With all the hullaballoo about social recruitment, many have neglected the tried-and-tested methods of sourcing candidates for positions. Whatever happened to employee referrals? They were all over papers, websites and HR mags a couple of years ago, and now hardly anyone cares to give it as much as an honorable mention.

While they have stayed out of the news, employee referrals still make up a considerable chunk of hires. SHRM credits employee referrals a conservative proprotion of 24% of all hires made. ERE, however, stated that almost one out of three hires come from employee referrals. However, a new new study by Career Xroads claims that hires made through referrals are considerably undercounted.

The study found out that some 28 percent of all external hires are made through employee referrals. This is a rather standard figure. However, Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler of Career Xroads feel that the number could be much higher.

According to them, employee referrals contribute largely to almost every source of external hires. Take rehires for example. In many cases, it is an employee who reminds the management of a previous employee who can be taken back into the workforce. However, after the hire is made, it is classified as a rehire rather than a referral.

Similarly, other hidden referrals may include sharing/sending links posted on a job board, informing friends of openings on the career site, suggestions of job fairs in colleges, or even sharing job openings through social media. However, most of these references go unaccounted.

Even without these, employee referrals do make a big contributions. From their end, employers themselves have tried to encourage referrals by offering a series of rewards. Two-thirds of all companies offer a bonus for every referral hire. 44 percent of them offer a $ 500 bonus for making a non-exempt hire. 28 percent pay out $ 1000 for referring candidates to difficult-to-fill positions. One-fifth of companies pay out $ 1000 or more for every successful referral.

It takes an average of 10.4 referrals to make a hire. More choosy pickers might hire only one in about 25 referrals, though. 61 percent of companies state that they do not give preferential treatment to referred candidates. The 31 percent who do, don't do much more than review the resume or the application.

Finally, whether the referred candidate gets hired or not, 85 percent of companies make sure they do send a thank you note over to the referrer!