NORTHAMPTON — A Berkshire-based startup called Magnetworks is making headway in the region with its new community-driven hiring tool for local businesses, prospective employees and the community at large.
The startup, whose technology combines automated referral tracking with community rewards, is hosting a “Hiring Therapy” event on Nov. 14 over Zoom in conjunction with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce where people will learn how to harness word of mouth and community referrals, reduce hiring costs and connect with local talent.
According to the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce website, the workshop will equip participants with strategies to enhance the hiring process through community connections.
“Hiring is always going to be fundamentally different; it’s been changing for years,” said Chris Meador, the head of marketing and customer success for Magnetworks. “[The workshop] will be a nice session to have a little fun and also talk about what’s not working, and then what can we talk about that’s different that could work, and how would that look for you.”
Meador is part of the leadership team at Magnetworks with CEO Eric Singer and Head of Product Development Michael Desanty about a year ago, and then the startup officially went live around six months ago.
Unlike other traditional hiring methods, the platform they created prioritizes the idea of keeping the hiring process “engaging” and “local” by using word-of-mouth and community referrals, methods that the startup says are important in a climate where the unemployment rate is at 4.1% and yet over 8 million jobs remain unfilled, according to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Because of these numbers, Magnetworks said local businesses are feeling the strain nationally and at the local level.
“Employee referrals is the number one source for hiring, and yet it’s the lowest amount of candidate volume,” Meador said. “What we’re trying to do is shift from just having employee referral programs to businesses being able to have community referral programs so that they can now reward their community in the hiring process.”
Meador said Magnetworks has built a system that local businesses can use to reward their employees or community for helping spread the word about a new position.
“You can either reward with your own goods and services, or you can reward with a good from your community,” Meador said. “And then we broker that with that and create that marketplace for you.”
According to Meador, what makes Magnetworks unique is its ability to create community motion through its reward and referral system, which they say combines technology word-of-mouth hiring to “create a fresh and effective hiring platform.”
“It’s never really been built for a community motion before which becomes interesting for hiring,” Meador said. “So, we’re able to track, we’re able to see it out, and then when the end if the hire comes through the platform, we’re able to see where the referral came through and then to reward it effectively.”
Additionally, Meador said that because Magnetworks is built for business and community, their goal is to not limit how many job posts a business can have.
“There are roles [businesses] might always need to be hiring for,” Meador said. “Frankly, you should be building that pipeline every day because if you always have to hire for that role, you should always be hiring for that role … so our point of view was we shouldn’t be limiting how many posts you should do, we should become a yearly subscription that makes it easy for you to build this community referral motion and for you then to really use this how it makes sense for you.”
So far, startup has already worked with a wide range of employers and industries across the Northeast, including Big Y, Bennington College, Westport Weston Family YMCA, UCP of Western Massachusetts, Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing and the Roosevelt Room.
Meador said they are continuing to work with mostly Western Mass. businesses now, but Magnetworks could launch in any community, he added.
“Fundamentally, I believe that if you can’t hire, you can’t do your work in your business,” Meador said. “So, I think there’s no time but right now I think the urgency is right now to start figuring this out.”
Readers can learn more about the Hiring Therapy workshop by visiting the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce website: https://tinyurl.com/nhee8kbu.
Readers can also learn more about Magnetworks by visiting its website: https://www.magnetworks.co/home.
