Are Candidates Turning Away from Monster and CareerBuilder?

Depending on how you have your HR business set up, you may or may not have the ability to see and evaluate the volume of candidates, as they come to your careers site and actually apply for positions.  I use Taleo as an ATS (the system rocks, so if you are in the market, call them in) and to run my careers site.   I'm a glutton for digital punishment, so I have my email address set up in the defaults for a notification every time someone applies.  I get an email every time that happens, which gives me basic data on the candidate, the position they are applying for and probably most importantly, the source they are coming from.

Recent trends have made me compare my candidate sources to what I experienced "back in the day." (PS - what does "back in the day" mean to you?  We had this debate around the office, and I said you had to be referring to events and a time period at least 10 years old.  I'm still in my thirties, and I was attacked by some boomers in their mid to late 40's who scoffed and said "back in the day" is at least 20 years old.  I told them they were historical "snobs" because of their experience with "history").

Back in the day (more loosely defined here as prior to the last 12-18 months), all you had to do was post a position to Monster and/or CareerBuilder and candidate volume would follow.  Some OK, some awful and a few very good.   Before you slaughter me in the comments, I know the big boards are only a part of a viable sourcing strategy.  Still, it's nice for people like us to know we can get 50-100 candidates by throwing a posting up on the big boards.   I mean, c'mon, we need a few easy placements, right?  Right...

Unfortunately, from my perspective it looks like the big boards may have jumped the shark.  I would estimate my volume of candidates directly resulting from posting on the big two (Monster and CareerBuilder) is down by over 50% in the last 12 months.   The comparison seems valid because our company has 6-7 positions we constantly recruit for. 

Why is candidate volume down for me at the big boards?  Here are some theories.  Hit me on the comments with other reasons you think are valid:

1.  Candidates are taking their action elsewhere. The explosion of niche posting sites is fragmenting the industry, meaning I can't get my easy hit from the big boards like I used to.  Damn!

2.  Candidates aren't digging our vibe anymore.  We may have posted so much on the big boards that candidates have built up an immunity to our stylings at SourceMedical.  Double Damn!

What's my take?  I discount candidates being weary of our postings for several reasons, the most important of which is the fact that I have used the tool in high volume environments (much higher than what I have today) and the candidate flow from Monster never became fatigued.  A better explanation is that something is fundamentally changing about the candidate economies at the big job boards.  Joel Cheesman reported today that Monster is blocking its spiders of smaller job boards after almost a year of freely allowing some sites to aggregate job content from the monster.com site.  That sounds like a reaction to the small fish getting something for nothing and taking total traffic down.   

As for me, I just want the old Monster and CareerBuilder back.  The one where I could get 25-30% of my hires from, via direct application to my careers site off a posting.  I don't have the numbers for 2007 in front of me, but I am way off that for the year.

On the plus side, I think the resume database of Monster is still doing well for me.  Perhaps Monster will give that to me at an affordable rate on my renewal without me buying a big block of postings?

I know - I won't hold my breath.... 

Comments

[HR Wench]

Since January 90% of my hires (15 non exempt, 1 exempt) have come from Craigslist. This amazes me as not so long ago (2 years maybe?) CL netted me a whole lot of nothing. I hire folks in 30 states too, so I'm not just talkin' bout one metro area. From Kansas City to LA to Seattle to Houston to Chicago to NYC to Philly. Craziness.

[Lisa Rosendahl]

With print advertising making up the bulk of our advertising, I just know we need to get off the dime and online. Developing an online presence is top on my agenda for 2008 but the elelphant seems so big - where do I take the first bite?! Thanks for the post.

[Kris]

Lisa -

I know your field is medical, and I also know that about 50% of the job ads in my local paper are medical in nature. With that in mind, you may want to stay where you are, especially if you local paper does a web version as well. 2 years ago I would have told you Monster or CB made sense to experiment with, but now I'm not sure. I get the feeling that RN's and related positions are trained to use print over online. I'd do some searches for my competitors for candidates and see if anyone else is making the transition.

HRW - We got about 10% of our hires from Craiglist as well, and the price was right! My experience is that CL can really work if you have the right position and the right metro area. It's been random for me in that way, but I agree it's become a much stronger player. Repeat posting's a breeze as well with the tool set they provide...

KD

[Lisa]

Kris, can you hear my sigh of relief? I will conduct competitor searches over the next week just for this purpose. Thanks.

[Lea]

As someone who completed a six-month job search this year, and as someone who is building a career helping others find the right jobs, I can tell you that I *hate* using Monster and CareerBuilder to find jobs. Add HotJobs to the hate list as well.

The big boards seem to have the same positions reposted on a daily basis. Many of the ads are ineffective from my point of view as well. Some ads say way too much about the company itself and not much about the position, while others say way too much about the position (as if the whole job description was posted) and nothing about the company. More importantly, ads on the big boards often lack salary information.

I've had a great deal of success with searching Craigslist and LinkedIn instead of the big boards. The job I took after that six-month search came from the general job board on LinkedIn.

I also prefer the printed version of the local paper to the big boards, because the jobs listed there are guaranteed to be local and actually available. Nothing is more aggravating to a job hunter than applying for the perfect job and discovering that the ad should have been pulled weeks before.