INITIAL REPORT Susan Jennings Kantari, [email protected] LinkedIn Overtaking Monster, BranchOut Bears Watching Companies: DHX, GOOG, LNKD, MWW September 27, 2011 Research Question: Are Monster and LinkedIn cost-effective methods to match recruiters with job seekers? Summary of Findings Silo Summaries Social networking is the trend in recruiting and is usurping 1) RECRUITERS broad-based job boards like Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW). All nine sources held positive views of social networking LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) currently holds the lead social site LinkedIn, and six said the company is a recruiting tool leader. None of our nine sources considered Monster an networking position. industry leader or trendsetter. Monster is ineffective at Monster is losing market share throughout all U.S. recruiting executives, and sites such as Craigslist are better employment demographics. LinkedIn is gaining at the choices for nonexecutive recruits. One source said Monster is ―a dinosaur‖ that is full of less-attractive, unemployed executive level, and Craigslist Inc. is more cost-effective in candidates. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) filling nonexecutive positions. companies have been taking market share, according to Industry-specific job boards and recruitment process three sources. Several sources believe the next trend will be mobile-based recruitment, and one expects video to play outsourcing (RPO) companies also are gaining market share. a larger role. Sources believe BranchOut and Google+ both The next trends in recruiting are expected to be in mobile have potential for growth. One source believes BranchOut technology and BranchOut Inc., which should benefit from could dominate the field within two years. having access to Facebook Inc.‘s user base. BranchOut could 2) ENTERPRISE HR MANAGERS gain traction among Generation Y/Millennials. Three of these four sources said they do not obtain employees through Monster very often or at all anymore. One source views LinkedIn as superior, particularly for senior-level employees, another receives more candidates from Indeed.com, and the third prefers to hire directly Social Monster an LinkedIn an through college athletic departments. Smaller, industry- Networking Online Job Online Job specific boards are gaining market share. Posting job the Recruiting Leader Leader openings on Twitter is becoming a trend. LinkedIn is Trend preferred for executive-level candidates while Craigslist and Recruiters/ CareerBuilder are used more for sales associates. One source believes BranchOut could appeal to Generation Headhunters Y/Millennials but doubts it could replace LinkedIn. Enterprise HR N/A Managers 3) JOB SEEKERS Three of our four sources used either Facebook or LinkedIn Job Seekers in their job search or said LinkedIn was popular in their personal and professional networks. None of these four job Industry seekers primarily relied on Monster. Specialists 4) INDUSTRY SPECIALISTS One source said social media is the trend in recruiting and LinkedIn is leading the way. Our second source said social media site LinkedIn and niche Websites are the most popular tools for job recruitment. Monster is less effective for recruiters because of its broad focus, but is trying to adapt to the social media trend by having Facebook apps. The future of recruiting will be in mobile technology. 1 321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com Online Job Recruitment Background LinkedIn cut off network access for Monster‘s BeKnown app, claiming terms of service violations. Monster‘s BeKnown app originally culled information from LinkedIn to build members‘ profiles. This lack of access has derailed Monster‘s potential growth in social media, which has become a necessity in the online employment industry. Companies like Waste Management, VMware and Adobe are beginning to use social networking sites as recruiting tools, posting jobs and engaging users in groups and discussions. Also, Monster faces competition from LinkedIn, particularly its ―Apply with LinkedIn‖ plug-in, as well as from Facebook, Craigslist and others. CURRENT RESEARCH To assess whether Monster and LinkedIn are cost-effective ways to recruit, Blueshift employed its pattern mining approach to establish and interview sources in five independent silos: 1) Recruiters/headhunters (9) 2) Enterprise hiring managers (4) 3) Job seekers (4) 4) Industry specialists (2) 5) Secondary sources (4) Blueshift interviewed 19 primary sources and included four of the most relevant secondary sources focused on the rise of social media‘s role in recruiting and LinkedIn‘s leadership position. Silos 1) RECRUITERS All nine sources held positive views of social networking site LinkedIn, and six said the company is a recruiting tool leader. None of our nine sources considered Monster an industry leader or trendsetter. Monster is ineffective at recruiting executives, and sites such as Craigslist are better choices for nonexecutive recruits. One source said Monster is ―a dinosaur‖ that is full of less-attractive, unemployed candidates. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) companies have been taking market share, according to three sources. Several sources believe the next trend will be mobile-based recruitment, and one expects video to play a larger role. Sources believe BranchOut and Google+ both have potential for growth. One source believes BranchOut could dominate the field within two years. David Perry, co-owner of Perry-Martel International Inc. and author of the Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters book series Recruiters avoid Monster and job boards in general but LinkedIn‘s recruiting tools are years ahead of the competition, according to this 25-year veteran executive recruiter who has negotiated an estimated $184 million in salaries. Monster caters mostly to the unemployed, is untrustworthy, and produces meaningless results for recruiters. Mobile will be the next new trend among real-time hires and team building for companies. This source uses BranchOut for recruiting and said the company has the potential to dominate the field within two years. ―Monster is yesterday‘s news. Full stop! LinkedIn is the platform now for recruiters. It‘s easy to use LI [LinkedIn] to get a three-dimensional Monster is an html version of picture of a prospective candidate/recruit before reaching out to them.‖ your local paper‘s classified . ―Monster is dead. It‘s not trusted by the recruiting community for a section and about as useful. host of reasons, and the results candidates have received have been Author & Co-Owner unmeaningful. Monster is an html version of your local paper‘s Recruiting Company classified section and about as useful.‖ . ―Serious professional recruiters and most of the Fortune 1000 use ZoomInfo [Zoom Information Inc.] to gather intelligence on prospects. LinkedIn is a voluntary community. ZoomInfo tracks what people of influence say and do, whether that person wants it tracked or not. I use ZoomInfo and LI daily.‖ 2 321 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com Online Job Recruitment . ―I have a $75/month [LinkedIn] package that allows me to file and use ‗InMail‘ extensively. It‘s great.‖ . ―With Monster, [I have spent] $0. I have used it as recently as five years ago, and it was worthless in terms of the ROI.‖ . ―I use Monster to find companies that are hiring and are tired of wasting their time and money using the service. That strategy has made me nearly a million over the last 10 years—a million extra I wouldn‘t have without them.‖ . ―Monster [is more effective for] anyone unemployed, students who are arts grads, clerical, hands-on manufacturing, service businesses including restaurant and hospitality. LinkedIn [is most effective for] employed professionals who often have college degrees or higher, sales, marketing, engineers, executives of I held back publication of my every ilk including finance. Facebook [is for] students, people over 45 latest book, Guerrilla Marketing with grown or nearly grown children.‖ . ―Craigslist is primarily for targeted searches/ads for minimum-wage for Job Hunters 3.0, specifically people and/or contractors.‖ because I thought the inclusion . ―Job boards are out. TheLadders.com [Inc.] is used by candidates but of BranchOut was critical to the not really a lot by recruiters. Faxing out resumes and resume writing success of job hunters. services have lost their luster.‖ . ―It‘s too early to tell how [Facebook is] going to net out for me, but the Author & Co-Owner micro-targeting their technology allows is suburb.‖ Recruiting Company . ―Facebook is the new Google for recruiters, only better organized. We use Boolean search strings to find who we want in that pool of 600 million people. A rising star called BranchOut is building a LinkedIn platform within Facebook and will dominate the space within two years if they do everything correctly. Whereas LI built the platform from scratch … and they now have over 100 million [users] in eight years, BranchOut is starting with Facebook‘s 500 million and working backwards. Interesting concept and easier to recruit people.‖ . ―The third-party recruiting industry built Monster and LinkedIn into the juggernauts they are because of our early adoption. If the same happens with BranchOut, the result will be the same only faster because Facebook has a base to work from of 750 million users while LinkedIn did not. Thus, there‘s potentially easier adoption.‖ . ―[BranchOut‘s future] depends on how they scale and the services they offer and the price point