Fashion Mode

When a position opens up at a company and it is time for employers to start sourcing candidates to interview, there exists a wide variety of potential mean for them to do so.From job posting sites to social media networking, career fairs and industry specific events, there are dozens of methods by which companies can reach out and draw in potential candidates.

However, one of the most effective executive search techniques available also happens to be one which many companies have a tendency to overlook; that being through the use of employee referral programs.Just as companies can develop their own professional networks, what many employers tend to forget is that each of their existing employees has their own network of professional friends and acquaintances, networks which companies can tap into to great effect, offering even greater potential results than those available via the internet.

An employee referral program functions simply and elegantly to entice employees to reach out through their personal networks to recommend potential candidates for the company's sourcing and hiring procedures.More often than not this is done with the greatest success given the understanding that, should an employee's recommendation prove fruitful, they will be rewarded in one fashion or another for their assistance. The success of this technique draws on the fact that the employees who would be making these recommendations already have a solid understanding of the company, its inner working, the requirements of the job in question, as well as that company's corporate culture, and can therefore make recommendations with all of these factors in mind, meaning that the individuals they recommend will have a greater likelihood of being an ideal match in each of these respects.

When it comes to a successful employee referral, companies can take a few different approaches to rewarding those employees responsible for the referral.These options can range anywhere from nonmonetary rewards and recognition, to substantial referral bonuses of thousands of dollars. Deciding what route to take in applying rewards will vary widely depending on the company's means and the extent to which they value the referral made. However, still other companies have chosen to forgo any kind of reward system, instead opting to rely on a corporate culture which prompts its employees to submit referrals of their own volition, in return for which they will receive some kind of recognition from the company.

The executive search and candidate sourcing process can be a difficult one, particularly given the current state of the job market following the past decade of economic disorder, now having become saturated with under qualified candidates all scrabbling for any position they can find despite their unsuitability. To counteract this new complication employers now need to become more efficient than ever before when it comes to their hiring efforts, as failing to do so could mean wasting a great deal of time and resources on the company's part in trying and failing to fill a vacant position, or doing so only to have the chosen individual turn out to be a less than ideal match. Carried out successfully, employee referral programs can help to assuage all of these difficulties, streamlining the hiring process to make it as effective and efficient as possible.