Am I missing the point of HireMeNow.com?

I came across HireMeNow.com a few days ago while surfing the Interwebs. From looking at the HireMeNow website, it is marketing itself as the “first online temporary employment marketplace, where employers can recruit for their own temps from their database of candidates and pay an across-the-board mark-up of 42%. Candidates get to name their own price and sign up for free, promising that they will never have to deal with a staffing agency again. 

Let’s take a closer look at what HireMeNow.com (or doesn’t) offers.

For candidates:

I’m not aware of temporary staffing firms that ask you to pay for an application. Without candidates/applicants, our databases are worth nothing. In fact, we go through great lengths to seek candidates out. A candidate should never have to pay a staffing firm to sign up, not even to utilize a service such as getting a video resume done.  It is counterintuitive for a temporary staffing firm to charge people for signing up.

Temporary staffing firms, their recruiters, in particular, are your advocates. They are not there to make your life difficult. They screen your resumes, copy-edit them in case you missed any typos or grammatical errors, reformat them in their clients’ preferred formats, submit them through their clients’ preferred methods, prep you before you meet their clients in an interview. They can give you insights about their clients that you would not otherwise get just posting your resume out on a job board.

The website features a testimonial from a Global VP of Human Relations: 

“I never understood why I had to rely on a temp agency to pick workers for me - I would rather do it myself - online, faster, cheaper, better. With HireMeNow.com, now I can.” 

42% is TOO EXPENSIVE FOR A PAYROLL SERVICE
At 42% mark-up, you are taking on the recruiting process and just having HireMeNow payroll the workers. This option is actually available through your temporary agency, at a much LOWER cost. I am willing to bet that there are agencies out there who would love to payroll a worker that you found yourself at 32%, way less than the 42% that HireMeNow is quoting. For a much lower rate, a temporary agency will even do a background check for you. It would cost you a “small fee” on top of HireMeNow’s 42%. 

Heck, depending on the position, some will even recruit at 42% mark-up. They will source, qualify, interview, coordinate interviews between you and your candidate, do hire paperwork, etc. All that, for 42% mark-up. If you can’t find an agency that will do that, send me an e-mail. 

While it might seem “faster, cheaper, better” to hire a temporary worker yourself, there are many things to consider. Is it really cost-effective for an executive to spend time sourcing, qualifying, interviewing, recruiting, on-boarding a temporary worker? Perhaps, for one or two contingent workers. But even then, as I said, 42% is way above industry standards. 

Am I missing totally missing the point about HireMeNow?