Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
JASPER – In April 2020, as COVID-19 raged on, three Dubois County natives took a decisive step to address the economic challenges that had befallen their community. With businesses shuttered and unemployment soaring to 9.6%, these individuals recognized the need for a better way to help their neighbors find work locally. Their response came in the form of Hometown Hiring, the hiring platform made for small towns.
Since then, more than 20,000 Dubois County residents have visited the local job board (www.hometownhiring.com) with 3,000 job seekers returning on a monthly basis to discover openings from over 100 local employers – resulting in people being hired for all sorts of opportunities.”
Founded by Donald Bough, Luke Hochgesang and Noah Bawel, all graduates of Jasper High School, they describe Hometown Hiring as a hyper-local version of Indeed that is better suited and more cost-effective for employers in small towns without an HR department or recruiter.
“We are a hiring platform for small town employers,” Hochgesang said. “Our real differentiator is our level of local focus. When we were building Hometown Hiring, we talked to a lot of people and we kept hearing the struggles of using Indeed and Monster.”
Hometown Hiring offers pricing options that include a pay-as-you-go plan for $150 per posting and a premium plan for $240 a month that includes unlimited job posts, free social media ads and being featured in the job email newsletter.
The trio combined their skill sets to create Hometown Hiring – Bough is a software engineer and Purdue University graduate; Hochgesang majored in finance and business analytics at Indiana University and Bawel has an engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
They continue to talk with employers to tailor the site to local needs. For example, because the largest minority in Dubois County speaks Spanish, job seekers can filter their search and translate the entire site to Spanish. Other filters are for part time or full time work, location and industry type. They also plan to add filters for various other groups in the community, like those in recovery from substance abuse disorder for example.
On the employer side, they recognize that employees involved with hiring are often incredibly busy and have made the posting process quick and simple.
Getting feedback from employers and job seekers motivates them to continue to improve the user experience.
“People are getting hired every day,” said Hochgesang.
One job seeker was a former resident who had moved to Florida and because of Hometown Hiring, found a job and moved back to Jasper.
Support for Hometown Hiring
Local leaders say Hometown Hiring is creating opportunities for employers and employees.
“Since Hometown Hiring is focused on exclusively listing jobs available from employers in Dubois County, it has been a tremendous plus. We know the local employers have welcomed it too,” said Ed Cole, executive director of Dubois Strong, the county’s economic development organization.
“Hometown Hiring provides an innovative and insightful platform sharing opportunities in your hometown community,” Jasper Mayor Dean Vonderheide added.
Strengthening the talent pipeline in Dubois County was another motivation for starting Hometown Hiring.
“We felt so fortunate to grow up in Jasper, really southern Indiana as a whole, and we know how special it is,” said Hochgesang. “Our goal was, ‘How can we help these communities continue to thrive?’”
Both were inspired by family members who were small business owners in Dubois County.
Hochgesang’s grandparents were small business owners, with one set operating a bakery and another set owning an electric company. Bough spent time helping his dad, who created websites for small businesses.
“They inspired me because I saw how things they built brought joy and value to local folks,” Hochgesang said.
At this stage, Hometown Hiring will focus on Dubois County, but they are looking at adding other counties in the future.