I recently had an opportunity to attend an executive briefing for about 30 of our members in New York City when the topic turned to employee referrals and their “other” referral process. That is, their process for handling referrals that come through their executives (think, "family and friends"). If you think that your standard referral process is overwhelmed, you should have heard the pain recruiting organizations are feeling over executive referrals in the current recruiting climate. Their comments were peppered with phrases like “nepotism”, “favors”, “family connections”, and “phony internships”.
Not only has the number of referrals coming from executives spiked, but the level of pressure they’re placing has also risen dramatically. It’s as if desperate candidates have exhausted all their normal avenues and decided that their best bet for getting a job is to turn to someone with some clout. And, executives who may have leveraged their own informal networks to get jobs in the past are all too willing to return the favor.
We at the Roundtable would like to hear what you’re doing about this situation, so we’ve departed from normal practice and we’re opening this particular entry for discussion.
- How are you responding these types of referrals?
- Have you created a separate, defined process for executive referrals?
- Do you embrace them or prefer to push back?
- If you push back, what are some of the approaches you’ve found most helpful?
Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with your peers right now. I suspect there’s a great opportunity for shared learning here.
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