Job Seekers Pay for Job Referrals

Companies should always interview the referrer about their relationship with the referred.

How do they know the referral? Where have they worked together, and how closely did they work with each other? Involve the referrer in the hiring process.

Involve the referrer in the hiring process. It quickly becomes obvious if the referrer doesn't really know the person they referred. Don't hesitate to inform people that the quality of their referrals will impact their reputation.

Once people know that their referrals are being watched, they won't participate in these games. The single worst referral program I witnessed was a fire-and-forget program where employees put names on a referral list and received $5000 if that person was hired. No consequences for bad referrals. Unsurprisingly, a few people immediately flooded the referral list with the names of every developer in their LinkedIn lists. That program didn't last long.