App offers up to $2,000 for successful job applicants and referrals
Jerry Gou and David He both agreed that their app REACH is looking for growth, not for profit at the moment. Photo: Dora Liu/The Dialog
It seems too good to be true. The four-month-old job hunting mobile app REACH, says that cash bonuses will be sent to users who refer someone who is hired for one of the listed jobs, or a user who lands a listed job and successfully goes through their probationary period.
As found in the app, the bonus can be from $100 to $2,000, which is a great incentive for job hunters exploring this new app.
However, where do these bonuses comes from? Do they come from the app or the employers?
As the app has no current advertisements, can you trust that you’ll get the bonus?
“Actually many of the companies are willing to spend money for a valuable employee,” said David He, 27, one founder of REACH. “Even if you post a recruitment ad on Monster, no matter if you hire your staff or not, you have to pay $300.”
He has worked as a financial analyst at a bank in Toronto for several years, as well as his partner Jared Zeppieri, 30, who also works at a bank as a senior project manager.
Having a financial and business background, “we all know about the hiring culture here. Companies are used to paying the head hunt agencies for a well fitted staff,” said He.
“Our contracted employers are free to provide a bonus to the applicants or referers,” said He, also mentioning that REACH will not charge anything from the employers or the users, they will simply suggest that the employers offer a certain amount of bonus to speed up their recruitment depending on how urgent or important their positions are.
In order to help the employers hire the most suitable employees, REACH divides a bonus into two parts, one for the successful candidate and one for the referer.
“We dug into some numbers and we found that the referral is playing a big role in recruitment,” said He. “Just like my friends would say ‘Hey, do you have any friends suitable for my job vacancy? Send me one if you do.’ People prefer referrals rather than searching in a big pool with thousands of people.”
He also said that a bonus is a good incentive to encourage people to refer talented candidates, “because the employee has to go through the probation if the referer wants to get that half part bonus.”
Other than money, for a job hunter, they may get feedback from employers regardless if they’re hired. In that, REACH has created a never-before-seen function on its app—feedback tracking.
“We know how crucial this part is. One of our partners Leo is an IT professional. He spent a year designing our program,” said He. “Once the employers mark a resume for further contact or put it in the trash, a notification will be sent to the applicants at the same time. It greatly satisfies the job hunters.”
According to Jerry Gou, another founder of REACH, who is a George Brown College marketing student, REACH has close to 1,000 app users and 300 rolling jobs per month. It also has 30 contracted business partners including TD Bank, Scotia Bank, Bank of Montreal, Maple Bridge Financial and INC. Research.
He says that “six people have gained the bonus, and two people are in the referral category.”
