Revolutionising Recruitment: How Workfully is Building a Community-First Approach to Talent Acquisition

As part of our series highlighting community partners of the Fair Barcelona Conference, - The European Workplace Inclusion Conference we're excited to share this conversation with the Paul and the team behind Workfully - a platform transforming the recruitment landscape by empowering independent recruiters while fostering a supportive professional community across Europe.

Tell me about the Workfully journey - what gap or opportunity did you see? What makes the Workfully community unique in the European business ecosystem?

The idea behind Workfully started from a simple but powerful observation: traditional recruitment was broken. We were seeing brilliant recruiters burning out inside agency models that didn’t serve them, and companies struggling to find quality talent efficiently. The gig economy had transformed so many industries, so why hadn’t recruitment caught up?

We saw an opportunity to create a platform that empowered freelance recruiters to own their work, their schedules, and their earnings, without sacrificing quality or accountability. Workfully was born from that vision: a marketplace that connects companies with top-tier independent recruiters, but also acts as a real, human community.

What makes the Workfully community truly unique in the European ecosystem is its ethos. It’s not just a place to find work, it’s a place to grow. We’ve built a values-led space where recruiters support each other, share knowledge, and build sustainable careers on their own terms. 

Looking at our partnership today - what possibilities made you say "this is the right fit"? How do you see both communities benefiting and growing together through this collaboration?

When we first explored this partnership, what stood out immediately was the shared mission. At Workfully, we’re deeply committed to building a more inclusive and accessible future of work - and partnering with a DE&I-focused community felt like a natural and powerful extension of that purpose.

This wasn’t just about reach or commercial opportunity. It was about values. We saw in your community a genuine dedication to amplifying underrepresented voices, challenging the status quo, and creating space for everyone to thrive - principles that align perfectly with what we’re building at Workfully.

Recruitment, at its best, is a force for equity. But too often, traditional models reinforce bias, limit access, and reward sameness. By joining forces, we’re hoping to create new pathways for diverse talent - not just in candidate pools, but within the recruiter community itself. We're empowering recruiters from all backgrounds to lead hiring processes that reflect the world we want to live in.

Can you share some special moments you've witnessed within the Workfully community? What kind of connections and relationships have you seen develop that really stand out?

I think for me the big thing which made me go from an invested optimist to a believer in what this community could be was one simple act. It was when I started to see the recruiters supporting each other. With no prompting and no financial incentive they just wanted to help. 

In a community of independent consultants who could be seen as being in competition with each other this was something that I was really happy to see and something I always hoped (and probably deep down should've known) I would see.

The power of community is vital when the company colleague model is removed and our recruiters instinctively knew it.

How has leading this community shaped your own professional journey? What drives you to keep building and nurturing this community?

Leading this group has changed the way I think about work, leadership, and growth. I’ve always cared deeply about people - their stories, their ambitions, their potential. But Workfully has challenged me to work on new ways I can support them. I am not their manager, nor should I pretend to be but I feel we have a duty to provide access to growth, development and opportunities to learn.

It’s also made me more committed than ever to building things that are not just scalable, but human. Completely hands-off will never work for this industry, we are all people people!

What keeps me going is the belief that the future of recruitment - and work itself - is more distributed than what we’ve seen in the past. And we’re just getting started.

Where do you see Workfully's biggest opportunities for impact in the coming years? How might this partnership help realise that vision?

Looking forward, I think Workfully has the potential to redefine what a recruiter is. We’re already seeing the lines blur - recruiters are also talent marketers, community builders, and data analysts. Our goal is to continue developing tools, training, and partnerships that allow freelance recruiters to also become business owners, and digital nomads and free of the old corporate model.

Long-term, I want to see Workfully become the default for any recruiter looking to take ownership of their career.

Together, I believe we can create a more open, and empowered ecosystem — one that truly reflects the way people want to work and grow today.

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To meet Paul and other Talent Inclusion Leaders, join un in

Barcelona, May 15th at FAIR 2 - the premier European Workplace Inclusion Conference.

Secure your seat now and benefit from Workfully Community 20% Discount Code - 20FAIR2025WRK