Title: Hiring candidates through references

Authors: Rajib Lochan Dhar, Manju Bhagat

Addresses: Sector 4/F, Qtr no. 1112, Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand, India. ' Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Jharkhand, India

Abstract: Boom in various sectors of the Indian economy has led to the phenomenal growth of executive search firms who primarily focuses on recruiting candidates for their client companies. This study tries to understand the technique of sourcing candidates through references. Qualitative methods have been used in order to understand the concept of referencing. Eighteen in-depth interviews and three focused group discussions were carried out amongst the participants belonging to three different executive search firms. Findings of this study led to the emergence of five major themes namely, industry awareness, need for socialisation, working as a team, role of trust and increasing the network. This study has tried to explain the processes that are carried out and the activities that need to be done for sourcing candidates through the referencing technique. Through this research, the process of getting references has been explained.

Keywords: candidate references; recruiters; recruitment; networking; India; sourcing candidates; industry awareness; socialisation; teamwork; trust; referencing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2009.022968

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2009 Vol.1 No.3, pp.284 - 300

Published online: 05 Feb 2009 *

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