At its core, the Internet isn’t particularly human. That help-wanted sign in the window of your local convenient store is even less so. Putting help-wanted signs on the Internet is a recipe for ice-cold capitalism, but Monster is rolling out changes it thinks will make the job search process a littler warmer-and-fuzzier.
“All of these updates are rooted in Monster’s commitment to humanizing the job search process,” the company said in a release. “By serving as an ally for people in the job market and offering better tools to achieve better results, companies and employers will benefit, as well. Helping people in their job search is Monster’s priority and it will continue to look for ways to improve the process moving forward.”
Humanizing. People. Helping.
Words we don’t typically associate with online recruiting, and certainly not words I would associate with Monster’s recent history. However, in an industry currently obsessed with artificial intelligence, chatbots, and Google algorithms, maybe it’s the right strategy at the right time.
Starting with an executive overhaul that began right around the time Randstad acquired the job board in 2016, the company is now focused on getting their user experience house in order with a variety of site changes.
“Let’s be honest — our industry has failed both the job seeker and the employer by not making the matching process easier,” said Jonathan Beamer, Monster’s chief marketing officer. “What everyone forgot is that on the other end of this equation are people — unique individuals who bring unique skills, personality, and dedication to their work.”
How exactly is it accomplishing this? Monster is promising ongoing updates, but the following enhancements are its first step forward in making job search more “human.”
- Better matching. The industry has been trying to nail matching for over 10 years, but companies like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, along with Microsoft, are upping the ante for traditional players. Monster thinks it’s getting matching right, saying in the release, “Monster updated search algorithms and results to ensure matching the right people to the right jobs is the priority. Among the changes was the decision to remove ads from job search results on the site and sent via emails, a practice that has become all too common in the industry and gets in the way of connecting people to relevant job listings.” Monster highlights an increase of nearly 20 percent in job applies testing this change.
- Better user experience. There was a time when Monster was more interested in making its site look like a Nascar race and throwing interstitials in between job search results, than actually connecting people with opportunities. That’s fortunately changing under the new regime. New updates focus on speed, both in page download times and eliminating the toggling back-and-forth between web pages with a two-pane window, similar to what Indeed recently introduced. Page speed should also help with SEO and mobile usage.
- Resume enhancements. Monster has relaunched its resume assessment tool, which uses AI to scan a resume and give recommendations on making your profile better keyword-rich and predict a recruiter’s first impression of a CV. Monster also offers a premium resume and cover letter writing service, charging $129 to $349 total to have a professional resume writer to help users.
“We’re intent on taking this company back to its initial purpose of helping people advance their lives, and are working on new ways for people and companies to showcase the best versions of themselves,” said Beamer. “The changes we’ve made so far are just the beginning.”
We’ll see. Millennials would rather message a friend than call them, so I’d say the verdict is still out on wanting a humanized experience, especially if we’re talking about looking for work. That said, in an industry getting steamrolled by Google, the message of people, helping, and humanizing probably isn’t the worst thing in the world.
All the humanizing in the world can’t make-up for a lack of content, but maybe I’ll save that for another post.