Disruptive online legal recruitment marketplace Route1, which since it was founded in 2015 has won over 100 legal employers in the UK and Australia including Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Shearman & Sterling, Herbert Smith Freehills and DLA Piper, has launched a new initiative that will see it give a donation to charity instead of rewarding lawyers who refer colleagues and friends to a successful job application.
This new year Route1, which has over six thousand lawyers using its platform – a number that has grown at a rate of 300 new users a week – will donate £1,000 for each new user who finds a job through its site. The initial charity’s selected are the British Red Cross, War Child UK and Samaritan’s Purse.
Route1 plans to run this initiative until 31 March. If it is successful in raising significant amounts for British Red Cross, War Child UK & Samaritan’s Purse, it will poll its users to nominate charities that can also benefit going forward.
In a release Route1 said: “Why are we doing this? Because as a disruptor of the inefficient and costly legacy recruitment market the cost savings our technology driven solution enables us to. It also helps challenge the assumption that people will “trade” relationships for personal gain rather than for the benefit of friends and colleagues, or in this case, charity.”
Henry Allan, founder and CEO of Route1, said: “The aim here is to use technology to match talent and opportunity more efficiently than recruiters or job boards, and to pass on some of the cost savings to the less fortunate among us. We hope this initiative incentivises our users to let their friends and colleagues know about our new, efficient, way to find legal jobs, for the right reasons – raising money for causes that mean a lot to us and to them.”