Finding the Right Employee Referrals in a Downturn

Despite their general effectiveness, it is easy to go wrong with employee referrals in a down economy. Most employees have friends and family who are looking for jobs, and they feel obligated to refer them even if they are unqualified for your positions. When this happens, recruiters lose valuable time providing a high-touch recruiting process for unqualified referrals, and the referring employees and referrals themselves are dissatisfied when a hire does not result.

Consider a two-pronged approach to getting the benefits back into your employee referral program:

• Target referrals for critical positions (for instance, promote referrals at appropriate business unit meetings among employees in critical positions)
• Dissuade unqualified referrals (for instance, explain the downsides of referring unqualified candidates in referral messaging to your employees)