Today companies rely heavily on the input of their employees in hiring new staff. A smart practice to reduce onboarding times and ensure the highest quality hires. One company that employs such a practice is Amazon. This year the company is set to open two new distribution centers in the Czech Republic, one in Prague and one in Brno. The company claims 2,000 permanent and 3,000 seasonal jobs will be created as a result. You can well imagine the time and effort necessary to bring on that much staff - no one person is capable of it. The entire team will be asked to help.
In a few ways, Amazon’s hiring methods are unique. The company has 110,000 employees, many who vet and scout new talent for the company. For higher-up positions, employees called “bar-raisers” are used in the hiring process. These individuals aid in the interviewing process and have veto power in deciding if a person is hired. This practice may seem intense, but it lends itself to rigorous interviews, and building a workforce that adheres to the culture the company wishes to promote from the inside. Quality isn’t all the company is interested in. They’re looking for a cultural fit, a match of personality. And they’re in no rush to hire someone who doesn’t fit that mold.
One fundamental approach to involve your employees in the hiring process is through referrals. The effects referral hiring can have on a company are paramount, as we've discussed before here. Referrals boost employee morale and save your company money. Referral candidates are more likely to be hired, remain happier in their positions, and last longer in company than other candidates.
Social Referrals
Social media has changed how we refer our friends to job openings. These networks allow us to reach a larger group of people in a shorter period of time and target specific friends for certain positions. Social tools are enabling the democratization of hiring. A bottom-up hiring model, which does not simply ask for the input of the lowest common denominator in an organization, but requires it. With their social toolbox, employees are already equipped to begin aiding your company in hiring.
When employees shared jobs on social sites using Jobote, our referral hiring software, 40% of all visitors reached the job ad on the first two days. Better still, 30% of all applications were received during that time. Unfortunately, what a social site gives in terms of amplification and reach, it takes away in terms of long-lasting visibility. But there are ways to solve this problem. More specific targeting of job posts ensures you reach the right audience the first time around. Social recruiting software allows you to easily match job positions with skill sets and keywords found on social profiles. This increases the likelihood that someone who sees your job ad the first time applies. Additional, repeated postings of the same job ad will help expose the job to new eyes. Changing the time and where you share the job opening can have an impact too. Ultimately though it won’t solve the short lifespan of a social post that doesn’t go viral.
A closer look at the effects of sharing on social sites reveals the efficiency of finding hard-to-fill positions. Dixons SSC in Brno was looking for an Oracle Database Administrator. A highly skilled position. When just 64 employees shared the position on their social networks the job ad received 445 views and 2 applications. A referral candidate was hired - providing a 16,000 Kc bonus to one of Dixons’ employees - and the candidate started work within 30 days of the job opening. And is still with the company.
Another one of our clients reevaluated their approach to hiring in 2013. They didn't abandon all of their old forms of recruitment, but they did invest in their employees: this past year they spent nearly 150,000 Kc on referral benefits. They hired 17 percent of their new staff via referrals. But best of all, where referrals were used, the average onboarding process took a mere 14 days.
If you reflect on your HR budget, how much did you spend on job boards, on personal agencies? If placements were made how many are still with the company?
Had you asked your employees for their help in hiring, how might you have affected the hiring process? Are you giving your employees an opportunity to bring new talent to the team? Are you letting them have a say in the hiring process?
You don’t need to fully rebuild your hiring process or implement strategies as bold as Amazon’s, but starting small and giving your employees a voice, asking them to search their network for trusted talent, is a smart investment that will have an immediate impact.