A Bournemouth recruiter with more than 25 years’ experience has launched a new venture aimed at transforming graduate recruitment across the UK.

Gradhire is a video-based recruitment platform, available online or as a mobile app.

It provides a simple-to-use tool which streamlines the entire recruitment process for both employers and graduates.

Founder David Herron came up with the idea after concluding that traditional recruitment methods for hiring graduates were:

• Time-consuming
• Costly
• Did not support the effective matching of talent to roles.

Gradhire works by graduates promoting themselves to prospective employers by creating an online CV profile.

They also answer a set of pre-set video interview questions aimed at showcasing their ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills.

Employers can then get to know the real person and better assess the skills and motivations of the graduate.

When a business identifies their ideal candidate, they can purchase credits.

These range from £7.50 to £20, charged when the graduate responds to the invitation.

The figures compare to the current average hire cost of £3,383, according to the Institute of Student Employers (ISE).

Mr Herron said: “Having handled many graduate roles during my recruitment career one of my biggest frustrations is seeing candidates entering into the wrong roles having worked so hard to graduate.

“By flipping the recruitment process on its head, businesses are now able to assess a graduate’s hard and soft skills to really understand what drives and motivates them to ensure they are recruiting the right candidate for their hiring needs.”

According to research by Universities UK, the collective voice of 136 universities, 30 per cent of graduates are misplaced in roles.

That figure represents more than 100,000 graduates who enter the wrong type of role every year.

Mr Herron has an extensive background as a recruiter in Bournemouth.

He was Managing Director of Sheridan Maine (South Central & South West) for 17 years, covering Bournemouth and other areas of the South.

He also worked for other Dorset recruitment agencies, such as CMA Recruitment.

Although Gradhire is available to all businesses in the UK as an online platform, the company itself is Bournemouth-based and the app was also developed in Bournemouth.

Gradhire is free for graduates to use online or as an app on both Android and iOS devices.