrupting the likes of SEEK and Indeed to take up this mantle.