By LAURA LAYDEN (Contact)
6:57 p.m., Sunday, May 4, 2008

Called QuietHire.com, it offers a new way to look for jobs through its Web site. The service is designed to take the fear out of the job hunt. Job seekers will be able to put up anonymous profiles on the site that will lead companies right to them, instead of posting their resumes online. That way, their current bosses won’t find out they’re looking for new opportunities, and they won’t face the threat of a backlash.

The new venture is an outgrowth of Management Recruiters in Naples, which has made a name for itself as a top headhunter for the automotive industry.

“We have been recruiting for 18 years. Then this idea came about. We started talking about it, and we developed it into a working Web site that we believe will compete with all the employment and job sites that are out there today,” said Dan Ressler, owner and president of Management Recruiters. Ressler started as a foreman at General Motors out of college and worked his way up, eventually becoming president of several automotive firms in Detroit before going into the recruiting business. He is an owner and one of three partners in QuietHire.com.

Job candidates don’t include their name or the name of their current employer in their profiles. “We think there are probably more than 50 percent of working people who do not post their resume because of fear of repercussions. It’s like releasing this whole new population of candidates that employers will be able to review. It gives those employees a whole new avenue to consider new jobs,” Ressler said.

In the profile, candidates list the industry they’re in, their title, education, salary and geographic preferences for work. Companies that join the site can upload a job description into our advanced search engine, and all the candidates that meet the requirements will come to their attention electronically, he said. Recruiters can then read the profiles and decide with whom to interview. “Employers can conduce countless job searches. These searches will produce lists of QH Candidate Profiles that fit the job criteria. Candidates are then contacted through our confidential email system and can choose which companies they wish to puruse," Ressler said.

Companies with multiple locations pay $30,000 to join the site. A business with one location pays $10,000. Those fees are annual and are far less than fees many employers pay for traditional recruitment activities.

“A standard recruiting fee is around $20,000 for one fulfillment. So to charge $30,000 is a huge savings for companies who have multiple postion openings,” Ressler said. For job seekers, the service is free. “It’s like looking through a one-way mirror because the candidates will be approached by numerous potential new employers electronically, and the candidates will receive that company’s brochure or annual report or profile. They will know by whom they are being pursued,” Ressler said.

Ressler wouldn’t say how much has been invested in the new site. A big marketing and advertising blitz is planned. “We are trying to hit the Internet quite heavily. There are a lot of blog sites and communities where working people will find this to be of interest,” Ressler said.

His partners are David and Kathleen Chilcote. She’s worked at Management Recruiters for about nine years, and he owns a recruiting business of his own focused on health care. "We saw a void and feel this is going to fill that void for a lot of people,” Kathleen said.

“It’s a very unique idea. It’s going to allow any employed person the ability to have an avenue for improvement in their work world, without the threat of being discovered by their current employers,” David said. Nearly every other job board presents that threat, he said.

Though the company has quiet in its name, it hopes to roar like a monster. It wants to go global. “We’ve talked to a number of people and they are all very excited about it,” Ressler said.