Why don't IT referral recruitment programs work?

Almost all IT companies sooner or later face an insufficient number of candidates when hiring. And sooner or later this leads to the idea of ​​trying to "stir up" the referral program, such as "bring a friend and get a bonus." In fact, the conditions turn out to be much more complicated and for some reason they do not bring friends. Almost everyone tried to arrange a referral, but only a few managed to hire through such a channel. In this article, I share my opinion on why hiring referrals usually don't work and offer my tested method of how to make this channel work.

What does a referral system usually look like in hiring?

A typical referral offer looks like this - send us a candidate relevant to our vacancy, and we will pay you a bonus after we hire him. If the candidate doesn't fit, then we don't owe you anything. Sometimes there is an additional condition - the bonus will be paid after the employee hired on the recommendation passes the trial period.

The terms are similar to the typical terms of a contract with recruiting agencies, with some differences:

1. An unlimited number of “agents” can send candidates, the contract is not exclusive, but in fact an offer.
2. The amount of the fee is usually substantially less than the typical agency fee.
3. There are no advances.

From the employer's point of view, the “scheme” seems ingenious, sheer benefits!

The only trouble is that, unlike attracting a recruiting agency, this scheme rarely gives a result.

Why doesn't this referral scheme usually work?

I believe the main reasons are as follows:

1. The attention of disinterested agents is attracted. Usually the offer is posted on the company's website, on the company's pages in social networks. The offer is seen by people who have already recommended the company to whom they could or fundamentally do not want to recommend your company. If a company advertises its offer and pays for advertising, then this is already a separate advertising activity, which is worth additional effort, costs and you need to be able to do it.
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In general, we can say that employers are trying to outwit the market, save on recruiting, but this is not very successful because important factors of the market and people's behavior are not taken into account.

How can you improve the practice of referral offers in hiring?

If we tweak several parameters of the referral offer, taking into account the interests of potential agents, then we get an improved scheme.



But first, I want to say that it is impossible to get a good result with total savings. A referral can be made effective both in terms of the quality of the flow of candidates and the cost of recruiting, but you have to pay in the course of the campaign, and not just for the final result. If this is very confusing for you, then my further recommendations "will not go" to you.



So, here are the main features of my referral scheme.



First, potential agents are often not professional IT recruiters, so you need to provide them with detailed supporting materials:

• detailed and attractive job descriptions that they can show potential candidates;
• instructions and scripts - how to start a conversation and offer a vacancy to potential candidates;
• answers to common questions candidates might ask.

Before starting a referral, you need to carefully prepare for this, that is, you still spend your time and energy.



Second, the bonus needs to be split into parts and paid for intermediate results. Suppose you are ready to pay 50 tr. for hiring a suitable specialist. In my opinion, it is worth breaking this amount into the following parts:

• a bonus of 2 thousand rubles is paid to the agent upon the interview with the candidate, regardless of the result - whether you like the candidate or not;
• a bonus of 10-20 thousand rubles is paid in case of successful hiring of a candidate;
• another bonus (if the budget remains) of 10 thousand rubles is paid after the candidate passes the probationary period.

The bonus after passing the probationary period makes little sense, since your relationship with the candidate does not depend in any way on the agent, but still one reason comes to my mind. A new job is often stressful and a newly hired employee may want to quit on probation. The agent who submitted the candidate and expects an additional bonus, if he is a good friend of the candidate, can help you and persuade your new employee not to make hasty decisions.



Thirdly, some of the money will have to be spent on advertising in order to increase the reach of your offer. I recommend advertising in communities for HR and recruiters, as they have the resources and skills to find candidates and your offer may seem like a good way to earn extra money for them.

Criticism of my way and my countervailing objections

Colleagues, whom I told about this technique, usually expressed the following doubts and objections.

1. A candidate can agree with a friend and go to interviews, despite the fact that he is not ready to be hired, and we will pay for everything and spend our time.

There are always some candidates who do not go to interviews to get hired. If possible, it is worth learning to distinguish them from really motivated candidates for hiring. In any case, this is not a mass phenomenon and the loss of time and little money is not so critical compared to an excellent chance to attract a specialist who came for an interview only to you.

2. We will spend money on advertising, pay for inviting candidates for interviews, and in the end it turns out that candidates with beautiful CVs, but no knowledge, why do we need this?

There is always a risk of inviting a weak candidate for an interview and wasting time. In order to reduce this risk, it is worth applying methods of initial assessment of candidates. I prefer small, quick tests with a response time limit. If you have passed the exam on the knowledge of traffic rules in the traffic police, then you understand what it is and how effective it is. An open-ended questionnaire about experience is a good alternative. No one can force you to invite literally every candidate with a beautiful resume to an interview.

3. What if our HR starts to transfer found candidates through their friends in order to receive bonuses?

It is unlikely that a referral program will turn your loyal HR into a disloyal and abusive one. And if your HR is already disloyal, then this is a completely different problem - how do you work with disloyal employees.

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The referral system is used to hire, not to save. What's the joy of saving money if you haven't hired anyone? Of course, you can leave it as it is and hope to get lucky. Nobody can forbid you to do this except your boss or business owners.



I often think of a quote from Albert Einstein: “The biggest nonsense is to keep doing the same thing and hope for a different result.”



This means that if you want to hire, and not wait for a miracle, then you need to change something, try to do it differently. And the simplest thing to do is to advertise your referral in specialized HR communities. It is possible that someone out there already has a suitable candidate for you.



Thank you for reading to the end. I invite you to furiously comment on what you read!