How to make a good referral

Vawch believes that referrals provide the best source of candidates for a particular job opening. Our network of referrers can vouch for people in their professional and personal networks to apply for a particular position and be rewarded – financially and emotionally – when the candidate gets placed at a particular job.

We at Vawch have some suggestions for our referrers on how you can improve the quality of your referrals.

To make good referrals, we encourage our referrers to ask the following questions about the position and the candidate:

• Who do I know who have shown interest in the industry/function in the past and may be looking to upgrade or move jobs?
  
• Do I know people in relevant or adjacent industries or even industries with similar functional needs e.g. trade and customs compliance function could exist in manufacturing firms, law firms, specialty consulting firms or even the government ministries and agencies?
  
• Do I understand the key requirements of the position and do my referrals have the right qualifications?
  
• Do my referrals have the right industry experience?
  
• More importantly, do my referrals have the right functional experience?
  
• Given what I know about the firm (if you have worked there before, or if you are familiar with the company’s culture), will my referrals enjoy the work environment?
  

Vawch also tracks your performance over time to make sure that we reward those who provide us with the best referrals.

Finding the hidden talent in your network

Former classmates, former colleagues, your friends and family and other professional networks (e.g. associations, groups, clubs etc.) can be a good source of referrals. Since the referral process is discretely done via email and the candidate can choose whether he or she wants to apply for a particular position, there is little risk of offending anyone. In fact, people are usually quite flattered when they are referred for a job.

To refresh your networks, you can refer to your facebook or linkedin networks to see if there are potential referrals for a particular position.

Becoming a part-time headhunter

If you are a retired headhunter or HR professional or just someone who has always wanted to enter this field, Vawch provides a great platform for you to develop a part-time career in search. The skills and networks that you have developed over time can be a valuable asset in this case.