Shutting out recruiters?

HR Magazine, Sept, 2008

Being a recruiter can't be easy these days. First, the poor economy is eating into commissions. Now, employers are shutting recruiters out of the hiring process.

To help reduce recruitment costs--estimated at $3,000 to $6,000 per entry-level job--seven large companies including Starbucks and Best Buy Co. recently began pooling job candidates. Under the arrangement, individuals passed over by one company are invited to join the so-called AllianceQ, which pushes applicants' information out to other companies in the consortium.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The system is being powered by Quiet Agent, the brainchild of software developer Jason Kerr, the company's chief executive officer. "Collectively, the Fortune 500 is the world's largest job board," Kerr says. "They have all the jobs, they attract the most job candidates, so it just makes sense for them to collaborate on resources and help each other save money."

Membership in the consortium is free and limited to large companies with more than 5,000 employees.

In addition to Starbucks and Best Buy, AllianceQ's other founding members are Automatic Data Processing Inc., Baxter, Entergy Corp., FPL Group (Florida Power & Light Co., FPL Energy) and Wachovia Corp.