Companies looking to hire new employees know that job referrals lead to the cheapest, fastest and best quality hires. Zao, a new service making its official launch today, claims to “supercharges referrals by automating the process, integrating social networks, and managing rewards.”
Six Degrees of Separation
According to Wikipedia, “Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, “a friend of a friend” statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer. It was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy and popularized by a play written by John Guare.”
I’ve seen recent posts that suggest LinkedIn has reduced this number from six to more like 4.5. Either way, it suggests that the ideal, perfect candidate for any job is a mere six contacts away. Why not harness the power of LinkedIn and Facebook to gain access to them?
Job Referral Rewards and Incentives
Zao is built around two concepts; making it easy for referrers to recommend job candidates and then making it easy to reward them. In an interview with AllFacebook, Zao CEO Ziv Eliraz said:
The people I’d worked with at other companies immediately understood what I was looking for in a candidate because they knew the industry. Instead of interviewing 10 people to fill a single position, I got a steady stream of qualified candidates and was able to quickly build the work force I needed.
I used the same principles in building the team at Zao. I didn’t know any of Zao’s current team members before I founded the company. But people who I trust did — and that’s what helped me hire such a great team so quickly.
When employers ask employees to make a referral, in essence, they’re asking them, “Who do you know who might be a good fit for the job?” That immediately lowers employee participation to just those employees who have someone specific in mind. Zao expands that request, adding a new question: “Who do your friends know?” Changing the question changes the mindset, which enables 100 percent employee participation. Our tools automate the search and analyze the data in a very targeted way. Using Zao helps companies truly revolutionize their referral and incentive programs.
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