InformationWeek

Layman calls CareerRewards.com an employee-referral site. Companies can post their job openings without cost at CareerRewards.com, but they offer fees ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 to anyone who refers a successful hire. CareerRewards.com takes a cut of those fees. "The range of fees depends on the salary of the job; in some ways, the importance of the job; and how desperate an employer is," Layman says.

Anyone can scan the job openings and refer a friend or colleague--or even someone whose resumé they may have seen online at another board--and send that person an E-mail suggesting he or she check out a specific job listing at CareerRewards.com. Layman says one university employee has made a part-time career out of hunting for people on the Web and referring them to CareerRewards.com. By last month, more than 1,200 people had referred an average of 2-1/2 hires each since the board went online in February, he says.

CareerRewards.com collects fees over and above what companies pay those who refer hires. In some cases, the job board's fee equals the advertised bounty.

CareerRewards.com is different from other job boards, according to Layman, "because every resumé we receive is screened by one of our business experts. They also conduct one or more interviews with applicants and often administer a qualifications test. Then we try to match them by experience and culturally to the right job."

CareerRewards.com currently works only with employers in the mid-Atlantic region, Layman says, but funding is in the works to enable the service to go national by year's end.