I am sure that most of you will be able to empathise with the following situation. You have advertised an entry-level position that is perfect for a fresh graduate with the potential to advance quickly within your organisation. This is a great opportunity for you to prove yourself as a HR superstar. By unearthing someone who has the potential to drive your organisation forward, you will certainly show senior management the value you bring to the company. Unfortunately, this is no easy task. One of the toughest aspects in recruiting new graduates and relatively inexperienced candidates is looking beyond the resume, developing an understanding of each applicant, and determining whether they have what it takes to blend in to your organisation.

For young graduates, entering the job market is certainly a daunting prospect. In China, recruiters prize experience above all else. Unfortunately, there is just not enough to go around. This is what has sparked the war for talent that we discuss so frequently in the pages of Network HR. While major organisations fight ferociously to secure their share of China's experienced talent pool, the opposite is true for graduates. They are in plentiful supply and are painfully aware of the fact that their pool is positively overflowing. In the December edition of NHR, when I wrote about graphology, I pointed out that in 2008 universities in and around Beijing estimated that they would produce 200,000 new graduates, who would have to fight for just 87,000 open positions in the city. With so many fresh-faced graduates entering China's job market, the question we must all address is how to identify the best ones.

With no experience to help them stand out from the crowd, many graduates and their resumes can begin to look all too similar. This makes it much more difficult to select the ones that will best fit your organisation. On many occasions, as a deciding factor, you need to focus much more on intuitive areas, such as motivation and personality. Finding the right candidate is often like panning for gold. If you get it right, the rewards are tremendous, but it is a long and arduous process with no guarantee of eventually striking it rich.

I certainly found this during my recent search for a new office assistant. As this was an entry level position, I was not looking for someone with a wealth of experience. Rather, I was looking for a candidate who was young and hungry, well educated, and who spoke good English. As the first few resumes began to arrive in my inbox, I was delighted to find that several candidates seemed to meet my criteria. A few days later though, and my initial delight hadturned into despair. I had so many qualified resumes that if I had interviewed all of them, you may have needed to wait until November for this edition of Network HR. Deciding which ones to interview and which to discard proved a difficult process. With so many potential candidates, I had two options:

i. Increase the job requirements by adding extra skills or qualifications to the job description.

ii. Find a new way of identifying the best potential candidates.

On face value, the first option was certainly attractive. I began to think that perhaps I could snare someone with great qualifications and also some valuable experience. However, by increasing the requirements I risked causing an imbalance between the role and the salary offered. I had to ask myself whether the job /and salary/would would still be attractive to candidates with more experience and better qualifications. There was a high chance that I would solve one problem, but cause another.

Internal Tools

It is safe to say that my recruitment dilemma was giving me a few headaches. That was until one of my team stepped in to help. I had always been aware that ClarkMorgan had a reward scheme set up for employee referrals, but until then, I had no idea how powerful that scheme could be, both as a recruitment tool and - just as importantly - as a way of rewarding my existing staff.

The scheme in question offered a cash reward for employees who referred a successful candidate. Sensing the opportunity to boost their salaries, two or three of my team began to submit resumes of classmates and former colleagues whom they thought may be potential new hires. Obviously, this meant there were even more resumes clogging my inbox, but there were a few key improvements with this new batch. Chief amongst these differences was the ability to ask questions about the candidates before interviewing them. Additionally, as the candidates were recommended by a team member I knew there was a better chance that they would fit into our

organisation. As I thumbed through the new resumes, I asked myself, "Who better to understand the qualities needed to succeed within a specific team than a member of that very team?" Existing employees already understand the qualities needed to succeed within an organisation, the culture of that organisation and the type of people who thrive in its working environment. This made me feel as though my colleagues were actually pre-screening candidates for me.

Practical Applications

Clearly, referrals add an extra layer of vetting to your recruitment process and can help you find candidates who will be best suited to your corporate environment. But, how do they really work? While they may differ slightly between organisations, all referral programs are founded on a clear system that shows exactly how your current employees can recommend a candidate. The first step is to make referring a quick and easy process that anyone within your organization can understand and feel comfortable with. To do this, ensure that you make it very clear which positions you are recruiting for - either do this with a company wide email or by posting the vacancies in highly visible places such as notice-boards, websites, or your cafeteria. The second is to create an open channel that your employees can use to make their referrals. This could be a special email address or you could ask them to drop hard copies into your office - you could even have a special post-box.

Rewards

We must remember though, that the beauty of referrals is that theyare not only a powerful recruitment tool, but also an excellent way of rewarding staff. Let's examine two ways in which referrals can act as a fantastic benefit for your organisation:

Straight Reward: This is the simplest approach and can be implemented very effectively through offering direct rewards for each referral. Perhaps the easiest way to do this would be to offer a cash incentive. I am sure there are very few employees who would not appreciate a little extra money just for forwarding a resume on to HR. However, this approach may actually be a little too simple. Instead, you could offer a choice of incentives. Employees who make a successful referral could opt for some special benefits, such as a few days extra vacation time, free training, or a choice of gifts.

An important factor you must also consider is when to reward your referrers. Naturally, you want to show how much you value their contribution, but you must also balance this against ensuring the candidates they recommend are actually successful. Many organisations do this by aligning their referral rewards with probationary periods for new hires. For example, if an organization has a standard three month probationary period for new employees, they will often wait for that period to be completed before providing rewards to the employee who referred them.

"There are very few employees who would not appreciate a little extra money just for forwarding a resume on to HR."

Value their choice: Offering straight rewards for referrals will certainly be attractive to your employees. However, it is only one aspect of the way in which referrals can work. The other key aspect comes in the way you communicate with your staff about the referral scheme. If you describe it as a quick way of making a little extra cash, then your team will most likely view it as such, and nothing more. Yet, a referral scheme can be much more valuable, and you must communicate this to your team. Let them know that your referral scheme exists not just because you want to give them the chance to make a few extra yuan, but also because you want to give them something a way to ‘buy in' to your recruitment process

By giving employees ‘buy in', you show them that you value them as individuals and that you are keen to create a work environment in which they will feel comfortable. Giving your team the chance to work alongside people they already know, trust, and respect is a benefit far more meaningful than an extra few yuan in their pocket.

"Giving your team the chance to work alongside people they already know, trust and respect is a benefit far more meaningful than a few yuan in their pocket."

Win-win

Referrals are one of HR's biggest win-win situations. On the one hand, you get valuable direction in finding new employees, whilst your existing employees get the chance to have a voice in your recruitment process. There are several examples of organizations that enjoy such win-win situations. A great example is global retail giant Wal-Mart, which has almost 80 stores in China and is keen on referrals. For example, in the UK it fills 40,000 positions a year through employee referrals alone. An example from a little closer to home is telecommunications company Alcatel. According to a recentinterview with cbiz.cn, Alcatel Asia-Pacific Human Resources Vice President Rick McAndrew declared that 38% of Alcatel's new hires in the region came from employee referrals. With the right referral scheme in place, you to can take the pain out of your recruitment process, while at the same time giving pleasure to your existing staff by rewarding them for their input.