23 Jun WHY PEER-TO-PEER HIRING IS BETTER FOR WORKERS AND BUSINESSES
Social recruitment, peer-to-peer recruiting, referral hiring. These are not just human resource buzz words, they are terminology used to describe a trending – and incredibly effective – recruitment strategy that is changing the way businesses, big and small, recruit staff members for short and long-term roles.
It is also helping potential employees, contractors and staff to make informed decisions about their next work or career move.
What is Peer-to-Peer Recruiting?
The concept is based around having employees at all levels actively engaged in the recruitment process. This could be as simple as a workplace having a formal incentive program in place where staff get rewarded for recommending someone from their network for a position, right through to letting team members outside of human resources and management be involved in shortlisting and interviewing candidates.
Google – one of the world’s most sought-after employers – have had a “don’t leave recruiting to the bosses” rule in place for many years. In their panel interviews, it’s not uncommon for a potential employee to meet staff who will be working alongside or even under them in the job.
Building Trust on Both Sides
The recruitment process isn’t just about a workplace filling a vacancy. It is also an opportunity for potential employees to make sure that the job they’re applying for is going to meet their own career and lifestyle goals.
This is why websites like Glassdoor are growing in popularity. It offers transparency around actual wages and gives potential workers a real glimpse at what it’s like to work for an organisation, with reviews and comments sourced directly from current or previous employees. That kind of information can tell outsiders a lot about the business culture and help them set realistic expectations about what it would be like to work there. It encourages pros and cons in a format that provides a balanced view about a real person’s workplace experience.
These reviews are invaluable at helping potential employees make their decision about where they work. Happy employees who enjoy where they work tend to be more productive and loyal.
Why It Works for Employers
Reference checking is not always the most effective way to find out how suitable someone is for a position. While a quick LinkedIn search can verify that the nominated referee has credibility, there’s no hiding from the fact that most people give the details of referees they know will say good things. Sometimes that may even be someone they worked with years ago in a different industry to their current speciality.
With the apps that facilitate peer-to-peer recruitment (and reviewing), businesses can see up to date reviews from other workplaces in the industry and find out how the person performed in a similar role or organisation.
Why It Works for Employees
‘Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’ and ‘work to live, don’t live to work’ are popular career and work-life balance motivational catch cries but often seem easier said than done. With bills to pay and mouths to feed, most adults spend a significant portion of their daily life working. Where people work can often have a big impact on their overall happiness – but you often don’t know the realities of an organisation until you’re already there.
This is where actively seeking genuine peer reviews on a workplace can really help. Not everyone can work for Google – but not everyone should either. People have different work and communication styles and an environment where one person might thrive could stifle another person, depending on their individual personalities. Hearing what others have said about a real life working scenario can help jobseekers evaluate whether a business is the right fit for them.
Five Tips to Help Job Seekers Proactively Use Peer-to-Peer Recruitment Strategies
1. Get Social
Facebook can be a powerful platform to help people stay connected, and is a great basis for informal advice from peers to help when job-seeking. It helps to be specific – for example, reaching out to someone who works in the same industry and asking a question to an individual will be more effective than a blanket request for help on a status.
2. Utilise Apps to Find Work
Whether someone is looking to fill a gap between contracts, make extra money in their downtime or work for themselves, apps like Upwork, Airtasker and more, let people freelance their skills and run a small business. The rise of industry specific apps – such as ANCI for the medical and dental industries – lets staff in traditional brick and mortar businesses like a dental practices connect with short term job seekers without needing a recruitment agency. Job seekers and employers review one another on completion of each work assignment and the reviews are published on both parties’ profiles providing up to date, peer comments that anyone on the platform can review.
3. Leverage LinkedIn
LinkedIn is not just a static digital resume. The platform allows people to endorse skills and competencies and leave recommendations on the profiles of people they’re connected with. Users can also solicit comments from people that they’ve worked with previously to help give their own profile credibility. LinkedIn can also be a good way to do some informal research about an organisation and find out the experience of the people you could be working with and what their peers have said about them. You can also view other individual’s profiles to get a snapshot of how long people stay with the business and what their structure is like.
4. Google Search the Company
With a quick Google search of the business you are thinking of working for, you can find business listings on Google, social media pages and other review platforms which all contain feedback. It can be helpful to read through some of these when doing your research about a prospective employer. Even though these are from clients and customers not employees, they still can give you insight into the service culture at the organisation and help you to think about questions to ask during interviews.
5. Get Reliable Salary Information
Anecdotally, most job seekers cringe when the “what are your salary expectations?” question is asked. They don’t want to price themselves out of a position they really want, but also don’t want to end up working for less than they’re worth or long hours that erode the hourly rate equivalent of a salary down to minimum wage. With many employment and job seeking apps offering real time remuneration details or clear hourly rates, job seekers can both research industry standards to help them make negotiations and ensure that the job or contract they’re vying for is in line with their wage expectations before they even apply.
In conclusion
Not every business or organisation will have a formal peer-to-peer aspect of recruitment in place, but with some savvy use of applications and online resources, short and long-term jobseekers can still make sure they are getting the real picture to help them choose the right workplace for them.
Have you found work through peer to peer recruitment? Or have you hired someone into your organization using this method? Let us know in the comments below.
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