Social networking and referral recruiting

I notice that Gerry Crispen has written a blog post about using Facebook as "An Endorsement Recruiting Engine".  Basically he suggests that "John gets hired as a programmer by PharmaX. He's excited to be able to join this new, rapidly-growing company. In addition to making a change on his Facebook account (so his "friends" are aware of his move), the recruiter who sourced him asks if he would declare himself a "fan" of his new company.... The recruiter then designs a highly targeted mass-customized series of ads which appear - to everyone within two degrees of seperation who graduated from the same college program as John. These ads have John's Facebook picture, link to jobs, included is a link to John's "new hire" profile on the company website and a offer of encouragement to consider open positions and join their "classmate"...."

What a superb idea and I can see in time this sort of thing becoming fairly common place.

Gerry is talking about a more specific model than the one I've been pondering for a while.  I believe that companies can capitalise on new hires in a fairly simple way. It stands to reason that in the first few weeks of joining a company most new hires are excited by the move and keen to impress the boss (if they aren't then you have problems above their refusal to take part in recommendation programmes!).

To use Gerry's imaginary candidate and company as an example I would suggest the following strategy to utilise social/business networking sites.

John works with HR (or line management) to write a "personal" email to everyone in his Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo, etc, etc networks.  This should inform them of his new job at PharmaX, tell them much he is loving it, and then list the current open vacancies in the company.  For increased results PharmaX should also offer a small bounty to anyone in John's network who refers the person who gets the job. 

If the average middle manager has a network (across all these sites) of around 300 people, and each of them has similar networks then writing one simple email and spending 30 minutes logging in to the sites and sending them could have fabulous results.  Anybody already doing this in the UK?

Comments

[Misha]

That’s an interesting strategy on how to utilize networking sites. It’s certainly an example of how companies are using the internet to expedite and cut costs searching for possible employees.

But on the flip side, I hope that John would take some consideration into which friends he’s emailing. Some, who aren’t in that particular field of work or aren’t looking to relocate, may become annoyed and see such an email as spam. The area between social and professional life is becoming muddier. I have to agree with an article from Focus Management, a food recruitment consultancy that “With everything being accessible, our lives are now under the microscope 24/7. According to the Times, a survey of 600 British companies revealed that one in five had logged on to Facebook and other networking websites to vet potential employees.” Though I have my online social networks, I don’t want to have my work following me home and try very hard to keep my personal and professional lives separate.

Focus and Times articles:
http://www.focus-management.co.uk/foodblog/2007/10/what-will-food-recruitment-loo.html
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2087306.ece

[Obi]

I would have to agree with Misha, trying to mix up your work life and your home life, not a good idea. I get the feeling that many new recruits would feel that way as well might not want to be involved in the recommendation scheme simply for that reason. It remains to seem, I might be proved wrong.

[Louise Triance]

Misha and Obi

Thanks for your comments. I know what you are saying about mixing business and pleasure. However, I think a "real friend" wouldn't object to an email from John saying about his new job and how great it is to work there. It probably wouldn't seem strange if at the end John added a couple of lines about the other opportunities there.

Louise

[Stephen O'Donnell]

I think it's a great idea, and a new way of doing what clever recruiters have been for years. Automated like this, it allows for our British reticence about direct referrals, and people to choose whether to respond or not.

Insurance (or Amway) sales people have always been encouraged to sell products to friends and family first, and it was always a good way to lose friends by pestering them. I agree that leveraging your ownership of your own personal network for your employer's gain can be tricky. The evolution of the correct accepted etiquette has yet to be established in online recruitment networking, and each of these routes will find their level.