28 June 2026
The UK hiring industry operates without the fairness and transparency expected in a respected democracy. Employers face rising costs, candidates face identity exploitation, and recruitment agencies profit from both sides. Kaplunk exposes these issues and provides the ethical alternative.
.jpg)
Recruitment agencies dominate mainstream job boards, making genuine employer roles harder to find. Many agencies post fake jobs to harvest CVs, build identity pipelines, and resell candidate access back to employers at a fee. Job boards do not sell jobs; they sell identity access.
A major UK job board is owned by one the world’s largest recruitment company, meaning the same parent group profits from selling identity and brokering identity. This closed marketplace operates with minimal oversight.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI) is the official regulator for recruitment agencies.
EASI telephone: 020 4566 5333
Official link: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/employment-agency-standards-inspectorate
If recruitment agencies and job boards claim to serve candidates, why do they not supply these regulator details?
Why is this information hidden from the very people who need protection?
The answer is simple: providing regulator details empowers candidates — and empowered candidates threaten the recruitment industry’s business model.
Why Recruitment Fees Hurt Employers and Candidates
Every recruitment fee removes money from real people’s lives. Candidates already face commuting costs, childcare, rent, food, utilities, and student loan repayments. Employers face rising operational costs, shrinking budgets, and pressure to remain competitive.
A saved recruitment fee does more than support candidates. It gives employers the freedom to invest directly in their companies — strengthening operations, improving staff development, funding innovation, and supporting long‑term growth.
For candidates, a saved recruitment fee can make a meaningful difference. It can help parents cover childcare costs, and it can support graduates who are managing student loan repayments during the most financially vulnerable years of their careers.
Recruitment fees do not help candidates, employers, or society. They help agencies — and only agencies.
Direct hiring is the ethical alternative. It gives employers control, reduces costs, increases transparency, and restores dignity for candidates.
Kaplunk corrects the structural flaws that recruitment agencies rely on.
Kaplunk eliminates recruitment fees.
Direct‑to‑employer hiring removes commissions, identity monetisation, and fee‑based access to talent.
Kaplunk gives employers full control.
Employers own their pipeline, communicate directly, and hire faster without intermediaries or paywalls.
Kaplunk protects candidate identity.
Identity is shared only with employers. No CV marketplaces, no data brokering, no agency access.
Kaplunk aligns with regulation.
Agencies avoid EASI. Kaplunk supports regulatory oversight and transparent hiring standards.
Kaplunk ends the identity economy.
Job boards and agencies profit from identity selling. Kaplunk replaces this model with an ethical, direct‑to‑employer OS.
Kaplunk restores fairness.
Hiring should reflect democratic values: fairness, transparency, accountability, dignity, and access.
Kaplunk is not a competitor to recruitment agencies.
Kaplunk is the replacement.
.jpg)
The next decade of hiring will be shaped by ethical data practices, identity ownership, transparent workflows, and employer‑first systems. Direct hiring platforms are becoming the dominant model because they deliver fairness for employers and dignity for candidates.
Kaplunk is not reacting to this future — Kaplunk is building it.
.jpg)
The hiring industry profits from candidate identity during a cost‑of‑living crisis. Employers are held to ransom by fee‑based intermediaries
Candidates are pushed into identity‑selling pipelines. Job boards and agencies benefit from a system that lacks transparency and regulation.
Kaplunk rejects this model.
Kaplunk stands for ethical hiring, direct access, employer fairness, candidate dignity, transparent workflows, zero identity monetisation, and zero recruitment fees.
Kaplunk was created to ask the questions the industry avoids — and to build the alternative the UK needs.
Related Articles
Kaplunk
