Finding good employees is already difficult. And all indicators show that the labor pool is shrinking. Ask remodelers where they're finding employees and the answer is not newspaper classifieds but Monster.com. With more than 50 million resumes in its database and 180,000 clients per year posting jobs, it's no wonder. “Remodelers fall into our sweet spot of employers that use Monster,” says Sam Tharp, Monster.com's vice president of e-commerce. “Most of the business we transact through e-commerce is with smaller businesses.”
Employers can post a job — via the Web or through a customer service representative — for 60 days and/or buy a “resume license,” which allows them to search the resume database. Many people embed links in their postings enabling job seekers to fill out online applications. Monster's advertising and communications unit can help employers word their ads, and they offer “pre-scripted job descriptions,” which, Tharp says, generally yield a higher number of applicants than those written from scratch. “We're pretty good at knowing what's going to generate the most applications.”
Pricing is regional and competitive with newspaper classifieds: In New York or Los Angeles, expect to invest about $395; in small towns and rural areas, posts cost about $195. Searching the resume database is extra.
Job posters get an electronic folder in which to keep applications and the e-mail notifications telling them when they've received an inquiry. Monster also e-mails a “dashboard” to show you how your ad is performing — how many times it was viewed, how many people applied directly through Monster, and how many clicks there were on your embedded links.
To be fair, there are other employment Web sites, including local CraigsList.com and CareerBuilder.com, but Monster differentiates itself with 24-7 customer service.
