Virtual Employees The Internet is a great place to find books, CDs, clothes and, believe it or not . . . employees.

Adrienne Graham has become a cyber-savvy staffer.

Graham, president of ADG Group Inc., a human resources andrecruiting company, needed three virtual workers for her expandingbusiness. Realizing her own circle of friends wouldn't sufficein finding qualified candidates, Graham ran a free "helpwanted" ad on Headhunter.net (http://www.headhunter.net).

Then the replies started flooding in. Within a week, she had 57responses. Within two weeks, 118 were in her in-box. Within threeweeks, Graham had three virtual employees. What could have cost 10percent of the combined annual salaries for a traditionalheadhunter cost Graham absolutely nothing. "I've neverpaid for help-wanted advertising," she boasts.

Need to staff up quickly--and inexpensively? Then headonline.

Whereas newspaper classified ads can be costly and inefficient,and word-of-mouth limits a search to your circle of friends, onlinehiring can accomplish the two basic goals of staffing--posting jobsand locating quality resumes--more quickly and cheaply thantraditional want ads. Here's a quick how-to:

• Hit and browse the popular sites: CareerMosaic (http://www.careermosaic.com),Monster.com (http://www.monster.com), CareerWeb(http://www.careerweb.com),Headhunter.Net (http://www.headhunter.net), andJobTrak (http://www.jobtrak.com).

• Two powerful online recruiting resources are The Riley Guide(http://www.rileyguide.com), acollection of online job listings, resumes and career managementsites, and Purdue University (http://www.fnr.purdue.edu/jobinfo/jobinfo.html),a resource for hundreds of online job and candidate search toolsand sites.

• Visit sites and discussion lists related to your industry. Mostwelcome chats between employers and candidates, says Mark Mehler, aveteran recruiter and co-author of CareerXroads 2000 (Jist Works),a paperback directory of 500 job, resume and career managementsites on the Web (www.careerxroads.com).

• Define what skills the specific job entails. If you wait untilyou've found a candidate, you may end up creating a jobaccording to their skills rather than your needs.

• Once you're ready to post, ask for a free trial job posting(posting resumes is free on most services; this is how Graham foundher three employees). Paid employment listings can range from $20to $225 a month.

• Learn to quickly and efficiently ferret through all the resumesyou'll undoubtedly receive. Headhunter.net claims 120,000 usersdaily. Look for the specific skills you need from your new hire,years of experience, writing and organizational style, etc. You canlearn a lot from a resume.

• If you go the paid-listing path, find high-traffic sites usingautomated agents to steer your job posting to the best candidates.Ask how long and where the job will be posted, how much text isallowed and whether responses will come directly to you or via thesite. Read other ads to gauge the style, and expect to pay forprominence in the listing pool. Also, ask for and contact bothapplicant and employer references who've used the site.

Graham learned quickly how to perform an online search. Shewrote out the questions she would ask candidates. Once sheshortened the list, she called them to chat further. When herchoices were narrowed down to a handful of people, she logged on toNetMeeting--or hit the local Starbuck's--to get in a littleface-time via a virtual conference with the candidate."I've taken the virtual office and hiring," she says,"to the next level."

ContactSources

ADG GroupInc.: information@adggroup.com,http://www.adggroup.com