HR professionals say employee referrals are the best resource for finding candidates, yet only 7% of job seekers are using referrals to find jobs, a study by Future Workplace, a research firm dedicated to rethinking and re-imagining the workplace, and Beyond, the Career Network, revealed.
According to the study, fewer than 10% of job-seekers placed a top priority on referrals: just under three in 10 said they networked within a company before applying, while more than 70% of HR professionals said employee referrals were the single best way for them to find candidates.
Looking for job in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and elsewhere on the continent has not been easier. Though online platforms abound in recent times, it only makes the application process easier, but not necessarily fairer.
An HR manager would lean towards the recommendations of members of staff for a particular role than to look for that good candidate among the haystack. And really, you cannot fault them entirely. It is not like in many cases the hires tend to be poor.
It is Time Saving
You would want to save precious time and attend to the next task, so you would easily rely on the professional judgement of your CFO in recommending a candidate for the finance department, than to go through 120 CVs to pick 10, and then the rounds of interviews.
It is Cost Saving
You save time and you save cost, at least in the short-term. The recruitment process can be expensive sometimes, depending on how you go about it and the level of the available position. So you want to save as much cost as possible
Professional Judgement
Considering and accepting referrals from employees does not mean taking referrals from everyone at anytime. HR managers make sure they take the referral from an appropriate employee; one with relevant experience and knowledge about the requirement of the job. The judgments are usually professional as employee’s personal reputation and relationship with the HR manager is on the line, in case your referral turns out a poor hire. HRs rely on employee referrals often, as they themselves may not have full knowledge on the requirements of each role in every department of the organisation, to be able to technically assess the suitability of each candidate – even at the short listing stage.
The lesson here is to make contacts, professional or personal, in most of the business organizations you hope to work for, so they can recommend you when a matching role becomes vacant.
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