Job boards are a common tool for any recruiter. They sit in our “recruitment tool belt” right next to our coffee cups, LinkedIn profile and Google toolbar. There are a variety of job boards to choose from, and new ones are consistently being added to the market. However, compared to our one dollar coffees, free site searches, and our fancy but free Boolean search strings, job boards tend to come with a hefty price tag.
Workopolis versus Monster - “Big fish” in the Canadian recruitment pond
They have the largest databases, the highest traffic, and the greatest social presence. Although both job boards give recruiters access to extremely large databases (millions of candidates), they come at a great cost and they don’t exactly promise high quality candidates.
Here at Stafflink Solutions, we use the resume databases of both Workopolis and Monster, and up until a month ago we only used the job posting services of Workopolis. However, we recently re-evaluated our job board expenses and switched our job postings from Workopolis to Monster.
Why Would We Do Such A Thing? Here Are Five Reasons:
1. Quality
After evaluating our placements, the Stafflink team agreed that the candidates we connected with through Monster were of a higher quality than Workopolis. In order to back up our assumptions, we completed a trial run with Monster. Monster gave us 7 free job postings to test out over a 30 day period. When comparing candidates via our postings on Workopolis vs. Monster, we found that Monster attracted more qualified candidates and more senior technical candidates than Workopolis. This was our experience with a very limited sample of job posts. Your results might be entirely different.
2. Cost
Money, money, money! When comparing the numbers, there is no denying that Workopolis is more expensive. For their prepackaged services (resume database and 100 job postings), Workopolis was approximately 20% more expensive than Monster. In addition, if you pay-per-job Workopolis is $750/job for a 30 day posting, whereas Monster is $725/job for a 60 day posting. Monster also provides significantly higher savings than Workopolis for job packages. Monster charges $550/job for 5-9 jobs in comparison to Workopolis’s $655/job for 5-9 jobs. Also, for any enhanced features (such as bolding or feature jobs), Workopolis tends to be $20 more expensive per job post.
3. Flexibility
Monster is flexible. They cater to both large and small businesses. Workopolis tends to be all or nothing. Monster has smaller packages available such as a 7 day power resume search or a 14 day “target post” for hourly, skilled, or admin jobs. Monster also lets you pick up to 3 categories for each individual job post.
4. Customer Service
Monster gives us freebies, and they do it with a smile! They let us test out 7 jobs for free and they have offered us free live training seminars. Anytime I have emailed a question, someone has called me back within an hour. An agent guided me through my first posting, and when we ran out of job postings before our new contract began, they gave us some more free jobs to tie us over. They have “wowed” us with their care and concern.
5. Trending
Both Monster and Workopolis have jumped on the social media bandwagon. However, Monster seems to be driving the wagon. Monster has partnered with BeKnown, a social platform that allows you to connect to jobs via Facebook while keeping your social information and business profile separate. To compare, Workopolis has over 81 twitter feeds, a Facebook feed, a YouTube channel and and an excellent blog. Monster has all that, plus mobile apps, and a presence on Foursquare and Flickr. Tweet that!
Maybe we are just in the honeymoon stage with Monster, but so far it has been smooth sailing. They fit our company’s needs, they make our recruiters happy, and they have wooed our social media team. But enough about us. What is your opinion? Which job board would you prefer in your bag of tricks?
Where do you stand on the Monster versus Workopolis issue? Let the debate begin!
Some good points Michelle,
Monster seems to really want companies business. While Workopolis appears to expect renewals because of past successes. In some cases Workopolis is twice as much money. But the key for me is customer service. In my opinion the Monster customer service is way better.
Funny, I find the complete opposite. We have received little to no response from our Monster postings, while Workopolis has provide a ton more value. Now, we do hire for more white collar positions, so perhaps this is the reason. Monster has been a cheap alternative for ‘easy to fill’ positions in the past. As for your comments around ‘partnering’ with BeKnown? Monster actually created that app to run on Facebook. They came and spoke to us about it, but admitted it provided little value as of now. A real social media strategy involves people and time, not apps.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your comment. It is interesting the different success rates people experience. Our hiring is focused on mid to Director level IT placements – so perhaps we just find higher quality technical people through Monster.
Thanks for the correction on the BeKnown app. I do not have any experience with the BeKnown social app – but it will be interesting to check in on the app in a few months to see if it has had any success. It’s a start.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for not only including Monster in your piece, but for recognizing the 5 areas where you believe Monster has an edge. We couldn’t agree more! Regarding BeKnown, Monster’s professional app for Facebook, I am happy to chat further and help answer any questions you may have. Meanwhile, you can check out the BeKnown Blog http://www.beknownblog.com or follow on Twitter @BeKnown for updates.
- Kathy O’Reilly, Senior Director, Social Media, Monster Worldwide @monsterww @kathyoreilly
Hi Kathy,
Thank you for reading out blog and providing resources to learn more about the BeKnown app! It sounds like a great idea so I will be sure to check them out.
- Michelle
Michelle, I’m sorry but I really think your credibility has been damaged here. This really looks a lot like a sales pitch for Monster – especially with the person from Monster responding.
I can tell you that we have a constant need for Engineers and have had no success with Monster at all. We have used all of their tools, and even what they called ‘custom’ media, which ended up looking great, but had extremely poor ROI for us. We now primarily use LinkedIN and Workopolis. LinkedIN is great because we can identify who we want to speak to – but that’s where the work begins. It’s a very different type of recruiting – it’s like cold calling. We have to engage with the person and sell him or her on why to move to our organization. It’s very time consuming but we have hired some great people. Workopolis on the other hand is a lot more turn key for us. Very good candidates, many from their niche network (which Monster was not able to offer us). We use advertising on their site and the niche sites as well. The combination of both is something that really works for us. I know that Monster is big in the US and may have advantages over others there – but I really feel that they do not have near the value in Canada.
Hey Karol,
Thanks for your comment. We have used Workopolis for about 8-9 years and have very much liked their service for the first while. Recently, we have found their pricing and customer service to be not as strong and so we tried something different. Monster has worked out for us so far – and we will re-evaluate their services again as the months go on. I can assure you it was not meant as a salespitch just a blog discussing my personal preference. I found it pretty neat that someone at Monster found our blog through the powers of social media – but it was not meant as a salespitch.
We only do IT placements but I think it is great that Workopolis works for you for finding engineers. We know why these two job boards do so well – because everyone has their favourite which makes it interesting. I am glad that there are mixed opinions because it means both job boards will have to work harder and come up with new features to keep winning our business.
We also use LinkedIn Recruiter extensively at Stafflink (it is my personal favourite and go to tool). This blog was primarily focused on job boards and I think of LinkedIn as more of a social platform recruitment tool, not a job board – which is why I didn’t include it. But I definitely agree with you that LinkedIn is an amazing tool.
Thanks for visitng the blog and taking the time to comment ! It is greatly appreciated.
[...] Among the big two recruiting classifieds sites in Canada – Workopolis and Monster – which is the better deal for recruiters looking to post their classified ads? According to Stafflink, an IT headhunter in Toronto, Monster wins the duel. [...]
http://www.monster.com is by far rude and unprofessional.. See my conversation with them below.
Received:
Hello, my name is Jack. I will be happy to help you today!
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Hi
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quick question
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we want to post a job nationally for pharma sales
Received:
That would be a Standard Job Posting. There are some online promotions on those right now. Below are a few promo links to consider.
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it is to be posted in multiple cities
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toronto, vancouver, Montreal, etc
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Each location requires its own posting.
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so there isnt anything where we can post on multiple locations.
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workopolis has something like that though
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Seekers search “Locally”.
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they are offering 4 cities for 498 for 30 days
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which is relatively cheaper
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All postings are “Local” somewhere. No one offers “National” postings.
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so we will have to repost for each city?
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Who is?
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Okay…we have what we have…
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Workopolis
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okay…
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Are there any further questions I can help you with today?
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there is nothing to be so rude/arrgant about
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i m just comparing what is best for out corp…
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That was not the way it was sent!
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huh?
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Dude… i m your customer you do realize that right?
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Sorry you took it that way!
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and i will obviously compare to what all is out there
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this is rediculous
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Thanks for contracting Monster and have a great day!
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Thanks for your help
The conversation session has been closed. Thank you.
Hi Robert,
That is unfortunate. As I said before – each board has their advantages. One of Workopolis’s is obviously that they allow for National postings which is fantastic. I understand each customer’s experience will be different with a company dependent on their needs (and a lot of the time the representative that they speak to). I hope you found the best option for your needs.
It was a no brainer for me at that point. There is no way I am doing business with http://www.monster.com and/or its associates for they doing know the meaning of word respect! As a future customer, I feel I have the right to understand their services and compare it to another leading portal out there. Oh Well! from my end, i got the service I needed at Workopolis and Monster just lost a customer who will NEVER post with them. I really hope this reaches the people at Monster for they need to better train their CSR’s
R
Finding a superstar employee is quite tricky. Especially if you’re looking for him online because you’ve got a large pool of great applicants willing to work for you for less. Not to mention about these large job sites like Workopolis and Monster. However, for me, we shouldn’t just stick on one job site, there are lot of job sites other than workopolis that can also give you the superstar staff you’ve been wanting you’re company to have.
There’s this one freelance site that have a global network of highly qualified employee that will give you a competitive advantage in your industry. That made me realize what some business owners have been missing out. The more job sites, the more chances of hiring the best of the bests.
Thank you so much Michelle for this article.
We are a Quebec, Canada IT/Engineering recruiting agency and as we are growing, so our needs are and sourcing high-level quality candidates is becoming very difficult sometimes so we where evaluating whether we should be advertising on Workopolis or Monster and your article was very helpful in making our mind to Monster.
Sylvain Audet – CEO MyDevPartner.com
sylvain@mydevpartner.com
Hi Sylvain,
Thanks for your comment!
We still use the database at Workopolis and we post some jobs through Monster. I’m still happy with the customer service at Monster. But, of course, job boards are only a small part of our talent sourcing strategy which is mostly focussed on LinkedIn Recruiter and Boolean web searches. Also, we’re evaluating a new big data recruiting solution called Gild that Tim Collins blogged about yesterday: Can big data eliminate human bias from recruiting?