Bill Warren founded an early online job board in the 1990s, helped kick-start an industry and was president of Monster.com, one of the leading Internet career sites. But these days he’s not very happy with the results.
So he’s taking another crack at it, going after Monster, Career Builder and similar commercial job sites. Warren is starting a nonprofit job listing system that could lower the costs that employers pay to list positions and make the process easier and more fruitful for applicants.
He has the enthusiastic backing of hundreds of large companies, including IBM Corp., American Express, AT&T Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, the kinds of employers that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year searching for new talent.
“This is probably the most significant play that I’ve seen … since the invention of the online job board,” said Joshua Akers, vice president of RecruitingBlogs.com, a social networking site for human resources professionals.
The commercial rivals say they are ready for new competition. “We remain confident that we’re one of the most cost-effective sources of hiring for recruiters today,” said Monster spokesman Matt Henson.
Warren, 68, says that those commercial sites charge employers so much to list openings that the companies don’t post all their jobs — leaving potential applicants unaware of opportunities. Warren also believes that the sites push too much advertising on jobseekers and include too many “work at home” scam jobs.
Meanwhile, employers want ways to have a direct relationship with jobseekers. Many say they prefer resumes that are tailored to the positions they’re trying to fill, not a generic resume posted online. As the ranks of the unemployed have doubled to roughly 15 million, recruiters say the response to jobs they post on the boards has gotten overwhelming.
The solution that Warren hopes to launch next month is being hatched by…