Google Hire sneaking up on Seek, TradeMe Jobs

Google has confirmed it is looking to enter the online recruitment market, taking on the local dominant players, New Zealand-based Trade Me Jobs and Australian-owned Seek.

Google has registered the website address googlehire.com and a spokesman confirmed Google Hire is a product under development targeted at customers of its cloud-based G Suite productivity tools (think Gmail, Calendar, and Docs).

The product is aimed at allowing employers to manage their hiring process more effectively by collecting candidate applications online.

“Only information that a candidate voluntarily provides would be passed to a prospective employer as part of their online application. Private information will not be shared,” the Google spokesperson said.

No launch date has been set for Google Hire at this stage although Trade Me Jobs says it has been aware for some time that the online giant has been testing some moves in the employment market.

The Axios.com website last week reported Google Hire lets employers post job listings, then accept and manage applications, rivalling services such as Greenhouse and Lever. Several US-based tech companies are said to be testing the new product which is being developed under Google’s enterprise and cloud division.

A spokesman for Trade Me Jobs, one of the two major players in online recruitment in New Zealand, says there’s conflicting opinion internationally as to whether Google plans to just provide job applicant tracking for businesses or something more widespread.

The Kiwi online employment advertising market is already quite competitive, it says, which is why it has a number of new products in the pipeline.

A media spokesman for Seek says it doesn’t comment on other organisations.