The Hotgroup has announced a trimming down of its online business to focus on two separate recruitment agency and ‘employer-direct’ divisions.

Hotonline will now be a network of five premier specialist jobsites.Each site will have its own clear positioning: Planetrecruit (IT and technology), Hotrecruit (18 to 28-year-olds), Jobsfinancial (financial), Jobsearch (a generalist site) and The Graduate (graduate recruitment).

Hotonline will be sold exclusively to agencies, while the other division, Workthing, will advertise jobs exclusively from employers.

The Workthing website will focus on IT/technology, engineering, retail, hospitality, travel and leisure, sales, marketing, finance, office administration and accountancy.

All jobs advertised on Workthing will also be advertised on Hotonline’s sites.

The company claims that through Workthing, employers will gain access to the largest volume of online jobseekers in the UK.

Recruitment agencies that want to advertise on Workthing would have to buy a client branded advert.

Harvey Sinclair (pictured), managing director of the Hotgroup, explained why the company has now decided to take this step.

“This is the first opportunity we’ve had to take a step back after two years of rapid acquisition,” he said. “It was a case of rationalising our 20 websites into two core sites.”

Sinclair also revealed that the company has decided to move away from public sector recruitment.

“I think this brand repositioning is playing to the strengths of our core businesses,” Sinclair added.