How do you find and attract passive jobseekers? And how do you ensure a successful match between a vacancy and a candidate in an accessible way? Boudewijn Dekker and Geert Rutten, together with Geert’s brother Thomas Rutten, developed the JobQ platform. The platform is affiliated with the ‘Attracting and Retaining Talent’ working group of the Human Capital Agreement
“Four in ten people are unhappy or dissatisfied with their job; these are latent jobseekers,” Dekker begins. “Their LinkedIn profiles do not say ‘open to work’ and they do not respond to job vacancies.” According to Rutten, this is an interesting group. “So these people are actually interested in a new, better-suited job. But the question is: how do we find this group?” As the entrepreneurs themselves have experienced how difficult it is to find and retain good staff, these questions led the pair to come up with the idea for JobQ: a platform where candidates apply for jobs on their own terms.
Chat request
A key feature of the platform is that candidates hardly need to fill in any details about themselves when registering. “They simply state what they want to do, what they want to earn and how they want to work. A CV or cover letter isn’t required,” explains Boudewijn. The candidate’s profile is then added to the database. Employers can search this database for the ideal candidate.
Geert: “So it works the other way round. The employer ‘applies’ to the candidate. This is done via a chat request. The candidate decides for themselves whether to respond. If so, there’s a brief initial contact via chat, or a short video call. If there’s a good connection, a standard job interview can then be scheduled.”
Boudewijn Dekker and Geert Rutten of matching platform JobQ: "With us, employers find the candidates they would otherwise not reach."
Anonymous
The candidate’s profile remains anonymous until the first contact. “That, too, is a bit different,” says Rutten. And the same applies to the fact that it is immediately clear to all parties what the candidate wants to earn.
Dekker: “It’s not about applying for a job, but about finding out whether you deserve better.” Geert: “Where ‘deserve’ naturally stands for more than just money, but also for better working hours or, for example, a shorter commute. It is precisely this transparency that is beneficial for both the candidate and the employer. After all, it’s a waste of everyone’s time if you only realise during the third interview that the terms of employment aren’t a good fit.”
Campaign
The marketing campaign to raise the organisation’s profile among candidates has just been launched. The entrepreneurs are initially focusing on the wider healthcare sector and installation engineering. Many employers have already come forward. Dekker: “Employers find candidates through us whom they wouldn’t otherwise reach. They may have to put in a bit more effort during that initial screening process, but after that they know the terms and conditions are set in stone.” Rutten concludes: “We believe that with JobQ we are truly setting a new standard. A platform for real jobs with real contracts.”
JobQ is affiliated with one of the working groups of the Human Capital Agreement. This agreement was signed on 13 April 2023 by the province of Gelderland, The Economic Board, the Arnhem-Nijmegen Green Metropolitan Region, the labour market regions in Gelderland, businesses and knowledge institutions.
Through this agreement, the parties have agreed to work together towards a productive labour market. A labour market where supply and demand are well aligned, in order to tackle shortages in the healthcare, technology and energy sectors. Working groups have been set up to implement the agreement. These working groups comprise representatives from the education sector, government and the business community.
