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Are you looking for a cost-effective and eco-friendly way to recruit candidates? When employers are faced with a job opening, many of them rush to post the job online on sites such as Monster or CareerBuilder. By doing so, they often overlook one of the most effective recruiting strategies: word-of-mouth recruitment.
Word-of-mouth recruitment refers to employment referrals from people you know, including friends, family members, current employees and other personal contacts.
A great example of the power of this type of recruitment occurred with one of my previous employers. We had a job opening and were struggling to find qualified candidates. One day, we decided to send out an internal email to all employees with a job description of the position we were looking to hire for. The next day, we had an internal employee refer an individual they used to work with at a previous company. The referral joined our company and advanced from an account management position to an executive position in just a couple of years.
Here at Proforma, we often say that customers will buy from you if they know you, like you and trust you.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that this statement often applies to many other situations. A person isn’t going to refer a candidate to you, for example, if they don’t know you, like you or trust you. People will refer good individuals if they know you and the company is a great place to work at.
Word-of-mouth recruitment is easy if you spread the word that you are looking to hire. If you are looking for employees, ask your contacts for referrals. As an incentive to current employees, you may even consider paying a referral bonus if you hire someone who was referred to you. Not only will you save money by not posting online, which can cost several hundred dollars, you will also show your appreciation to the employee for helping you find someone who is likely to be a perfect fit for the position.