Employee referral is a recruitment method employed by organizations to identify potential candidates from their existing employees' social networks. In this method the current employees are encouraged and rewarded for introducing suitable recruits from among the people they know. An employee referral scheme encourages a company's existing employees to select and recruit the suitable candidates from their social networks. As a reward, the employer typically pays the referring employee a referral bonus. Using employee referral to recruit candidates is widely acknowledged as being the most cost effective and efficient recruitment method to recruit candidates and as such, employers of all sizes, across all industries are trying to increase the volume of recruits through this channel. Proponents of employee referral schemes claim the benefits to be an improved candidate quality, €˜fit', and retention levels, while at the same time delivering a significant reduction in recruitment expenditure. However, there are a number of potential drawbacks. One of the greatest concerns tends to be that relying too heavily on employee referrals could limit diversity in the workplace, with new staff recruited in the likeness of existing employees. But, provided that there is already a diverse workforce in place this ceases to be such an issue.