This article was originally published in Dutch in 2013 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.
Channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter (now X) have made it a lot easier for companies to get in touch with potential candidates. When recruiting staff, just as in marketing, it is all about being present where your target audience is. Human Resources uses social media too. These platforms can, for example, be used to recruit staff efficiently and at relatively low cost.
Social media also make it easier for HR to map what is going on among staff: where the needs lie, who has which qualities, how certain qualities can best be put to use within an organisation, how to help employees build knowledge, and so on. HR departments benefit from as much transparency as possible, because it allows them to build and maintain the clearest possible picture of the workforce. That in turn makes it easier to respond quickly and correctly to changing circumstances.
Referral recruitment
Referral recruitment is a way of hiring in which the networks of existing employees are used to find new ones. Strictly speaking, it does not have to be your own staff doing the referring; external people can be used as well. That second approach, however, comes with a number of serious drawbacks, so we will not cover it here.
Employees search their own networks
With referral recruitment, your own employees look for new staff within their networks. The assumption is that employees are best placed to judge whether a candidate fits the company and the role. An employee will therefore only put forward a candidate they trust and genuinely believe is suitable.
Better candidates
The employer, in turn, knows and trusts their employees, and can therefore assume that employees will only put forward candidates who are truly suitable. Candidates who join a company through referral recruitment are generally of a higher quality than those who would have come in through the regular channels (temping agencies, recruitment agencies, job sites or newspaper ads).
A bonus for the employee
If a candidate is hired, the employee who referred them receives a bonus. This bonus encourages employees to make an effort for their employer and to tap into their networks. This way of hiring is not only more effective but, even after paying out the bonus, also considerably cheaper than, say, using a recruitment agency.
Accenture’s ’employee referral’ programme
One of the best-known examples of a successful employee referral programme is Accenture’s. With the rise of social networking sites, Accenture saw an opportunity to make its own employees its biggest source of new talent. It therefore developed a complete referral concept. At its heart is an online platform for employees that contains all the tools they need to use their own networks. Individual and collective results are also easy to follow there. An internal campaign was used to launch and activate the platform.
At the time of writing (2013), referral recruitment was one of Accenture’s most important recruitment activities: in the Netherlands, a third of all new employees came in through referrals. This saved the company the previously enormous costs of recruitment agencies. There were also positive side effects on the job satisfaction and engagement of both existing and new employees. Accenture designated the concept a best practice and rolled it out worldwide.
More possibilities:
- Referral recruitment is just one of the ways social media can be used for HR purposes.
- Recruiting staff efficiently and at low cost.
- ‘Listening’ to employees’ needs, ideas and performance.
- Increasing engagement between employees.
- Mapping employees’ competencies.
- Raising employees’ level of knowledge.
