31 December 2025
31 December 2025
The online job‑seeking experience should be simple, transparent, and safe. Instead, many applicants face a confusing landscape filled with misleading adverts, unverifiable recruiter profiles, aggressive agency tactics, and widespread data misuse. Increasingly, people question whether roles are genuine, who will see their personal data, and why the hiring process feels so opaque.
Kaplunk was created to remove that uncertainty. And from day one, we made a deliberate choice: if we were going to challenge the norms of an industry worth tens of billions of pounds annually, we needed to build something fundamentally different—and fundamentally safer.
Kaplunk’s foundations were shaped through extensive early consultation with the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) — the government regulator responsible for enforcing fairness and legal compliance across the recruitment industry. These conversations gave us a deep understanding of:
For decades, the traditional recruitment ecosystem has operated within a commercial structure where applicants often feel like “commodities.” Salary details are routinely hidden, employer identities withheld, and CVs collected even when roles are unclear or speculative.
This is why many job boards and recruitment companies do not provide full transparency about employer identities, salaries, or data usage:
Kaplunk challenges this entire model.
Job seekers increasingly report:
Kaplunk offers a transparent alternative:
Kaplunk was built with a dual purpose:
to save employers money and to empower applicants.
Employers can hire directly without paying percentage‑based recruitment commissions or repeated placement fees — a significant advantage during rising operating costs.
Applicants gain the freedom to present their skills, experience, and personality directly to employers, without gatekeepers influencing their chances. This creates a fairer, more authentic connection between candidates and organisations.
Most mainstream job boards avoid prominently listing regulator details such as the EAS, Acas, or the EAI because:
Kaplunk does the opposite — because transparency protects people.
Challenging long‑standing structures naturally brings resistance. Before launching, Kaplunk conducted deep research into recruitment practices and compared findings with publicly available EAS guidance. The issues we uncovered aligned with what job seekers have reported for years.
When a platform disrupts an industry built on intermediaries and fees, it is not unusual for some voices within that industry to respond defensively. New models that prioritise transparency and applicant empowerment can be misunderstood, dismissed, or mischaracterised by those invested in existing systems.
This reaction reflects discomfort, not the validity of Kaplunk’s mission.
We remain focused on facts, ethics, and delivering a safer, more transparent job‑seeking experience.
Kaplunk strongly supports the publicly available guidance and values promoted by JobsAware, an organisation dedicated to helping workers stay safe and informed. Although not partnered or affiliated, we align with their ethics in practice.
Guidance:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-a-complaint-to-the-employment-agency-standards-inspectorate-eas-about-your-recruitment-agency
Complaint form:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 020 4566 5333
Guidance: https://www.acas.org.uk/agency-workers/if-theres-a-problem-with-the-agency
Helpline: 0300 123 1100
Employment Agency Inspectorate for NI.
Kaplunk exists to make job seeking safer, clearer, and more respectful. We believe applicants deserve transparency, fair treatment and real opportunities — not systems built on hidden incentives.
A key question guides us:
Why should a recruitment company receive a fee simply because a person wants to work?
In the current cost‑of‑living crisis, this matters more than ever.
Kaplunk stands for ethical recruitment, direct employer hiring, and the belief that the sector needs stronger independent regulation to protect applicants.
A safer job search shouldn’t be rare.
With Kaplunk, it becomes the standard.
