How Kevin Bacon Can Help You Recruit No-Cost Referrals

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Having been coined the unofficial "Godfather of referrals," I am frequently asked how to utilize referrals in the all-too-common case in which the organization has no formal referral program or budget. Because the situation is more common than you might expect, it's no surprise that some great workarounds have been developed by leading practitioners.
My favorite approach leverages the whole "six degrees of separation" phenomena made famous by the Kevin Bacon connection. It centers around holding small parties where employees open their Rolodexes in whatever form they may exist to recruiters. These events are typically so low cost that they are almost free, they require little structure, and have been used successfully by recruiting powerhouses like Eli Lily, Booz Allen Hamilton, and FirstMerit Bank, to name a few.

. ?$ U/ Z  I! y8 YWhat is a Rolodex Party?

+ x0 ~% x; k4 `" {1 eRolodex parties are informal departmental or business unit meetings where top performers are brought into a conference room and are then asked to "download" and share from their personal contacts the names of the very best individuals that they know at other firms. If you were around in the '60s and '70s, that data might be stored in a Rolodex; if you're a product of the '80s and early '90s, it might be an organizer. And if you're current, it is most likely in a PDA, mobile phone, or email-based contact manager.
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9 w% p! D& z$ x/ N5 K- @7 K; URegardless of where the information is stored, the very best names are gathered at the party and are then targeted by recruiters to fill current and future job openings.

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Why Do Rolodex/PDA Parties Work?
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Most referral programs rely on advertising or marketing materials to motivate employees to produce referrals. Unfortunately, those materials stop working after a short period of time. In addition, many of the top-performing individuals in your organization who are well connected are just too busy to offer referrals on a regular basis. What is needed is a proactive approach that seeks out these individuals and asks them directly to join in a team effort to identify recruiting targets.

Yes, part of their motivation for showing up is a free lunch or cake or ice cream during a slow work period, but the primary inducement is that Rolodex parties are a team effort, in which everyone chips in and does his or her part. The energy at these parties is contagious, and everyone strives to produce both high quality and a high quantity of names.

8 B5 M+ ?$ @! t) L1 O" ]The reason that you target address books and contact lists is because, just like Kevin Bacon's famous six degrees of separation, the very best at other firms can almost always be connected to the very best people in your own firm. Now, you can ask your own employees in a one-on-one meeting to identify these top performers; but, it turns out invariably they draw a blank if you ask them in an unstructured way to identify who is really good at other firms.

, J) X$ A! P; @% QIf you don't believe the degrees of separation phenomena, test it yourself. If you look through well-connected employees' Rolodexes, PDAs, address books, mobile phone listings, and email addresses, the number of people that well-connected individuals know is phenomenal.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Rolodex/PDA Parties
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8 W6 d- T& h5 b0 Z' a4 C3 u: n7 lHow often should they be held? Because individuals don't add names to their PDAs or Rolodexes at a rapid rate, there's not much benefit to holding Rolodex parties too frequently. I recommend twice a year and certainly no more often than four times a year, unless a sudden need arises. In addition, if you request information too often, you'll frustrate or bore your employees.
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Where should they be physically held? The most effective parties have participation limited to the department or the business unit in which the recruiting will occur. This is simply because the individuals who are most likely to know the great names in a particular field are generally concentrated in a single department or business unit. Because everyone participating is from the same team, there's more willingness to attend and contribute to help the team. A lot of the energy is lost with a large group, so the team's own conference room is generally the best size and location to hold the event. Other options include holding these events during regularly scheduled quarterly business meetings, during group training, or at off-site meetings.

How do I entice individuals to attend? Generally, the best way to start the invitation process is to send out an e-mail "red alert," notifying only the targeted individuals that their help is desperately needed. Other approaches include making a simple announcement at the regular staff meeting and directly asking the local manager to set aside 15 minutes at the beginning, during a break, or right at the end of regular staff meetings for the name-dumping event.
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8 N: P7 l# ~+ z# L6 E: ~If you decide to hold a separate event, try to schedule it during a slow part of the business cycle when an offering of a free lunch or cake will likely attract almost everyone you want. Individuals who cannot attend for some reason can later be approached individually. If you have the funds, offering something as little as a $10 Starbucks coffee card or having a senior manager attend will also dramatically impact attendance.

' C, W* C4 Q" j; b  YIf you want continued participation and attendance over time, communicate how successful the effort has been by providing a "feedback loop" that notifies participants if any of the names presented at their session resulted in a successful hire, or eventually, a hire who turns out to be a top performer.

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This is a very innovative referral program. Thumbs-up!