VIDEO: Rebranding Diversity
SteveWe love, love the employee referral as a source of finding that next great hire.
We've heard the reasons a million times why referrals are such a great source of new talent. Namely that existing employees are the ones that truly understand the culture and the work, so they are able to know who in their networks would be a fit. The people they are referring in to the company are usually friends or close business acquaintances, and the employee will want them to succeed and as such, will make more careful referral decisions. Finally, the referrals themselves and how they perform if hired, are a reflection on the judgement of the referring employee, again underscoring the motivation of the employee to make good referrals.
All solid, probably valid reasons. The sometimes considered downside of relying too heavily on the employee referral source? That the organization continues to bring in people too similar to the people it already has in place. That a kind of circular process of hiring people from the same backgrounds, locations, or general sets of experiences takes hold, since, it is often thought, existing employees tend to refer in people that are kind of like themselves. They think, logically I suppose, 'I'm doing pretty well here, and Joe Boggs is just like me, so I be he'll succeed here too.'
While that kind of potential detrimental effect of too-heavy a reliance on referral programs is commonly explained or rationalized away by statements like, 'Our employee population is very diverse, as long as we are sourcing referrals from a large cross-section of staff, we will not have a problem at all', still it seems like the kind of potential negative effect that can end up causing real, long-term problems for firms, and even entire industries.
But don't take my word for it, spend some time this weekend watching the video below, (email and RSS subscribes click through), titled 'Rebranding Diversity: Colorblind Racism Inside the U.S. Advertising Industry', a presentation overview of the doctoral dissertation of Christopher Boulton.
Doctoral Defense from Christopher Boulton on Vimeo.
In the video, Boulton examined the perceived and observed lack of diversity at the executive levels of the U.S. Ad industry, offers some recommendations for the industry to begin to make the kinds of changes needed to address this problem. Chief among Boulton's recommendations is to significantly reduce the importance and use of various employee referral schemes that have, over time, continued to foster a climate that lacks diversity, particularly in the managerial and executive ranks.
Certainly the use of employee referral schemes was not the sole reason for Boulton's overall findings, but these programs, and how they were administered were definitely a contributing factors. The study presents a good reminder that even the best-intentioned plans can sometimes have negative consequences, and that we need to regularly validate our gut feelings with some solid data.
Have a Great Weekend!
Reader Comments (4)
This is an important study with meaningful and instructive insights. The Ghosts of Mad Men assertion here is powerful and incriminating.
As a recruitment professional for the past forty years I’ve always cautioned and challenged the ‘good ole boy’ system that essentially favored a lack of diversity in employment outcomes. It wasn’t surprising for me to notice that when Employee Referral Programs (ERPs) came into vogue there was a recognizable problem. ERPs soon became a formal, with rewards, recruitment activity that essentially replicated what already existed in an employee population – a lack of diversity representation, particularly in decision making roles with most employers.
Going forward with irrefutable facts from yet another study, and conscientious efforts from those who care, the reality of a more visible diversity representation will make its mark with employers everywhere.
Great point to emphasize, Steve. As you know from Gerry Crispin's "Source of Hire" report, employee referrals are the single largest contributor of new hires in most corporations, except for internal mobility. I've always thought that made sense. Who is a better recruiter than someone who knows the company and personally knows the candidate? Regular recruiters don't have both sides of the equation.
In my search for new vendors for "Awesome New Technologies" at the HR Technology Conference, I think I've seen two (hard to remember after 30 WebExes in less than two weeks!) who are trying to take Jobvite's "referrals on steroids" one step further. The new systems are identifying people in the employee's social networks, deciding which might make good candidates, and then proactively suggesting that the employee send them this open job or another! Or give permission for the system to do it.
Awesome, huh?
Valentino - thanks for sharing your observations from 40 years in the business, as you definitely see and understand the outcomes that can arise from too-insular programs.
Bill - Thanks, I was thinking about the source of hire report when reading up on this study. I know that there are more tools hitting the market that want to try and amp up the referral programs by drawing on employee social graphs. It makes sense, although I am not sure it totally eliminates the bias problems described above. But it does make it easier for the process to identify potential candidates.
As a Black male I found this article accurate. In college I wanted to pursue a career in advertising but had no clue how to get in, nor the mind set to deal with the low pay. I say "mind set" because if I would have known how to get access to the industry I would have found a way to manage financially. Though it would have been hard to explain taking a lower paying job to a parent who worked two full-time jobs my entire childhood to provide for his family.
With that said, do either Bill or Valentino believe any of the new employee referral/social media platforms will open a door for more inclusion or further fuel the status quo?
Bill, I am familiar with Jobvite. Where you able to recall the other two "awesome" technologies? I am working a blog to profile the best tools and services for small/midsized businesses for the employment life cycle.