Broadbean, leader in job posting and candidate sourcing technology, has announced its bid to harness the power of social media with the launch of Broadbean Referral; the product of an exclusive partnership with SocialReferral.
The basic idea is to tap into employees’ existing social networks to help find recommendations for candidates with the employees encouraged to propose possible recruits in return for a range of rewards.  The thinking is that this immediately improves the quality of candidates being proposed while reducing the cost per hire.

Or as Ricky Wheeler, marketing director at Broadbean, puts it: “SocialReferral has the most powerful employee referral technology on the market and this partnership enables our corporate clients to benefit from the latest advances in referral technology without the need for a third party.”

Broadbean is part of the newly announced Evenbase group of U.K. recruitment brands.

Spir Communication has reported turnover for the fourth quarter of 2011 of €155 million – an increase of 10.9 percent over the previous year, with notable growth from both its distribution and media (including website) divisions.

Spir’s internet activities include property sites Logic-Immo.com and Lux-residence.com, as well as auto sites Lacentrale.fr and Caradisiac.com.  Of these, the property sites saw turnover up 20 percent for the quarter, while the car sites saw a less impressive, but nonetheless solid, 3.5 percent rise over the same period.  Overall the group’s internet activities reported a quarterly growth of 18.7 percent.

The company didn’t give details of its growth, except to say that the challenge this year will be to further improve its operations by focusing on its margins – probably a reference to the ongoing restructuring within the group.