Employers offered new approach for addressing OFCCP Internet Applicant ruling

CHICAGO, IL (January 23, 2006) - QuietAgent.com, the only internet recruiting technology that offers employers Anonymous Candidate Sourcing capability, advised today that its unique mutual-interest matching tool offers the ideal solution for contractors and agencies affected by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) new internet recruiting ruling.

The OFCCP ruling that takes effect Monday 6 February 2006 relates to the required collection of gender, race and ethnicity information used to investigate potential discrimination during the hiring process, and was drafted in response to new challenges presented by the collection of internet based job applications.

QuietAgent.com aims to significantly reduce the liability for employers in managing ‘Internet Applicants’
defined under the new ruling by offering both a sophisticated new search process, and a short-listing method  that reduces an employer’s recordkeeping requirements by only presenting details for only the best, mutually interested applicants.

The new OFCCP ‘Internet Applicant’ definition encompasses job seekers who submit electronic expressions of interest for jobs and meet certain criteria for open positions. This includes job seekers who respond directly to employers via job board advertisements, as well as job seekers who submit their details to large résumé databases.

Industry observers have expressed concern that the new ruling imposes an undue burden on contractors,
given that they must keep records for all individuals who submit an expression of interest and are considered to meet the basic qualifications for a position.

QuietAgent.com provides an approach that is different to both job boards and résumé databases, that saves employers from being obliged to manage and record hundreds of applications. Firstly, a job seeker’s résumé data is complemented by a concise set of minimum requirements for jobs, company types, locations, sectors, work types and benefits they require to be met before they would consider an opportunity.

Secondly, QuietAgent.com CEO Jason Kerr explains, “we use a unique ‘let’s find each other’ process between job seekers and employers that ensures that the employer is only returned quality shortlists of job seekers who are both qualified to work in the position on offer, and whose minimum job requirements are met”.

Kerr continues, “most importantly, job seekers returned in a search remain anonymous to the employer, and must be invited to apply for an open position. Unless a job seeker accepts an employer’s invitation, they remain anonymous, blocking any access to their private identifying information”.

The QuietAgent.com invitation process therefore gives employers an absolute confirmation that the job seeker wishes to be considered for the position. When an invitation is accepted, this releases a job seeker’s private information to that employer, and only at that point are they required to be managed as an ‘Internet
Applicant’ under the new OFCCP ruling.

The result, says Kerr, is that employers reduce their legal exposure by short-listing the number of ‘Internet
Applicants’ to only qualified and willing candidates, and have complete control over the size of their
administrative burden of OFCCP reporting.

QuietAgent.com has attracted job seekers and employers via strategic partnerships with over twenty
Chambers of Commerce, Business Alliance groups and colleges in New York, Chicago and New Zealand.

Kerr says the QuietAgent.com revenue sharing model is attractive to strategic partners, and the company is
now in discussions with several public companies in the Human Resources and online industries that are keen to deliver new solutions to answer online issues of privacy, equality and the cost of recruiting.