Oh. You Mean You Want Good People?
Posted Mar 11, 2009 Interviewing and Hiring
∞ Internal referrals scare me. A lot. There are two reasons for this.
The idea behind rewarding referrals is sound - who knows better what’s required to work somewhere than people who already do? The referral programs that come without disclaimers, though, tend to make me head for the hills. I don’t mean the standard line, either: “We won’t pay you the bonus for recommending your friend/sibling/child/cat until s/he has been employed with the company for X days.”
This isn’t so much an issue in the current job market, but those who recommend family and friends for work have, in my experience, been in one of two categories. They’re either in it for the reward or they’re duped by someone who’s a very reliable friend/sibling/child/cat but who, in the workplace, sucks. The disclaimer I want to see on these programs - and have actually gotten implemented once, but haven’t had that success since - is:
Referrals should be based on your knowledge of your position and the company in general. Recommend only people you are confident will be successful working in our environment.
If I had a hammer on me, I’d nail on the point: Excessive referrals of unqualified or underperforming candidates will get your eligibility to participate in this program yanked.
I’m not saying that people are ultimately responsible for the performance of people they recommend. I’ve seen excellent candidates make it through the hiring process, only to behave like total idiots once they were hired. Likewise, I’ve seen referrals with no industry education or experience who’ve become top peformers in short spaces of time. If we wanted people to be accountable for those they refer, we’d have to limit it to people they’ve worked with in the past.
At the same time, I’ve seen entire families of average to below-average workers get into large companies based on referrals. This is where my second reason comes in.
I preach consistency in policy enforcement. HR preaches consistency in policy enforcement. But what happens when a referral is hired and turns out to be as useless as boobies on a boar? People start thinking, “oh, I’ll give him a little leeway. He knows so-and-so.” When performance issues continue, staff starts thinking, “I wish I was related to someone here so I could screw off like that.” Then management starts obsessing: “OMIGOD I have to fire this person and she’s my work-friend’s daughter and my work-friend is never going to talk to me again.”
I had a few awkward moments after firing someone in these circumstances, but I still feel that connections shouldn’t matter. I’m not discussing someone’s termination with their friends regardless of where those friends work, so what difference should it make?
I’d like to know how other workplaces are treating this. Has the issue been any more visible since the unemployment rate took a hike? ∞
