Sara Stockman

Social Influences in Recruitment: When is Word‐of‐Mouth Most Effective?

We apply a policy‐capturing design to examine the conditions under which word‐of‐mouth is most effective in recruitment. The effect of monetary incentives is compared to other key characteristics of word‐of‐mouth (the source, recipient, and message content) that might affect its impact on organizational attractiveness. In a first study, unemployed job seekers (N = 100) were less attracted when they knew a monetary incentive was offered to the source of positive word‐of‐mouth. Conversely, they were more attracted when word‐of‐mouth was provided by a more experienced source (employee) and by a stronger tie (friend). These findings were replicated in a second study among employed job seekers (N = 213). These results offer various implications for how recruiting organizations might make effective use of word‐of‐mouth.

The Dark Side of Employee Referral Bonus Programs: Potential Applicants’ Awareness of a Referral Bonus and Perceptions of Organisational Attractiveness

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of potential applicants’ awareness of employees being rewarded for referrals on organisational attractiveness, based on credibility theory and the multiple inference model. In a first study (N = 450), final-year students were less attracted to the organisation when they knew employee referrals were rewarded, which was partially explained by lower credibility perceptions. Moreover, varying the specific characteristics of the referral bonus program (i.e. timing, size, type, recipient) did not improve potential applicants’ perceptions of credibility and attractiveness. A second study (N = 127) replicated the negative effect of referral bonuses on organisational attractiveness and found that it could be explained by both potential applicants’ inferences about the referrers other-oriented motive and lower referrer credibility. Whether employees explicitly stated that their referral reason was bonus-driven or not did not affect these results.