Many companies think an employee referral program is a form of viral marketing. Most of the time, they’re not. Take a look at If your referral programs don’t spread from person to person, it isn’t viral for some great ideas to how to make an employee referral program work.I particularly liked the idea to RSSify your job listings. (Wish I’d thought of it!) Lots of other good ideas too.
November 1st, 2004
As part of an interview, a reporter asked me what the single biggest mistake managers make when hiring. Unfortunately, I see three common mistakes:
- Hiring based on a tools checklist (some number of years of Java or WinRunner or some other tool) as opposed to hiring someone who can adapt his/her knowledge to the products at hand. This is the biggest one I see.
- Hiring for the future instead of the present. (I see this one almost as much.) Hiring someone who the manager thinks will have the skills to grow into a new/different role in the future. This is different from hiring to create the future.
- Not considering how a new hire will fit into (or not!) the team. People are not just a collection of technical skills. If they can
November 1st, 2004