Job Seekers Now Finding Freedom on the Internet
To mark Independence Day, some 7,500 Americans will auction themselves to the highest bidders today in hopes of landing better jobs. That’s roughly how many people--most in their 30s, with above-average skills, education and pay levels--have agreed to present their professional and personal profiles on Monster.com’s new Internet site and invite potential employers to bid for their services.
And just like the flag on the Fourth of July, the job auction is a symbol of independence and experimentation in the American workplace these days.
Monster.com is the leader among thousands of Web sites with such names as Cool Jobs.com, FreeAgent.com and Jobs.com that serve as a handy place for employers to check resumes.
The online employment agency idea is the brainchild of Jeffrey Taylor, a 38-year-old former advertising executive who founded Monster.com in 1994. Give some credit to his advertising background for Monster’s wickedly ironic ad campaign featuring children saying things such as: “When I grow up I want to be a yes man, yes woman, yes sir! Thanks for the raise, sir!”
Monster, a division of TMP Worldwide, a New York-based marketing services firm, now has 650,000 resumes on its Web site, where they are pored over by more than 2,000 potential employers who pay Monster.com for the privilege. Monster estimates that it will take in $90 million in revenue this year and is turning a profit.
On the new auction site, called Monster Talent Market 1.0, candidates will leave their profiles, including salary demands, online for one to five days, then enter negotiations with interested employers.
Taylor says Monster Talent will then keep resumes current and update candidates with job offers, for a fee paid by the job seeker. “It’s a new relationship that will revolutionize the way free agents connect with organizations,” he says.
Such talk is mostly hype--the functions of online employment agencies are not essentially different from similar services on every Main Street in America. And job seekers still come in all shapes and sizes, from people able to market impressive skills and command high pay to others simply seeking a decent job.
Nonetheless, Monster.com represents a major trend with implications for all business. It is part of a growing universe serving the self-directed worker, the individual who is self-employed or prefers to work on contract.
The staffing industry, with $130 billion in annual revenues worldwide, serves that worker. Web sites such as Weddle’s and Careerxroads offer tips on job openings to that worker. And a host of emerging companies with sites such as Opus360 and Niku, which provide secretarial and financial services to self-employed individuals, serve that worker.
*
In the U.S. labor force, independent contractors, temporary workers and self-employed individuals now number 17.6 million, or 13.5% of the work force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If part-time workers are included, the percentage rises to 23% of the work force. And judging by the success of Monster.com and other career Web sites, the 68.5 million full-time employees are on the lookout for better opportunities.
That’s where the Internet comes in. It offers communication and contacts--the chance to reach millions of potential employers or employees worldwide.
Anyone who has ever set up a business or tried to freelance with a product or service knows that the most frightening aspect of doing so is the sense of isolation. You’re out there, but are you reaching anybody? The Internet can expand the range of contacts enormously.
The Internet also offers information that lets employees compare pay levels and working conditions at different companies. In that sense, it “could change the balance of power between employers and employees,” says Daniel J.B. Mitchell, professor of human resources at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. “You may be happy in your job, but it does no harm to see what’s out there.”
The trend is “deep and permanent. Talent will soon be bid for just as you bid on travel tickets online,” says John Sullivan, human resources professor at San Francisco State University’s business school. Today’s clients of Monster.com, typically 35 or older with substantial skills and work experience, are “early adopters,” Sullivan says. But the free-agency trend will broaden to all walks of life, he predicts.
Can such a high-class service spread to people who work in factories and manual-labor occupations? Sure it can.
“You don’t need a college degree to access the Internet or to want a better job,” says Robert Rollo of Rollo Associates, a Los Angeles-based executive search firm.
Rollo has seen the Net in action at a ranch in western Colorado, where he vacations. The ranch, in the town of Meeker, hires three dozen employees each summer. In the past, it advertised in the help-wanted sections of newspapers from Denver to Grand Junction but had difficulty staffing up.
But this year, “the ranch put a listing on Cool Jobs.com and attracted college students and people skilled in particular aspects of ranch work, including applications from overseas,” Rollo says.
There are potential losers in this trend. Newspaper classified ad revenues, a profit backbone of the newspaper industry, are already under pressure because major corporations use their own Web sites to recruit employees. Major newspaper companies have formed their own job-listing Web site, Careerpath.com, as a defensive measure.
“If the Internet is going to cannibalize our papers, it better be us who cannibalizes them,” says Mark Willes, chairman of Times Mirror Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers.
The executive-recruiting and employment-agency businesses are also said to be threatened by the spread of online job services. But that’s not really so. There will always be a need for employers and employees to screen each other. “The Internet is a contact point, not a hiring hall,” says James Jonassen, head of PeopleMover, a company that classifies job candidates for staffing companies.
*
Two points to keep in mind: The Internet won’t make jobs better, or industrial relations fairer. Independence is a two-edged sword for employees, often exposing them to the inherent power of the employer who pays the wage and sets the working conditions.
More than half a century ago, workers formed labor unions to shift that balance of power between employer and employed. And the need for collective bargaining persists today. Doctors, for example, have been among the most independent professionals in the U.S. work force. But faced with regulation of their pay and working conditions by health maintenance organizations and government regulators, members of the American Medical Assn. voted recently to form a labor union.
Yet the underlying message behind the online job trend is positive. It speaks to the adaptability that has brought U.S. workers to widespread employment and opportunity. In that sense, the Internet is simply a new tool unlocking the independence of spirit that has always been there. And that’s not mere hype for the Fourth of July.
*
James Flanigan can be reached by e-mail at jim.flanigan@latimes.com.
