Worth recommending, or a few words about social recruiting

The recommendation accompanies us every day. We recommend a good video, a trusted doctor, an interesting blog. More: the more serious the decision before us, the more we rely on the recommendations of people we trust. It's no different with one of life's most serious choices: the workplace.

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Commands to work are carried out in two ways. Systems Internal recommendations are addressed to employees of a given company, whom the employer invites to indicate people who could successfully fill vacancies. It is customary for enterprises to provide rewards for successful referrals. Depending on the employer's preferences, these can be financial, material or purely symbolic gratifications. Another model is Involving people from outside: customers, agents or subcontractors. They also expect a certain form of gratitude for their activity.

There are also two different sources of getting applications from the command. You can either create an internal system plugged into the company's intranet or CAREER website (such solutions are offered by: the world's leading provider RolePoint, in Poland - ShareHire Insider) or use an external platform on which users will be able to both apply for a job and recommend others to it (here you can highlight BountyJobs, MeshHire or Zao, in our country Sharehire.pl already works).

According to research by the Green Line — Employment Services Information Centre, 72% of respondents informed close people about the current job search, and 68% of them found employment thanks to a friend's recommendation. This is good news for candidates. Employers with meaningful referrals are provided by the American representative of the HR industry — Jobvite. According to his research, applications from the command, constituting barely 7% of the total CVs that flow to companies, they account for as much as 40% of employment.

How to explain this statistic? The simplest is to point out a number of benefits offered by referrals to everyone involved in this process. It should be noted that a good referral program (but also: a well-thought-out social recruiting platform) must take into account the needs and interests of both the employer, the employee and the referrer.

Companies acquire applications without involving a recruitment agency. The role of advertising portals is also decreasing: instead of refreshing or conquering the offer, it is enough to animate the referral community with mailings, social media posts, etc. This means a reduction in costs — and twofold. On the one hand, the company pays less for the publication of announcements, on the other - for their current service. Recruiters already have candidates in front of them. subjected to social pre-selection, which we always have to deal with in the case of referrals. This means shifting the weight from the quantity to the quality of the CV.

The psychological mechanism behind this is fairly easy to explain. A person who recommends a friend to work, especially if he or she is an employee of a particular company, takes responsibility for the person to whom they have pointed out. The recommender also has knowledge about it, which cannot be read from the CV or motivation list. The company also benefits significantly from non-employee referrals, i.e. sent by contractors, customers or other persons more loosely related to it. Their involvement in the recruitment process involves them in the life of the company they help — especially if the employer provides for the payment of a reward for a successful referral.

What does the candidate himself gain from referrals? In the first place, easy access to new jobs — without looking, finds interesting employment prospects. The fact that his attention was drawn to the advertisement by a friend also assures him that the company to which he will be applying is reliable. If a friend himself is her employee, you can count on the fact that she will prepare him well for a job interview. Likewise process of adaptation of new personnel acquisition the company will be facilitated by the already existing relationship with the referrer. Jobvite's research shows that employees from recommendations tend to be more loyal (measured in years of service) than candidates obtained on job portals.

The motivations of referrals vary, but they too should see value in recommending others to work. Some are driven by an altruistic desire to help, others — hoping for a reward for an effective referral, others — such as young HR adepts, see this as a way of building their professional story. Given that the most common reward for one uthe referral on ShareHire is 1000 zł, and the largest - up to 3000 zł, you can imagine that recommending people often and methodically can make it a way of life. They can do something for themselves by helping others. This in itself proves that it is really worth recommending.

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