From CareerXroads: A snapshot of how large, highly-competitive, high-profile firms maintain and track their Source Of Hire data.

" 'Every third referral turns into a hire' is one of the single most important characteristics of US hiring practices" - Gerry Crispin

Gerry Crispin

Gerry and his partner, Mark Mehler are human resource professionals who have spent over two decades working in just about every facet of the employment industry. 

How many referrals... 2:29 -

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Questions Peter Clayton asked Gerry Crispin in this podcast:

Give us a little background on the Source of Hire survey - who participates and why do you do this?

Let’s focus on some of the key findings of the 2007 survey:

Internal Transfers and Promotions constitute 30.0% of all the positions a company fills. 15 firms are at or approaching 50%. We note that no firm markets the specific details of this fact openly to their prospects as proof of their value proposition to develop their employees. This is a missed opportunity.

Referrals (employee, alumni, vendor, etc.) make up 28.7% of all external hires and are arguably the number one external source.(Employee referrals make up between 80-90% of the hires attributed to this category. Alumni and other types of referrals appear to be growing rapidly). The efficiency of referrals i.e. “every third referral turns into a hire” is one of the single most important characteristics of US hiring practices…and not leveraged as well as it might be.

• What this tells me is that if you’re interested in getting a job at a specific company, find someone you know through LinkedIn or Facebook or ZoomInfo who works there and have them recommend you. If you take nothing else away from this interview - this is it. - Peter Clayton

Hires attributed to Job Boards (including the Company site as a job board) represent 25.7% of external hires.

Hires attributed to the Company Website are suspect (we maintain that the company
website is a destination not a source). If one of every eight external hires that are tagged with the company site as a source were to describe how they got to the website, then other sources might be significantly elevated.

There is no silver bullet for diversity hires. Affinity groups, employee referrals and dedicated recruiters are considered the most productive means to reach diversity candidates.

The most visible trend in 2007 was the growth of Direct Sourcing (and a related reduction in agency hires).

--- NOTE:  For the first time in seven years of conducting this survey, more firms are predicting that they will make fewer hires in 2008 than 2007.

What are the most significant trends you are seeing?

Did your survey get any data regarding contract or part-time? This seems to be a growing trend again, with the economy tanking..

What’s different from last year?


What would you like to add?

where can folks find the SOH survey?

Gerry's own words...
The Staffing Strategy Connection
I am committed to writing, researching and sharing my adventures, opinions and data about evolving staffing models with the HR profession, clients and friends. Together with my business partner, Mark Mehler, I strive to observe and influence new and evolving models that aspire to world-class, measurable standards and satisfy every stakeholder. I am passionate about how firms design and build staffing processes, the technology to enhance them and the systems to manage them. I want to know more about the ‘playing fields’ where candidates and employers meet and I'm more than a little curious about how they treat one another: how Job Seekers ‘game’ their next career move while Employers tout their latest opportunities.

I'm constantly on the lookout for stories about staffing challenges, benchmarks, and results as well as the people who live the stories they tell.  

Resources:

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