It’s always nice to work with a person you know beyond their job application and can trust to add value to your firm. This is increasingly the popular belief among emerging firms that now trust their internal network rather than online portals and consultancies to hire new talent.
“We encourage references from our friends or colleagues when we hire. This is specifically trusting their judgement of what it takes to be in a start-up, the candidate’s willingness to adapt, the responsibilities he/she has to fulfil. Of course, the probables go through an interview, but we prefer this over other alternatives,” says Shravya Reddy, co-founder of Getmi, a city-based start-up that manages a two-wheeler sharing platform and back-end logistics.
This is a strategy to tap freshers who are eager to make a mark. “The interview is just to understand if the wavelength between the team and the candidate matches,” Shravya adds. In addition, the familiarity with their body of work is an advantage that start-ups look at. “We get resumes from candidates mentioning a skill set they don’t even know. When there’s a tie between people who come through job portals and references, we prefer the latter as we know their work well in advance,” reveals Rahula Agrawal, co-founder of JustKapture that gets its revenue from advertisements made on customised photographs.
Mohammed Abubakr’s (of Bookmeds.com) tiresome experience on working with job portals and consultancies gets him to say, “They go to any length to project their candidate as the best one, given the commission they are bound to get later. It’s only due to situations like those that we began looking at other options. I believe, social media referrals too are similar to those we get through word-of-mouth. Things can get random yes, but there’s a specific procedure that we follow, so we manage to filter the best. From the people we choose, we try to hire the best mix of underdogs and high performers, that’s the way forward.”
The balance of competency and comfort is what emerging firms need to look at closely, cautions Prasad Nanda of Bike2Service, that recruited a handy 70-75 per cent of its employees through referrals. “There’s a bond and loyalty that works with them yes, but the familiarity shouldn’t cloud the competency factor.”
Most bosses also admit referrals don’t work for experienced hands and when they have to hire in bulk. “Their role is more specific for seniors and one banks on their experience to begin work immediately,” says Shravya.
Rahul adds, “When we need a good bunch of people and keep waiting for referrals, it may not necessarily work out. It’s inevitable that we have to rely on other options then, so that hiring happens without any delay.”
