Why not offer regular referral bonus rewards? The key motivator and the prime reason that Rolodex parties work is because it is a team effort in which everyone pitches in to identify recruiting targets. It's a group activity and the competitive pressure in the room is generally enough to get attendees to participate and provide names. Once you add an individual referral bonus, you change the "do it for the good of the team" mentality. In addition, you essentially waste money on rewards that are not necessary. Before you offer significant individual rewards, remember that the end product of these events is generally just names. The participating individuals have not completed the time-consuming process of prescreening, pre-selling, and convincing the individual to apply, which normally are required in order to earn a referral bonus.$ i4 _) D6 Z- Q4 I$ |
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Who should be invited? Almost everyone knows someone, but top-performing individuals like Tiger Woods tend to know more highly qualified people than someone like Homer Simpson. As a result, focus on recruiting participants who are top performers in the job family you're targeting for recruiting. You should also invite "super-knowers" — well-connected individuals who just seem to know and remain connected to almost everyone. Next, focus on individuals who are currently in the particular job for which you are currently recruiting, followed by well-connected managers, contractors, or even consultants currently working for you.
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In most cases, the optimal number of people to invite is 12 or fewer because large numbers of people are hard to manage. It's also true that the sheer volume of names offered by large groups often results in meetings that last longer than an hour, which is a mistake if you want people to come back to these events in the future., ~/ w6 w  V$ U. v  }" E2 n

$ g3 m& _$ D3 X6 w; I& n% ^3 zAre there technology alternatives? In the case where your team cannot meet physically very often due to geographic dispersion, Internet meetings, conference calls, and even team instant-messaging sessions can work, provided that the person directing the meeting is well-respected and the time is limited to 30 minutes or less.! i9 I/ k+ B( m5 e. W6 i9 x
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Another technology option, which for some reason very few people have taken advantage of, is a software package known as ActiveNet (there are several competing packages also available). This type of software has the capability of searching through your entire corporation's emails, PowerPoint slides, and online address books to identify the individuals who are most likely to know someone at a targeted firm, or to know someone with a specific area of expertise. This kind of software can search files and assign a probability to which employees, for example, are likely to know "Tiger Woods," which employees speak Korean, which used to work at Apple Computer, or which employee has expertise in nanotechnology.

Are there technology alternatives? In the case where your team cannot meet physically very often due to geographic dispersion, Internet meetings, conference calls, and even team instant-messaging sessions can work, provided that the person directing the meeting is well-respected and the time is limited to 30 minutes or less.7 G' P, ~; v" k
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Another technology option, which for some reason very few people have taken advantage of, is a software package known as ActiveNet (there are several competing packages also available). This type of software has the capability of searching through your entire corporation's emails, PowerPoint slides, and online address books to identify the individuals who are most likely to know someone at a targeted firm, or to know someone with a specific area of expertise. This kind of software can search files and assign a probability to which employees, for example, are likely to know "Tiger Woods," which employees speak Korean, which used to work at Apple Computer, or which employee has expertise in nanotechnology.
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& N3 O: T; m. X; aShould I target specific individuals or firms? Most definitely. Some firms create a most-wanted list of individuals whom they identify at the beginning of the year, and then target them throughout the year. The names of these game changers are already known, so in these cases, you are looking for individuals who have relationships with them, so that they can eventually use the relationship to help convince the individual to actually come in for an interview. If your organization is trying to learn from specific competing or benchmark firms, start the session by saying you're looking in particular for individuals from certain targeted firms.! A9 T- `! |: @4 @" X9 R! C( Q

  J0 b3 m6 S$ ?1 M% }, jWhat should you do after you gather the names? The right approach here varies by company. Some enter the names in a centralized who's-who database for future sourcing. Other firms look for situations in which identical names are provided by two or more different employees, and in these unique cases, the individuals will be immediately targeted by recruiters. Some organizations with limited recruiting staffs ask the employees who know the targeted individual to make the first recruiting contact directly.- @$ o2 v* X1 h

* _1 J% f7 s% }4 ^, L  l) tCommon problems. Rolodex/PDA parties are pretty straightforward, and as a result, they are hard to screw up, but errors do occur. The most common ones include having the meetings last too long, holding the parties too often, not using the manager to encourage attendance, having a weak facilitator, and not providing metrics or feedback on how successful they were.: M+ l3 p% q' U# t# g
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: [4 f, K( C3 K9 g# URecruiters in many fields and especially health care (in which every nurse and radiologist knows a hundred others) are constantly whining about how difficult it is to find the names of top candidates. They spend thousands of dollars on agencies and job boards when the names of the very best people were available right under their noses in their own employees' contact files.  r2 B! v. a0 k: t% q4 t- j" B

/ r! W: b! ?: [# sIf you're willing to try them, you will invariably find that holding a well-run Rolodex/PDA party can produce maximum results for little more than the cost of a few desserts. So, let them eat cake, and see if the results aren't as amazing and as easy as finding actors connected to Kevin Bacon!