Do you dread the request? Do you write a glowing testament even though you know this person was distinctively average? If you do write an honest critical report that does not paint the individual in the best possible light – do you feel bad?

The importance of having a good “e-profile” was recently highlighted to me and I began to wonder what exactly does this mean? It could mean having some ringing endorsements of past work, expertise or perceived expertise because clearly expertise is in the eye of the beholder. So whilst my colleague may think I am great, my clients and my boss may have an entirely different view. So whose view counts more?

What is the value of a LinkedIn recommendation?

LinkedIn allows you to select which recommendations you publish whilst simultaneously demanding 3 of them to have a complete profile. Since you have the power of selection I doubt that many will have a bipartisan profile despite acknowledgement of one’s weaknesses being an important part of personal development.

Recommendations in themselves have the potential to be a very useful way of providing a character map for your profile. Clearly there is room for abuse of the recommendation system; with friends recommending each other that have no knowledge of their professional capabilities. There are even cases of people creating second accounts with which to recommend themselves.

Shrewd recruiters should be able to deduce from the information associated with the recommendation whether or not they are genuine and should be trusted.

Tell-tale signs of bogus recommendations

• From an account that has little or no activity. If someone has a recommendation from a profile with no career history or connections it is possible that this account has been set up just to provide a recommendation of the person in question. However, if the account is very new then some more digging may be required.
• If the recommendations all come from people that work for the same company in similar roles then these tend to carry less weight with a recruiter. Demonstrating successful business interaction should be highlighted by people outside of the sphere that the person habitats to show a more rounded profile.
• The dates of the recommendations can also show their legitimacy. If they are all very close together it could be the case that they have been specifically requested to relate to an upcoming role, or, that they do not reflect any work between the people in question.

What to look for

Clearly the quantity of recommendations illustrates a person’s worth, however the quality is equally important. A recommendation from a credible professional can be very powerful as they are staking some of their own credibility and personal brand on the person they recommend.

• The dating of recommendations can be very telling; if a freelancer or contractor requests a recommendation on the completion of a piece of work this can be traced via their professional profile thus supporting the validity of the recommendation.
• Generalisations about personality and professionalism have a limited impact. What a recruiter would really notice is reference to a specific piece of work or relevant quality.

Would you be willing to stake your reputation on someone?

It may be a bit far-fetched to claim that an online recommendation on the likes of LinkedIn could ‘ruin your reputation’, after all I haven’t yet heard of anyone complaining that someone I have endorsed has failed to live up to the expectations that I created of them, but the decision to recommend someone should be taken seriously.

If you are asked by an associate or friend for a recommendation should you immediately throw together the usual niceties for the sake of the relationship, or, politely decline because you don’t think that you have enough experience of them professionally or of their particular field? The answer should be the latter.

Would you really want to be responsible for the failure of a relationship further down the line that was based upon a ‘sexed up’ recommendation that you had made off hand?

The probability is that I am taking this too far. However, there are people who detest the imposition; I am merely stating that they are well within their right to take this approach.

So is there any value?

Maybe, providing they are well written and relevant and demonstrate that some thought has gone into it and then it’s a question of; WHO recommended them? WHAT were they recommend for? WHERE were the two people in question working? WHY did they recommend them? WHEN did the recommendation take place? I am not sitting on the fence here I just want to hear other people’s thoughts….

A leading recruitment commentator said that 2010 was going to be the year of the referrer, so we recently conducted a round up of the various research available in the market place with regard to referrals schemes, networking and the impact that this is making on the recruitment market:

1. 88% of employers rated referrals above all other sources for generated quality of new hires

2. 78% of companies are now using social networking and social media to find and attract candidates.

3. 50% of companies were spending more on business networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and employee-referral programs and less on print and traditional job boards.

4. 50% plus of companies surveyed by the CIPD admitted that so far they had not utilised an employee referral scheme at all.

Clearly the figures suggest that whilst employers who are utilising referral schemes are seeing an increasing percentage of hires initiated through their employees’ social networks, there is still a long way to go if more than 50% of employers surveyed have not utilised a referral scheme at all.

If your company already has an employee referral program, or is at the initial stages of putting this in place its worth looking at how and why they can work so well and also, how expanding them into open referral networks through sites like mypeoplebiz.com can take your recruitment to the next level with significant savings and a great calibre candidate otherwise difficult to find.

Traditionally employee referral programs act as internal recruitment method, encouraging staff to source new hires for your organisation from their social and professional networks through a monetary incentive. This allows for an efficient recruitment process reducing cost and time to hire thanks to improved relevance of referred candidates and the trustworthy relationship between the referrer, candidate and the organisation itself.

· A recent study showed that 88% of employers rated referrals above all other sources for generated quality of new hires

Referrals generate a higher quality candidate as they are likely know the job and candidate far better and are not prepared to waste their or their contacts time on something they don’t think is right. This cuts down recruitment time for you as candidates have essentially already been well sourced and screened for you. Furthermore, referrals build on themselves, not only are you likely to be building a better talent pool, hired referrals are likely to encourage further referrals and are more likely to refer new talent themselves, expanding your ‘talent network’.

By setting worthy rewards for successful hires you’re also creating ‘brand campaigners’ for your company as they promote your organisation to the friends and contacts in their networks. What’s more, 78% of your staff are spending up to half an hour of the working day on social networking sites, creating a even larger range of connections to source candidates from, capitalise on this rather than thinking of it as wasted time.

The impact Personal recommendations via current employees’ social networks can be very valuable in other ways too, as they can efficiently lead to candidates with the right cultural ‘fit’ for a company in addition to saving employers considerable amounts of money, reducing the amount spent on agencies and external advertising.

Why create an open your referral system? Internal referral schemes can work fantastically, but why stop there; all your competitor’s employees also know great people in the industry, and are just as willing to participate in the action. People are more connected than ever before with new technologies, and since 78% of staff are spending up to half an hour of the working day on social networking sites too, recommending a contact for a job is easy – just a simple message is required, and then they can chose to take it forward. Put simply, If your company rewards and encourages this behaviour, your company is going to be rewarded with better talent from the people who know what is needed.

CIPD surveys indicate that 64% of respondents agreed that referral reward incentives for staff have a positive impact – not just on the caliber of job applicants, but on the budget too. A large insurance company which participated in the study’s focus group reported a huge saving of £250,000 in recruitment costs as a result of their ‘refer a friend’ scheme.

Clearly, such schemes can be highly successful.

Mypeoplebiz have busted out the calculator and totaled up all the referral fees available on the site, equaling the rather staggering number of £140,663.50.  The Fact is you know what your friends are good at better than anyone, so take a browse of the jobs, reccomend some mates and grab a referral fee.

Nick Crasner, who has successfully referred 3 contacts to jobs on the site said, “I had never referred anyone for a job before using mypeoplebiz. Though I’ve worked in big companies where there were referral systems in place I was skeptical about getting any money from them and the incentives were never very high. In comparison the incentives offered through mypeoplebiz are worth putting yourself out for” … “So far I have made £3,500 in referrals and altogether it took only an hour and a half of my time. It’s rewarding to help people I know into jobs and even better when doing so pays for your holiday!”

To register as a referrer or find out more click here.