NEXT time you walk into the office tea room, don't be surprised to see a wanted poster offering a lucrative reward. It won't be for the colleague who stole your chocolate biscuits.
As the nation enjoys near record low unemployment, the skilled worker has become Australia's most wanted. Last week, Fitzroy web design company Reactive Media sent out an email that transformed its 25 staff from salaried cyber geeks into corporate bounty hunters.
"We've decided to start a recruitment bonus scheme here at Reactive and it could mean a cool $500 in your pocket," the message said. "Here's how it works: You refer a potential employee to Reactive. They get the job. They stay in it for at least three months. We give you a $500 bonus."
Refer-a-friend campaigns are nothing new to the call centre industry, but now it seems the stakes are getting a little higher. In my call centre, there's a long standing promise of a pair of movie tickets (total value = $30) to whoever refers a friend who ends up lasting more than a month in the job. According to The Age article, hundreds, and potentially even thousands of dollars are now on the table.
Encouraging your existing staff to recommend people to fill vacancies is a fine idea, particularly during a prolonged labour shortage like the one we're experiencing at the moment. It seems doubly useful in the call centre biz, given that the industry traditionally has a high level of turnover, with many staff coming and going within a few months.
There are considerable benefits to both employers and employees in the model. For employers, it reduces the risk associated with each new recruit: new employees who come with a recommendation from existing employees would surely be more likely to stick around than unknown candidates with only a resume and a friendly smile to back them up. It's hard not to have just a smidgeon of sympathy for employers who go to the invest in the training of staff only to see them walk out the door soon after.
And for employees, the cash is not the only benefit. You can imagine that staff are more likely to stick around if they are working amongst friends, and this style of recruiting will do just that.
So with both parties as the winners, who are the losers? Only the professional recruiting companies, who traditionally charge a significant commission for their services, and are now seeing the job done by amateurs.
Viva la labour shortage!
