Looking back over the last 20 years, one can only be amazed over the evolution that the recruiting environment has experienced. I recall the days of placing job ads in Saturday newspapers with the only stress being to make sure that there was enough paper in the fax machine for the weekend. In those days, Monday mornings felt somewhat like winning a jackpot lottery, seeing over 200+ paper resumes come through and hiring a significant number of employees as a result. As time passed and new technological advances were introduced into the market, results from newspaper ads started to diminish. Like any aggressive recruiter, it was time to look for the next best thing!
Online job boards began to overshadow print ads because they introduced efficiencies that allowed employers to reach out to large audiences of active job seekers. However, the relative ease for job seekers to apply to a multiple of jobs instantaneously created concern of high quantity vs. low quality of candidates. It seemed that the positives of using technology were met with its own challenges of recruitment “administrivia”! Job boards have evolved to this day and we now see a plethora of niche sites available on the web, each one of them trying to stand taller than the next. With all the choices available, the ever-so desirable “passive” job seeker remains even more of a challenge for recruiters to find. What’s next and where do we go from here?
The internet world is relentlessly enthusiastic in its embrace of the latest and greatest, and over the last couple of years, social networking has captured the attention of millions of people worldwide. It is a phenomena defined by linking people to each other in some way, whether personally or for business purposes. It is a form of self-expression and although people have always networked, the internet has opened up whole new ways of connecting us globally. Social networking is here to stay and it should be no surprise then that recruiters must look at social networking as the next big wave on how corporations will hire in the next five to ten years. Facebook, the most popular social networking site with over an estimated 9 million facebook users across Canada, has changed the social lives of an audience of almost one third of our entire population. Approximately 9 out of 10 individuals ages 18-34 are on facebook (ZINC Research May 2008) which is a very good indication where our recruitment resources need to be allocated. Social networking has connected us all within six degrees of separation and it is the power of these networks that we can leverage to find great people. Recruiting has always been about networking and the more people we know, the easier it is to hire. This is why a majority of companies have put strong emphasis and development on their Employee Referral Program. By offering cash incentives to refer friends to the company, an employer can reach out to a larger audience without consuming additional HR resources. Companies with extremely successful Employee Referral Programs are seeing over 30% of their hires sourced through this powerful resource.
Bohire (www.bohire.com), Canada’s Job Referral Community, is an exciting new entrant into the on-line recruiting scene that seeks to make a recruiters life a much easier one by focussing on the referral concept. Bohire harnesses the power of everyone’s social networks and has created an “everybody wins” scenario for employers and referrers. On Bohire, companies join for free, post unlimited jobs for free, they choose a referral reward that they want to pay, and only pay if a successful hire is made. The rewards are then paid to referrers by Bohire. Anyone can join the Bohire community as a “referrer” and their role is to simply to deliver an employer’s recruiting message and refer their friends to jobs that they are suitable for. In the end, a candidate gets a great job, their friend makes money by referring them, and companies get a passive job seeker at the price they want to pay. With over 2500 Referrers on Bohire, the site is truly like a community where everyone rolls up their sleeves to help employers find great candidates.
As one looks at the future into an imaginary crystal ball, it’s hard to predict what new technological advances will arise and how recruiters will respond to the challenge. We won’t necessarily see a dramatic change concerning the core things we do right now but our expectations will change and we will undoubtedly want more, more, and more. Everyone knows that a recruiters’ time is extremely valuable so “doing a lot with a little” will be an increasingly important line to live by. Those who believe this to be true have already started developing their social networks for recruiting and joining sites like facebook and Bohire.

Vincent Tsang, Vice President - Business Development
 
Bohire Inc.
373 Front Street West, Suite 1803
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3R7
 
(416) 694-4473 ext. 222
vincent.tsang@bohire.com
 
 
Join Today, its FREE www.bohire.com
 
Canada's Job Referral Community