Multi Recruit - Offering a 'fixed cost multiple hire' value proposition to employers
“As they say once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. I was one at an early age, then I went to work for other companies but here I am again. Can’t keep the entrepreneurial bug off for long,” says Praveen Kumar DK, founder of Multi Recruit. He describes it as a prepaid fixed low cost recruitment solution for all companies which use internet to hire.
Praveen was born and brought up in a business family in Bangalore with ancestral business in textiles. He started his first company as a partner with his elder brother in food distribution at the age of 18. He migrated to London in November 2005 and started working for Loot Ltd as media sales executive and worked his way up to the manager of the team. Simultaneously he started Vachi UK Ltd, which used to deal in fashion accessories but did not do well. He went back to working again and joined one of UK’s job board totaljobs.com.
Praveen says, “Fixed low cost recruitment is big business in UK. A few of the clients I used to manage were doing very well and I thought to myself if the similar concept can be introduced to the Indian market. I started research & planning and found that this approach to recruitment is new and would do very well in India as there was no other company in India offering what I was thinking for Multi Recruit.”
He had come to India on a holiday in 2012 and discussed his idea to start up again with his first cousin Shashank, who had been working in the recruitment industry for more than 8 years. Shashank was very eager and wanted to be a part of Multi Recruit. Everything seemed perfect to Praveen. He has always been in sales and Shashank backed the idea with his recruitment experience. They started setting up the company and were finally operational in March 2013 and are currently a team of 7.
“We specialize in prepaid fixed low cost recruitment solutions. We do not charge the clients the traditional 8.33% nor one month’s salary,” shares Praveen. Multi Recruit gives its clients four packages they can choose from depending on how much the client wants them involved in their recruitment process and on the budget. They offer advertising vacancy on multiple job sites, generating volume and variety of resumes, emailing candidates, initial screening of CV’s and shortlisting relevant candidates. They offer multiple hires at one fixed cost. Praveen quotes an example, “One of our clients hired 3 Sharepoint developers through the our Premium+ plan at a cost of Rs. 15,999 + tax thus saving them almost 2.4 lakhs if they had chosen to hire through traditional recruitment consultants who charge 8.33% and more.”
As Multi Recruit website says that they are trying to solve the recruitment woes of startups and SMBs, we were curious to know how startups fit in their potential client list as most of the startups hire on a very personal level. To this Praveen says, “Recruitment for startups is definitely done on a personal basis but as the company starts to grow the process changes and that’s when systems are put in place. Our recruitment solutions are customized to cater to all companies. Our target market is very huge. All companies who are using job sites to advertise their vacancy, companies who are using traditional recruitment consultants, companies who have their own in house recruitment teams, companies looking for alternate sources of hiring.”Most of the clients they approached were used to the traditional methods of recruitment and there was resistance to change. On top of that, all their services are prepaid which became a major hurdle. “As we are a start-up, clients were hesitant to pay upfront for recruitment. We do not offer any replacement if the candidate leaves the company in one month or 3 months,” says Praveen.
But in the course of seven months, Multi Recruit claims to have worked with more than 50 clients including start-ups, SMEs and bigger organizations. Multi Recruit considers all companies providing recruitment services and solutions as their competitors. Praveen says, “Cost per hire, which talent acquisition team of every organization is trying to reduce, is our added advantage as we help recruit many for less money.” Multi Recruit is keen to expand and have regional offices nationwide & increase our national & international presence. Their big dream is to reach out to all companies who believe that the future of recruitment is online.