Employer-Backed Job Site Lets Companies Avoid MonsterEmployer-Backed Job Site Lets Companies Avoid Monster

There are more than 40,000 job boards and employment Web sites on the Internet. But they charge too much and produce too few quality job candidates, according to nearly two dozen large companies that last week set up a new kind of Web site that could dramatically change the recruiting market.

Mutual of Omaha, Nestlé, Sprint, and Unisys are among the 23 charter members of DirectEmployers.com, a nonprofit company that created a job search engine designed to bypass Monster.com, HotJobs.com, and other commercial job boards. Several hundred companies have signed up to use the site, which works as a gateway to job listings on each company's site.

Type the word Java into the search engine and more than 1,000 job openings appear from businesses such as Abbott Laboratories and Oracle. Clicking on an Oracle job title sends you to Oracle's Web site, which provides a full job description and accepts resumés. A company can place an unlimited number of job postings on the site for an annual fee ranging from $6,000 to $60,000, depending on the size of the company. Posting a position on a job board can cost about $300 a month, says research firm International Data Corp.

"DirectEmployers.com offers the most cost-effective way to get the most exposure for the job openings on the Internet," says Dan Guaglianone, VP of global recruiting at Unisys in Blue Bell, Pa. The company usually lists 400 job openings on its Web site but can't afford the fees to post most of them on commercial job boards, he says. "This is an opportunity to have visibility to all our jobs in one portal."

Tax-services firm H&R Block Inc., a $3 billion company in Kansas City, Mo., spends nearly a third of its recruiting budget online, where it attracts half of its job applicants. "Going through DirectEmployers.com gives us a lot more flexibility to offer insight to job seekers about corporate culture and policies that's impossible with other sites," says Andrea Allison-Putman, director of HR services. "Down the road, we'll rely less on commercial job boards."

The new site could pose a threat to commercial job boards, which derive most of their revenue from fees. Many are already hurting due to the economic slowdown. Monster reported last week that fourth-quarter revenue was $115.5 million, down 20% from the previous quarter and 4% lower than a year ago. "It isn't about price or other competitors, it's just no need," Monster founder Jeff Taylor says. "We're confident we'll continue to see strong renewals with larger clients."

DirectEmployers does face challenges. "If they're going head to head with the big boards, they have a lot of ground to catch up," IDC analyst Chris Boone says. "But these companies will have collective buying power and provide job seekers with a one-on-one relationship with potential employers."