Take another look…
Employee referral programs (ERP’s) are consistently used by many major corporations and it’s not uncommon to hear that upwards of 70% of new hires can be attributed to a company’s referral program. However, successes like these are all derived from an extremely well designed ERP, and a very small percentage of companies actually have it down.
The proclaimed success of ERP’s are based on the simple and statistically accurate conclusion that the new hires are normally quality, often a strong cultural match and tend to represent a low margin of early departure. What’s wrong with that, right? If a referral has the required skill set and fits well with the company culture, then where’s the pitfall?
Well, there is a potentially unforeseen factor to take into consideration the next time you resort to your ERP for a new hire. It’s an effect in the HR world know as “employee inbreeding” and