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Randstad fund invests in online employee referrals platform

September 22, 2014

Randstad Holding nv invested in online employee referrals platform RolePoint through its Randstad Innovation Fund. It is the third investment for the fund, which Randstad launched in March. Its other online investments included Gigwalk and Twago.

“With RolePoint, companies circumvent time-consuming or expensive methods like recruitment agencies or traditional direct hire,” according to Entrepreneur magazine. “Instead the online platform taps a company’s employees to find candidates within their professional networks and refer them to the hiring manager.”

RolePoint has bases in San Francisco, New York and London.

“Randstad Innovation Fund’s third investment this year — after Gigwalk and Twago — demonstrates that at least parts of the staffing industry are getting very serious about the impact of new technology and platform models on the future of staffing,” said Andrew Karpie, affiliate analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts. “Employee referrals have long been cited as one of the most effective and efficient sources-of-hire. RolePoint applies new technologies (social, analytics, mobile, etc.) to supercharge this referral process and make it even more productive as a way of acquiring talent.”

The Randstad Innovation Fund’s representative areas of current investment interest include online platforms, recruiting via social media, candidate search and interviewing tools, talent and referral communities, mobile solutions, applicant tracking systems and sales support tools.

“With this investment in RolePoint, we intend to bring a competitive advantage to our organization and clients,” said Linda Galipeau, executive board member at Randstad. “RolePoint’s platform gives a new level of efficiency and engagement in internal mobility and external social sourcing.”