The thing I hate the most about some of the more ridiculous hype round social recruiting is that sometimes genuinely game changing announcements get lost of the sea of noise. A couple of weeks back there was one such announcement which to date has received very little attention.
Before I talk about what it was and why it’s a potential game changer, lets have a quick recap. Regular readers will know that I consider employee referral recruitment to be the area with the most to benefit from the social media revolution. Social Graph (and professional graphs) is a term that is passing into everyday marketing parlance and over the coming years will also be a familiar term in recruitment. Incidentally for those of you who haven’t yet seen just how interesting mapping your Facebook social graph can be, there is a great app here. This is what mine looks like:
When you bear in mind that each of my connections mapped above will have their own overlapping graph with additional connections who in turn also have their own graph, you can see just how far and wide information about career opportunities could spread when we get this right.
I’m still convinced Facebook plays a key part in this but thus far I’ve yet to see a “referral recruitment” Facebook app that isn’t clunky and spammy. To me referral recruitment on Facebook will be much more about employee advocacy than clever technology and this is something companies need to consider very seriously.
With this in mind I’ve always thought that LinkedIn (which is currently growing at a staggering 1 million uses every 9 days) offers the type of weak ties on a professional level that could really turbo charge referral recruitment if companies could find a way to harness it. Two weeks ago LinkedIn showed there were thinking the same way by announcing the launch of their “Referral Engine” product. To me this is the social recruiting announcement of the year and I’m staggered that I can only find one blog so far that has covered it.
I won’t go into the details of how it works as you can read about it here but here is a demo screen shot
As ever until it has launched we won’t know how good it is, whether it works or whether employers will be able to successful integrate it into their existing referral programs. However it certainly has the potential to be a very big deal indeed. More good news for corporate recruiters and yet more challenging news for agencies!
November 17th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I agree Matt, I think this has the potential to be huge. This gives building a large network so much more worthwhile for individuals and provides an increasingly powerful tool for recruiters. Though the real test will be to see if in house recuiters have the time and confidence to use it effectively. My guess is they will.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
So, to be clear, what happens is..
1. as a LinkedIn user, you see a job advert
2. if it is not relevant for you, you are encouraged to send out that job to your network
3. that selection of your network is selected by LinkedIn’s algorithms to whom they think would want to receive an update about the job
3. that person in your network applies to the company?
If that’s the case (and please correct me if I am wrong)…why would I want to/feel obliged to send out that job to my network?
As the user, I think I would feel that I would be slightly uncomfortable about doing this, concerned it would be perceived as spam?
As the user, I would debate whether, my social networks want to receive these updates from me?
For a selection of cases, yes this is an opportunity, but not sure it is really game changing.
I would love to get the feedback, in case I have gotten this wrong?
November 17th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
FB and Linkedin now have the immense critical mass required to make referral recruiting a viable reality.
Referral recruitment has failed miserably in the UK due not only to the lack of that vital network effect, but also because the motivating factors have been wrong.
Referring a job to friends, colleagues and relatives (or even them to the job) for reward just doesn’t fit with the British psyche. It seems sleazy, spammy, or just plain crossing the line. As a society we, in large part, like to think we work by certain standards of professional behaviour and loyalty is one of them. Referring a job to someone is tantamount to sticking your nose into their business, and making potentially embarrassing assumptions.
If we were encouraged to refer a job or a person because “it was the right thing to do”, then it just may catch on, but that would take a major sea-change in how we relate to others. In the UK, particularly amongst colleagues, co-workers, and professionals, we maintain a personal space that is difficult to penetrate.
In my view, only a change in culture will bring about the much vaunted referral network, regardless of the platform.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Yes, I have the similar confusion to Steve – however maybe that’s because we are coming at it from a recruitment `agency` perspective; whereas if I were an employer and I wanted my network to maximise my potential to reach the appropriate talent pool, then this is a great idea in theory
This is why `Social recruiting` is a broad term – as it includes recruiters and internal faculties alike.
Incidentally, doesn’t Linkedn already do this when you look at a job posting? And how often do we make those `free, freiendly referrals`?? – never… I have money to make.
Game changer? Not for me – recruiter game interrupter, maybe?
…unless of course we start classifying LinkedIn referrals as the equivalent to introductions in our Terms of Business?
Hmmm…
Steve
November 17th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
A note on Stephen O’Donnell’s referral comments:
Referral & recommendation is a free action that we do out of self-gratification. We mean good, and we tend only to refer and recommend people we are certain of suitability or calibre, but we always have to consider the consequences of the referral our own reputation when we refer.
I do hand onto a belief that now and again we are just compelled to refer people we admire and want to help – hell I have made my business almost purely from reputation, referral & recommendation – but it is largely a selfish act.
An official route of referral on a solid business reputation format such as LinkedIn? – I’m not certain it will have huge appeal. Good idea in theory, but we’re not inclined to take such risks.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
[...] my clearout a few weeks back, I thought I was done. Then I read Matt Alder‘s latest piece (if you haven’t, you should – he’s bang-on with the LinkedIn stuff). I was drawn [...]
November 17th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
@Steve and @Steve That’s not how I”m reading it at all. This is in the context of employee referrals not agencies or even general LinkedIn users. It’s all about companies sending out jobs to their employees on LinkedIn and LinkedIn then telling those employees who might be a good match for that job in their network. You could still argue that this could just create a spamfest but if there is the opportunity for it to be integrated into an existing employee referral program then it could be genius
@Stephen Congratulations on coming up with the biggest generalization of the year! Referral recruitment does work in the UK and there are many companies who measure it as a significant source of hires. Not only that in a previous job I once hired an entire team of people from referral recruitment!
November 17th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Currently trialling with Accenture, whom I believe have massively invested in corporate LinkedIn ‘Recruiter’ licences.
I think this function will only be available to companies that invest in ‘Recruiter’ licences for their direct hire teams.
At Logica, we’ve started prepping for it’s arrival in 2011, basic stuff like making sure we have consistent referral reward structures, plus employees are consistently tagged with correct brand, so that they can benefit from this feature.
If not got the recruiter licences, but have Broadbean as an aggregator, then highly recommend the new LinkedIn network now function. Diluted version of same function.
It feels like the beginning of a mini proliferation of LinkedIn apps is coming through, exciting times!
November 17th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
@Shotty Thanks for the comment and yes you’re right it is Recruiter licenses and direct employers only it would seem. Hence my good news / bad news comment at the end of the post
November 17th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I apologise Matt for not being more specific. I meant the succession of job boards that have tried referral recruitment for rewards, and failed.
I do appreciate that employee referral programs can be very successful, and in fact would expect all employers, large and small, to devise a system that best suited their situation.
Employees referring vacancies in their own organisation is one thing, as they are well motivated to do so. Referring people to random advertised jobs from other organisations – not so much.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
@Stephen Ah I see and yes I agree with you. This feature is all about employers using LinkedIn to target the networks of their existing employees though which is why I think it’s so important
November 17th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Matt
I’d agree with you with regards to the potential value of employee referral programmes but as yet have not seen evidence of them working very well within any organisations; and that’s pre social! Yes, pretty much every business you ask will say they have one but also, when you dig deep, they don’t work that well. This could just be down to it being clunky for employees to use (which is often the case) but for whatever reason, I think the employee referral programme could become the biggest social recruiting urban myth.
I don’t mind being wrong on this but I am yet to see one working at all so don’t really see how social will make that much difference as I think it is more of a cultural thing than a process thing. I’ll still keep supporting the potential though
November 17th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I take some of the points Peter, I’ve been frustrated over the years working with companies who could have done so much more with their referral programme but didn’t either because of lack of tracking, bad technology, inertia or just didn’t consider it important enough. I would disagree with your point that none of them work. In high tech and gaming sector for example there are actually some that are pretty effective.
I am admittedly taking an optimistic viewpoint but the arrival of these kinds of channels and products will give companies a very big incentive to look carefully at their referral strategy. Not all will take the opportunity but I suspect quite a few will.
Of course all of this relies on their employees wanting to actually make the referrals and that could be a different story altogether for some organizations!
November 17th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Either way it won’t stop us trying…. we can hope if nothing else
November 17th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Matt,
I agree with you on the potential of refferal programmes via Linked In. I think this is potentially very effective when combined with the matching element that suggests profiles from employees networks who might be good to look at, and the potential to rank the match internally, throw in a reward system and I think this could be a real threat for third party recruiters.
My feeling is that Linked In may move to formatted profiles with less free text to improve the matching, though looking at the suggested jobs that come up now, the matching is already quite accurate.
I watched the streaming of this announcment from The linked in user conference on 3rd november, and wrote this blog post about the refferal engine on the 4th November.
http://recruitingunblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/will-linked-in-referral-engine-damage-recruiters-socialrecruiting/
I was also surprised that this did not get more attention when it was announced at #Intalent.
I would be very interested in your views on my post. This, and other changes suggest to me that linked In are moving away from third party recruiters as a main revenue stream, seeing direct sourcing as a more lucrative and user friendly source of revenue. All of the new launches (there were 14 announced), seem to be geared to making direct sourcing from Linked In simpler, taking away the benefit (and mystery) of third party sourcing.
Bill
November 17th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Ah I get it now, but my point still stands, which Stephen OD neatly summed up about it would take a cultural change in our nation’s mindset. I have filled roles and run recruitment teams the across UK AND the US. We are different people, what works there doesn’t always make it right for UK mentality.
We’ve built and manage an on and offline (and social) employee referral scheme and rec marketing campaign to recruit hundreds of dental nurses and practice managers across the UK. Would love to know how this “game changer” would work for this demographic?
If you let me know, I am genuinely, completely genuinely, interested.
November 18th, 2010 at 12:30 am
I believe Linkedin has the data to go much further, by profiling the backgrounds of current company employees, in order to help source prospective ones.
It would be nice if job boards additionally offered to build profiles on employer’s current staff for the same purpose.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, so should blog my ideas more fully.
November 24th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
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December 17th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Here’s what I was talking about, explained more fully.
http://ayeright.com/2010/12/how-smart-can-job-boards-get/
March 8th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
[...] written about these before here and here. Most recruitment has always comes from referrals. Difficult to do but once employers can find [...]
March 18th, 2011 at 8:24 am
[...] written about these before here and here. Most recruitment has always come from referrals. Difficult to do but once employers can find [...]