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YM Careers is a small cog in the large wheel of a company that does business across the globe. Still, the Groton-based arm of Community Brands (communitybrands.com), which has more than 100,000 clients in 30 countries, is a powerhouse on its own.

YM Careers’ primary function is providing niche job boards to what it calls ‘purpose-driven organizations’, which Executive Vice President Tristan Jordan described as entities whose missions tend to align with some purpose to do good. These include professional associations, non-profits, faith-based groups, and K-12 schools. These groups use the job board YM customizes for them to identify hard-to-find, highly specialized talent.

HOW YM WORKS

Jordan explained the business by citing the example of a hospital group trying to find a thoracic surgeon or a non-profit looking to hire a senior marketing executive. The difficulty isn’t merely finding someone with a specialized skill. It’s that potential candidates aren’t necessarily looking for a job — “passive candidates” he called them — and if they were, they wouldn’t use mainstream Web sites such as indeed.com or monster.com to find them.

For a health-care organization that belongs to the 110,000 member American Association of Family Physicians, for instance, it can post a job on its job board and reach what Jordan said are “exactly the right members of these associations. The association, and only the association, can provide access to such a high concentration of qualified candidates. For members needing an employee with special skills,” Jordan added, “there’s no other way.”

GENERATING ADDITIONAL REVENUE, KEEPING TECHNOLOGY CURRENT

YM not only saves its clients time and money through the tools it provides, it also helps them tap sources of income other than membership dues. YM generates employer-paid ads for the job boards, as well as sells banner and classified ads. Among the others services its “soup to nuts” system furnishes is managing collections, accounting, and running events such as trade shows.

One of the challenges facing YM is keeping pace with technology.  “Digital transformation is a priority for all organizations,” he said. The company has its own research and development center, and employs professionals around the world staying on top of the latest technology that it can incorporate into its products.”

YM’S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The business was founded by Andrew Banever in 2001 from his home Niantic in 2001 as JobTarget. In 2014 he sold the company's career center hosting and management business to YourMembership.com, part of Community Brands. Jordan, then an executive with JobTarget, moved with the re-branded company to its new home in the “ice cube building” on Eastern Point Road, across the street from Pfizer. Its staff of 70 includes sales and customer service personnel, and the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company also has offices in Chicago, Austin, Tex., the United Kingdom, and the Phillipines.

“In terms of building a stable, smart workforce, Groton has been a great home for us.”

A native of Cape Cod, Jordan said YM’s location in southeastern Connecticut is beneficial in many ways. “There’s a lot of good talent available for positions in sales and service, though not as much for our high-power coding jobs,” he said. “In terms of building a stable, smart workforce, Groton has been a great home for us.”