HRevolution

After a long vacation and time away from the business, I feel refreshed. Refreshed enough to complain anyway. Today's subject is Monster Diversity, and the question is, why is there a market for this?

I recognize there are diversity boards out there and that part of the game is to allocate (waste) money to postings on them to show you're 'trying' to recruit minorities. We all know these postings serve no other purpose - its not like we get hires from these sources. This is all part of the landscape. So why does the market need this offering from Monster? I can see why Monster would sell it - it's a new revenue source from their existing inventory. Its also easy to upsell existing clients. New profits are a nice by-product. But why would anyone want it?

I'm trying to understand the mindset of the buyer. Does Monster have a good track record with niche products? No. MonsterTrak, their executive offering, and a host of other products flounder. So they're always trying to add the loser products into your purchase. They don't have a great business model, they don't field the best technology, and they're not innovative. Their primary board and resume dbase are good products. Generic Monster postings can be a good buy. Their niche products are not.

So, why does one buy the diversity product? I can only think that HR is so thoroughly afflicted by CYA disease that they can spend even more money on bad products because they come from the #1 brand. And nobody gets fired for buying the best. This is the kind of reasoning that keeps people employed - people who really should be fired. Hmmm... There's another by-product Monster can sell, the list of all the HR people who bought Monster Diversity. It's a 'don't hire' list. I might even pay for that.