MARION – Ohio Job and Family Services has entered into an agreement with a private online job matching company with the aim of better serving employers and employment seekers.
The lone state in the nation to have such a partnership with Monster.com, Ohio has fielded contacts from several other states interested in doing likewise, said Mark Birnbrich, OJFS project manager.
“The (Gov.) Strickland Administration was interested in a new vision for a value add and demand driven system for employers and job seekers,” Birnbrich said, in an e-mail. “With this in mind we explored the idea of partnering with private sector ‘best of breed’ system components to bring together one system that met all of our desired outcomes/goals.”
U.S. Yachiyo Inc.’s administration coordinator, Debbie Herringshaw, was one of about 25 employer representatives to sit down for a workshop on using the Web site led recently by Birnbrich at The Ohio State University at Marion.
Herringshaw stayed after the workshop to find out more about the job service, which succeeds Job and Family Services’ Sharing Career Opportunities and Training Information Web site.
“It gives you the access of all of their resumes as well as being able to post jobs you have,” Herringshaw said. “Hopefully, as the recession goes down, hopefully as companies in the community have jobs they’ll be able to post them.”
The service, which costs the state $2.5 million for the first year and approximately $1.7 million annually for subsequent years, is available to any employer that pays taxes in Ohio, said Roxane Somerlot, executive director for Marion County Job and Family Services. The state is signing an agreement with Monster.com, which won a competitive procurement, for the next two years with the ability to renew annually.
Such employers have access to approximately 8 million resumes of job seekers and can post jobs, as well, at no additional cost. Previously, employers who used Monster.com and wanted resumes had to pay a fee, Somerlot said. The Web site will make available any new or updated resume of job seekers living in Ohio or within a 50-mile radius of the state. Job and Family Services also purchased access to resumes of job seekers who live elsewhere but have indicated they are willing to relocate to Ohio.
While SCOTI posted only jobs specifically registered by employers, OhioMeansJobs.com will index 8,000 job boards, she said.
“Really it makes this one kind of super job board,” she said.
For employment seekers, the new Web site has several advantages over the previous one, including being “much easier to navigate” and serving as a one-stop online job board, she said. When job seekers post their resume on OhioMeansJobs.com, it is posted to Monster.com at the same time.
For employers, OhioMeansJobs.com provides the ability to tailor the characteristics they seek in a potential employee such as the skill set, educational institution they attended and proximity of their residence, she said.
“You can narrow your search to a 15-mile radius, this school, this skill set and in Spanish, and it will instantaneously get you there,” Somerlot said. “It’s more powerful and certainly has more search power than the SCOTI Web site had.”
The Web site can provide sales prospects, as well, she said.
Employers also can access an “Ohio Business Gateway” that allows employers to use OBG electronic filing to submit selected filings, registrations and payments with the state’s Department of Taxation, Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Department of Job and Family Services, Office of Budget and Management, and Department of Commerce and file and pay selected Ohio municipal income taxes.
“It’s a one-stop on the Web for employers for doing business in the state of Ohio,” she said.
Herringshaw said while previously U.S. Yachiyo has used advertisements in newspapers and Monster.com and recruiters for certain positions OhioMeansJobs.com will enable the Honda supplier to increase its potential applicant base at no additional cost.
“It’ll definitely be a plus,” she said. “You don’t have that expense that you’re needing to recoup.”
Of the company’s agreement with Ohio Job and Family Services, Laura Ryan, spokeswoman for Monster.com, said the company answered a request for proposal and entered a contract with the agency. She said the details of the contract are “internal business information,” and referred other questions to Birnbrich, who did not return phone calls by press time.
Reducing expenses for employers helps the economy, Somerlot said.
“The moral of the story for us is that certainly in these economic times it’s important that employers … all have access to anything that would save an employer money,” she said. “Recruitment to find the right person for the right job at the right time, that’s what ODOD is hoping to do.”
By John Jarvis
May 29, 2009
source: marionstar.com