Thanks to companies like Maine Window and Sunroom, remodelers may finally be ready to shed their Luddite image: Even installers won't find work at the company without Internet access.
Accounting and human resources manager Donna Levangelo says the Kennebunk, Maine, company has ditched the help wanted section entirely. Levangelo now posts job openings for all open positions, from installers to office staff, on JobsInME.com, a local job search Web site.
The company has made 12 hires through the site over the past two years, she says, "and the quality of people we've found has been tremendous."
And since dropping newspaper ads, the company has realized "astronomical cost savings," Levangelo says. "It's made a huge impact."
JobsinME.com charges $220 a year, she says, as opposed to the $600 the local daily charges for a block ad in the weekend help wanted section.
John Baker, of D and J Kitchens and Baths, also saved hundreds of dollars posting an opening on monster.com. That nationwide site charges $335 for a 60-day posting, Baker says, compared to roughly the same total for one weekend in the Sacramento Bee.
"Newspapers rake you over the coals," he says. Monster.com "made immediate economic sense."
Also, Baker says, with a dearth of qualified local applicants, monster.com extends his company's exposure far beyond the reach of a local newspaper. Although they hired locally, D and J's posting drew responses from all over the country. He even received five responses from Europeans planning to immigrate to the United States.
Kelly Vogan, president of Vogan Associates, Silver Spring, Md., hired four lead carpenters directly from responses to his monster.com posting. Two additional hires came from referrals the posting generated.
