An app-based recruitment solution which matches job-seekers to employers by mobile phone in the style of a digital matching service has been launched by Glasgow-based recruitment group, Nine Twenty. The app, which has been secured by Nine Twenty as a “white-labelled” product from Scottish technology entrepreneur Mike Hughes, is aimed at revolutionising the world of recruitment, especially for businesses with small numbers of staff.

The app, conceived, developed and applied by Mr Hughes’s business, Hiire in Glasgow, has already been adopted by more than 50 employers, predominantly in the hospitality industry in Scotland and has established a database of more than 1000 candidates. Gordon Brown, CEO of Nine Twenty, believes the customised app will allow his company to reach employers in SMEs who have not previously used recruitment businesses such as his.

He said: “Mike’s app is a phenomenal breakthrough in matching staff with employers in SMEs and micro-businesses and we intend to use it throughout the country. The Nine Twenty team is looking forwarding to using the app as another innovative tool to manage our client’s recruitment requirements.”

 Mr Hughes, the former COO of Sword Group, a £100 million company employing 1000 people, predicts that Hiire will grow to 20 million users by 2022 and achieve a value of £95 million. He said: “Hiire is designed to remove the frustration and the time-wasting within the recruitment process and ensure that employers can easily source people who are ideally suited to the vacancy.

 “As well as Nine Twenty, we are in talks with a number of organisations who want to white-label the Hiire app to help them address many of the barriers they are currently experiencing in getting their message to the right people”, he said.