Giesecke + Devrient MS India (G+D India), manages to attract about 90 per cent of its overall talent through referrals. Talking to HRKatha, Ranjini Chakraborty, director – HR, Giesecke + Devrient MS India, shares that hiring through referrals is a major talent-acquisition strategy of the Company in India.
In India, G+D — the global company which offers security solutions in digital and physical world — also has R & D centres that work on developing and manufacturing products for safeguarding payment processes, identities, connectivity and data.
As per Chakraborty, in India, the Company employs a little more than 500 people. However, globally, it has a workforce strength of more than 11,000.
As per Chakraborty, when it comes to hiring people laterally, the referral policy at G+D India proves to be the ideal talent-acquisition strategy to find the best fit for the job. “It is better since our employees who have spent time in the system know if the person will be able to adjust and adapt to the culture,” says Chakraborty.
The Company has developed its referral policy in a way that encourages people to come forward and refer people, while also keeping all kinds of bias at bay in the referral hiring process.
“Sometimes, we require specialists with skills specific to our domain, and for such talent, the referral bonus amount is relatively higher”
Ranjini Chakraborty, director – HR, Giesecke + Devrient MS India
First, G+D India offers a handsome referral bonus amount to employees to motivate them to refer people. This referral bonus amount ranges between Rs 15,000 to Rs 75,000. “The bonus depends on how critical the talent, the position and the role is for the Company,” mentions Chakraborty.
As the Company also offers digital-security solutions, it requires techies who come with skills and experience in the payments domain, who have expertise in embedded coding such as Java, Linux and combination of others as well.
“Sometimes, we require specialists with skills specific to our domain, and for such talent, the referral bonus amount is relatively higher,” reveals Chakraborty.
Apart from attracting talent, for G+D India, retaining talent is also equally important. “Quite often, we see that new joinees fail to stay around in the company for long,” shares Chakraborty. To tackle this issue, the Company came up with a rule that newly-joined employees who have been referred by other employees have to stay in the Company for at least one or two years. Only then can the concerned referees claim their referral bonus amount. This creates a sense of ownership and accountability in the employees, so that they ensure that the referred employees serve the company for long.
Chakraborty admits that this is the reason why G+D India has many members in the workforce who have served long tenures in the Company.
To ensure that there is no bias in the referral hiring process, only employees who are below managerial level can refer employees. “Generally, managers who are also hiring managers tend to refer people close to them in trying to do them a favour. This can lead to some level of bias,” says Chakraborty.
According to Chakroborty, G+D India plans to hire 50 to 60 people this year and attracting talent through referrals will be a major strategy. Maximum hiring will be for its R&D centres.
While hiring candidates, the Company looks at three major areas — culture fit, group fit and functional fit.
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Same topic in a different context was carried sometime ago. I had commented on the specific point raised then, i.e. Onus on employee referred when the candidate after becoming an employee had to be fired for a certain misconduct.
As regards the current article, with my experience in the field am of the view; relying heavily on referral system for hiring is not advisable. Over a period of time, multiple problems could arise – differential reward system leading to discontent, conflict of interest, influencing selection panel to select referred candidate and/or at the time of antecedent verification process, difference of opinion between referral and the candidate referred.
In the long-term and in the overall interest of the organization, it’s prudent to rely on multiple hiring systems than majorly on referral system.