Boncho Bonchev
Boncho Bonchev is a Senior Principal with Mercer’s Transformation services focusing on Talent Acquisition.
Referral-based hiring is a popular TA practice in today’s job market, primarily because it can save businesses time and money when selecting and recruiting new staff. In the same survey, utilizing employee referrals was named among the top 5 solutions to overcome future hiring challenges (see Figure 1).
However, while HR professionals often point out the advantages of referrals, these practices can have downsides.
Referrals can decrease search costs within the TA process, minimizing overall costs for recruitment. Specifically, referrals minimize costs associated with onboarding a new employee. For example, while referred employees earn higher wages on average, they also have high productivity which decreases monitoring costs and quit rates, supporting sustainability.2
There are additional benefits beyond cost reduction when hiring through referrals, particularly in terms of referral value and relational value. Referral value refers to situations in which the hiring manager is familiar with the abilities of network members and can screen these individuals as being above average. On the other hand, relational value is the nearly altruistic incentive for referred employees to perform better for their network, as opposed to when they work with strangers.3
1 Granovetter, 2018.
2 Heath, 2018; Kugler, 2003.
3 Chandrasekhar et al., 2020.
4 Heath, 2018; Loury, 2006.
5 Rebien et al., 2020.
The differences in informal networks across individuals in a labor market may lead to a disparate distribution of information about jobs, and therefore workforces denoted by similar types of people. It’s equally important to investigate hiring discrepancies between different types of firms. One experimental study revealed the prevalence of discrimination when using referrals, where discrimination is observed as the likelihood of hiring employees from a single group type (i.e. gender, university major).7 Specifically, demand for so-called high-quality workers resulted in increased discrimination, as did the presence of employee referrals.
6 Tassier and Menczer, 2008.
7 Takács et al., 2018.
8 Pedulla and Pager, 2019.
9 Miller and Schmutte, 2021.
10 Huning et al., 2015.
Overall, the picture continues to be heterogeny. Some organizations, aware of the potentially detrimental aspects of referrals, have formal anti-nepotism policies in place to curtail referrer-bias. Other companies have no formal policy or guidelines for referral-based hiring within their TA strategy and rely heavily on the personal networks of current employees. We also find easily accessible tools such as LinkedIn are increasingly utilized resources when used in conjunction with formalized employee referral programs. Further, we find preliminary evidence to suggest that incentives tied to specialized referral programs (i.e., referral bonuses) are minimally effective — the fact that an incentive exists is more powerful than the magnitude of that incentive.11
11 The result echoes the diminishing effectiveness of referral bonuses over time (Friebel et al., 2023)
For companies engaged in large hiring initiatives, retention must be seen as a part of the process. The post-hiring phase is crucial, carrying with it the power to significantly bolster employee retention and satisfaction. Workforce cohesion can be disrupted due to divisions emerging from the ways in which employees have landed their jobs — some through personal connections, others through traditional recruitment processes. For those belonging to the latter group, it is not just important, but vital, to create an onboarding process that does more than just acquaint them with the company’s operations. A post-hiring strategy should involve proactive measures to integrate new employees into the company’s informal networks, such as linking employees with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).12 This approach has the potential to significantly enhance retention rates and strengthen feelings of belonging, which has positive ripple effects for the company.
12 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), also known as affinity groups or business network groups, are voluntary, employee-led groups within an organization that aim to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace
Mercer’s survey shows that nearly 75% of companies planning to hire will increase the size of their workforce by up to 30% of their current headcount.
For other than family businesses, firms must rigorously contemplate the implications of hiring employees’ spouses and close relatives to steer clear of potential nepotism.13 A sensitive and thoughtful approach is necessary when making such decisions, considering both the professional qualifications of the potential hire and the potential social impact within the organization.
13 Minbaeva et al., 2023
While the hiring manager is often the best judge of the skills and experience required for a particular job, if we want to emphasize company-related goals of DEIB and a cohesive workforce, involving other parts of the business in resume reviews or interviews can strengthen the internal community within an organization. It can contribute to more transparent recruitment and selection decisions and thus increase objectivity. For example, in one of our interviews, the company representative indicated that a recruitment team consults with the hiring managers and provides coaching to new hires and their teams on successful employee integration, which also ties back to the main company values and mission. In terms of viewing sustainable TA as a component of business strategy, Mercer’s survey data reveal there is room for improvement for many organizations.
When a new hire has already interacted with several people from different parts of the business, a community-centric onboarding process is easier to attain. Furthermore, collecting multiple insights also involves multiple recruitment channels including LinkedIn. Most of our interviews indicated LinkedIn continues to develop increasingly heavily utilized by today’s recruiters and will most likely continue to do so. When companies keep an open mind as to how potential employees find job openings, they will be more successful.
of respondents place a high priority on aligning TA goals with overall business strategy
of respondents indicate that they are investing in the brand awareness
Boncho Bonchev is a Senior Principal with Mercer’s Transformation services focusing on Talent Acquisition.
Sven Horak is a Professor of Management at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University in New York.
Tracey Freiberg is an Assistant Professor of Economics at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University in New York.