A Monster no more: foundit's new purpose is career management

Job search portal Monster.com has changed its brand name, logo, and core offering for the first time since its launch in India in 2001.

Leading job search portal Monster will now be known as foundit in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions. The brand will no longer be a discovery platform, but a career management one, instead.

Moving from a typical job portal, the brand is navigating the entire space by using various ways of customisation and personalisation. The company aims to offer recruitment solutions, by leveraging disruptive technology for precision hiring to superior UI. The company also plans to focus on career assistance, such as resume writing, mock interviews, upskilling courses and LinkedIn makeover.

The brand started its operations in India in 2001 and its primary mode of marketing is digital. Its recent campaign is all about 'change'. Prior to the announcement, the brand promoted its latest campaign on all media platforms.

This announcement comes just after the brand observed monumental change in the job market landscape. As per the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI, Oct 2022), certain sectors like startups, healthcare and IT have seen lower levels of hiring and a cautious approach over the past few months. Whereas sectors like telecom, automation and BFSI are witnessing healthy hiring trends. Overall, a marginal hiring dip has been observed.

Saurabh Srivastava, CMO, foundit, previously known as Monster India, comments, "Job portals, by just being discovery platforms, were just not doing justice to the expectations of recruiters or jobseekers. The COVID pandemic changed the kind of work we did and how we hired."

"We analysed the change and became the platform of the future, by using technology to kind of reinvent ourselves. We understood the need to be a holistic talent management platform, rather than being a mere job portal."

Samit Sinha, founder and managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting, shares, "Job discovery platforms are losing their audiences, mainly due to LinkedIn, which has become the go-to platform for business networking and all work-related opportunities. That is why the job posting websites that thrived in the first (COVID) wave, are struggling today. It is evolution, where agility and adaptability are key to success."

Priti Nair, co-founder, Curry Nation, comments, "Today, the need of the hour is a holistic approach. People want more information and keep looking for it. Being much more than just a job listing, makes the brand more robust, in terms of jobseekers and recruiters. The more expanded you are, the more chances of people making you the go-to platform."

With the brand completely changing its name, does it lose its original identity? How will the brand refresh impact its legacy?

Sinha of Alchemist Brand Consulting believes that the brand may lose its initial identity. "The name ‘Monster’ carries more baggage, as the brand tries to expand and diversify its business model. Perhaps, because the job portal association with the Monster brand is too strong."

Hansika Shivakumari, founder, Leapfrog Strategy Consulting, says, "The brand's old logo is written in all caps, which makes the Monster brand into an authority figure. The purple colour is premium and gender neutral. On the whole, in this brand identity, the power balance between Monster and the job seeker is all in favour of Monster."

"Whereas the new logo and identity are created from the perspective of the job seeker. In this rendition of the brand, the job seeker is center stage. The power balance is tilted in favour of the job seeker. The use of small letters indicates that the brand is subordinate to or working in the service of the job seeker. The only continuity between the old and new brands is the purple colour in the brand identity."

Post-pandemic, the entire behaviour of jobseekers and recruiters, has changed. The brand, through this change in name, is trying to create a new segment for work from home people.

Srivastava says, "A big behavioural change that we have observed, post-pandemic, is that today, a large portion of jobseekers come to our platform for jobs that are only remote. From the recruiters end, we see a lot of job postings and requirements, where they are looking for work from anywhere positioning. So, we have this specific section, where the jobseekers can look for work from anywhere options."

"We are using all tech-enabled tools to communicate with the jobseekers and make sure that they have regular interactions with the recruiters. We are enabling one on one, where a jobseeker can talk to an enabler too. We are also using audio tools to connect with the candidates."

With this announcement, the brand is expecting 3x to 5x growth, over the coming 18 months.

Just prior to the brand refresh, many Monster employees took to LinkedIn to announce that they are moving on. This resignation spree caught everyone's eye and led to a lot of controversy. The brand called this a transition from Monster to foundit.

"The posts on LinkedIn were in alignment with the change. They were not quitting essentially. It was more about moving from old to new. We wanted to capture this entire transition. Now, you will see updates from all of us saying, 'moved to foundit.in' and how this change has been good," adds Srivastava.