He's gone, too. Nowadays, if you want to get your foot in the door, you are likely to call a company that has the contract for recruiting, testing and hiring. Many firms screen by telephone. They also will not know you from a hole in the wall. And the field for outsourcing seems wide open.
Law firms offer in-house training once performed by human resources workers.
Security firms do background checks that companies once did routinely. As is the case for Allen's firm, one company will train another company's workers for a fee. We almost had a monopoly on briefing companies on workplace issues. Nowadays, outsourcing firms such as Aon Consulting of Chicago are the virtual front offices for many factories and businesses, doing the recruiting and hiring. Calif. In Aon's case, outsourcing is its fastest-growing business, according to Mark Lifter, an Aon official based in Detroit.