WO2015162628A2

WO2015162628A2 - System and method for referral using social network

Info

Publication number: WO2015162628A2
Application number: PCT/IN2015/000179
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sumit Gupta; Harsimran WALIA
Original assignee: Sumit Gupta; Walia Harsimran
Priority date: 2014-04-23
Filing date: 2015-04-21
Publication date: 2015-10-29
Also published as: WO2015162628A3

Abstract

A system and a computer implemented method for referral technique and maintaining a personalized referral network for each of multiple users. Such a referencing recruitment network may be utilized for employment, matrimonial or dating, real estate, automotive referral systems, lead generation, business development marketing, sales or the like. The present invention relates to a system and a computer implemented method for referral technique by sharing social network that facilitates the networking in a manner by sharing referrer's social network with the user thereby allowing the access to the contacts of referrer wherein the user can search for appropriate recommendations or referral appearing in personalized recommendation feed for the user. Thus, the user may requests the concerned referrer to refer the referral for recruitment.

Description

Complete Specification

TITLE

"SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REFERRAL USING SOCIAL NETWORK"

The following complete specification describes the invention-

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] The present invention is related generally to computer-implemented methods for online referral services using social network.

BACKGROUND

[0002] An organization (such as an employer that offers products or services or both) seeks people that have the skills to assist the organization in providing its products or services. Within the organizations Human Resources (HR) department plays a crucial role in searching, evaluating, and acquiring such people with skills. The known practice for such a task is to create a job profile, which specifies criteria associated with the job. The job profile can then be circulated and resumes from persons interested in the job can be solicited. Resumes, from one or more people can be received and evaluated to identify candidates for the job. The candidates can be interviewed, and one or more of the interviewed candidates can be hired.

[0003] In the most known practices, job profiles are usually published on different job portal websites which are considered to be most viewed by people looking for a job. HR enlists all job requirements on the job portal websites, for example, degrees, experience, proficiency, salary and alike. Then, the HR has to wait for people looking for a job to search on job portal websites and view organizations job profile. Then, if the person is interested and finds it suitable he may proceed by contacting the HR. In an another alternative, the HR also has the option of searching the people on the job portals, but only those people with can be viewed who have published their resumes on such job portal websites. In another example, HR can forward the job profile to recruiter agencies to search for a candidate matching the job profile.

[0004] In spite of the fact that the Internet is now considered an essential job locating resource, j b portals and recruitment agencies have long been losjng their potency, especially in ever increasing industries such as information technology and healthcare, and have not adapted to fully realize the potential of recent technological advances.

What is needed, therefore, is a subtle approach that is in accordance with existing reach out and distribution patterns but does not involve the tedious approach associated with traditional reach out.

SUMMARY

[0005] In summary, one aspect of the invention provides a system comprising: one or more processors; a user sending a request to at least one referrer to share social network; at least one referrer accepts the request and a virtual connection is generated of the social network which is shared with the user; a social network of the referrer having at least one member is managed by the user for a referral action wherein the referral action includes the identified member according to attributes of the member that match the received attributes provided by the user. The virtual connection is generated when the referrer clicks or opens the request to share the social network with the user. The system of user fetches the social connections of the referrer and adds them to the user database to generate the virtual connection. The user can send request by entering the email address of the referrer to which the system generates at least one link to at least one referrer. The referrer accepts the request by clicking or opening the link upon which the virtual connection is generated of the social network which is shared with the user. The virtual connection with the social network is used to utilize to perform referral hiring. The user manages the referrer by resending the request to the referrers who have not shared their social network. The user manages the social network of a referrer who has accepted the request sent by the user by short listing the identified member of the social network based on at least one identified member detail. The user sends the details of the shortlisted identified member of the social network to at least one of the referrer. The user manages the social network of a referrer bookmarking, marking, adding notes to, and deleting particular identified member. The referrer associates the referral action to the short listed identified member of the social network.

[0006] In summary, another aspect of the invention provides a method comprising: sending a request by a user to at least one referrer to share social network; accepting the request by at least one referrer and generating a virtual connection of the social network which is shared with the user; managing a social network of the referrer having at least one member by the user for a referral action wherein the referral action includes the identified member according to attributes of the member that match the received attributes provided by the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating various functional layers flow involved in a system and method for referral using social network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating various functional components flow involved in a system and method for referral using social network consistent with some embodiments, many different types of associations for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0007] The present disclosure describes system and method, which individually provide functionality for identifying members of a social network as candidate or leads. The present invention can be best used for referral hiring purpose as set forth in the invention and intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the -above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application, and to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

[0008] A new improved referral management for recruitment industry is described.

[0009] The use of the collective network is immense including but not limited to employment, matrimonial or dating, real estate, automotive referral systems, lead generation, business development, marketing, sales or the like. The whole idea behind this is to generate and identify leads in any company's or individual's extended network.

[0010] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without some of these specific details.

[0011] Embodiments of the present disclosure include various steps; which will be described below. The steps may be performed by computer hardware components or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a general-purpose or special- purpose processor programmed with the instructions to perform the steps.

[0012] Alternatively, the steps may be performed by a combination of hardware, software, firmware and/or by human operators.

[0013] For example, the systems and methods described herein may receive information associated with an available job, and for a member of a social network that is affiliated with the available job, identify a connection within the social network that is a suitable job referral source by utilizing a process that determines the suitability of members connected to the identified connection as candidates for the available job. In addition, these systems and methods may automate some aspects of the process of identifying job candidates in an employee's extended network, by facilitating communication between the employee and the ob referral source with the goal of identifying suitable candidates.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment, the invention follows a series of steps in order to achieve the results. The system thus by following the below mentioned steps performs the invention

• Inviting employees to share their social network with the company

• Invitation by just entering the email addresses and system generates unique link to all and emails employees

• Employees have to just click or open the link and share their social network from there.

• After sharing the social network, our system fetches the social connections of employee and adds them to the database.

• The above step is performed for all the employees sharing their social network.

• The database of connections collectively called network is only visible to those companies with whom the social network connections are shared.

• The network for a company can then be utilized to do referral hiring and other things mentioned in answers above.

• The company has the facility to manage the employees by resending invites to those who have not shared their social network and accessing only a particular employee connections in the database, or removing the employee and all its connections from the database

• The company also has the facility to manage the network by bookmarking/marking, adding notes to, and deleting particular connection. [0015] The present invention provides one with the ability to leverage the power of his or her existing social network to gain a competitive advantage in an referral hiring network.

[0016] In one embodiment of the invention, features related to employee referral programs may be implemented. Recent surveys have indicated that over 66% of mid to large companies now have employee referral programs. An employee referralprogram is often operated by the company's human resources department and hiring managers as a way to encourage employees of the organization to refer qualified candidates for jobs open in the organization. Research indicates that employees that are referred by individuals who already work in the company are more likely to meet the requirements, to get hired, and to have greater retention longevity than employees who come in without referrals.

[0017] In one embodiment of the invention, a user, preferably HR or hiring managers can invite unlimited number of employees to share their connections by sending them a request from using the present invention by providing the email ID's of your employees also known as referrer and friends along with a personalised message to send them a request. The system and method send a unique link to the referrer. A user can check whether or not the referrer has accepted the request to share the social network or the requests still in pending mode. System and method of this invention periodically sends out a reminder to all the pending requests although the user can also send the reminder manually. The system and method may send four reminders in a periodic manner. Once the request is accepted by the referrer, the user can only see the outline of referrer's profiles and not their complete profiles.

[0018] In an embodiment of the invention, a user can see their own connections by sharing his own network. User can delete referrer from you're the account.

[0019] The present invention provides an online platform where leading companies and recruiters can build their network using their current employees to further access a larger professional network base for referral hiring. This platform allows you to manage and shortlist candidates based on professional skills to further handpick the ideal candidate for a position with your firm.

[0020] In the present invention, when the referrer accept user request to share the social network, their Linkedln® or Facebook® and alike, (Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. Linkedln is a registered trademark of Linkedln Ltd.) becomes a part of your network. User can access entire network through a dashboard interface. User can go through the details on each individual by clicking on their profile. User can also narrow down the search for profiles using the filters like Industry, Experience, Education, Designation, Skills and various combinations of Keywords. These filters forms the attributes of the member as explained in one of the embodiments. As non-limiting examples, functions and services may include creating and editing a member profile, viewing posted jobs, inviting members to join the platform, applying for a job, and referring a candidate for a job.

[0021] In the present invention, the user can proceed through following steps:

STEP 1 - Create a Job using the dashboard interface:

Add relevant details like job title, location, skill requirement and number of positions open. Follow this with a detailed description of your requirement. These are the details that would be made available to your shortlisted candidate about the job profile. This finishes the step ot create a job.

Step 2- Shortlist:

Once user creates a new job and proceeds further, the present invention system and method match user requirement with the profiles in user network to give user a list of viable candidates. You can individually screen these candidates by selecting the view profile button on the right. If user feel the candidate is appropriate, user can shortlist them by clicking on the shortlist button.

Step 3- Ask for reference

The present invention system and method will now list all shortlisted profiles. Using the dashboard interface user can finalize the candidate's user wish to seek reference.

User can then send an email to the employees (referrers) in user's network, in common, with user's shortlisted candidates, asking to further the reference. If the referrer agrees to proceed further with the request he can refer the candidate (referral) for the job. The shortlisted candidates (referral) receive the details of the job profile and asking them of their interest. If referral is interested, he would click on I'm interested button and further fill out his personal contact details and also provide his social network details. These details are saved in your candidates (referral) profiles on the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) on the job page which also includes referrer bookmarking, marking, adding notes to, and deleting particular identified member. User can also access the ATS to access the details of user shortlisted candidate (referral) and take the process forw.ard. As per progress status with the candidate (referral), you can place them in the Interview and Offered category respectively.

[0022] FIG. 1 represents a flow diagram illustrating various functional layers flow involved in a system and method for referral using social network. The flow diagram exemplifies the network flow for the system and method described in the present invention. [0023] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating various functional components flow involved in a system and method for referral using social network consistent with some embodiments, many different types of associations for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

[0024] It should be noted as well that certain embodiments may be implemented as a system or method. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, et cetera) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," "module" or "system." Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied therewith.

[0025] This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain principles and practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

[0026] Although illustrated example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that embodiments are not limited to those precise example embodiments, and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.

[0027] The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application, and to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, but these are intended to cover .the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims of the present invention.

[0028] In the foregoing description, specific embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the description and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any statement(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements.

Claims

We Claim:

1. A system for referral using social network service comprising:

one or more processors;

a user sending a request to at least one referrer to share social network; at least one referrer accepts the request and a virtual connection is generated of the social network which is shared with the user;

a social network of the referrer having at least one member is managed by the user for a referral action wherein the referral action includes the identified member according to attributes of the member that match the received attributes provided by the user.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein the virtual connection is generated when the referrer clicks or opens the request to share the social network with the user.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein the social network is shared with the user, the system of user fetches the social connections of the referrer and adds them to the user database to generate the virtual connection.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the user can send request by entering the email address of the referrer to which the system generates at least one link to at least one referrer.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein the referrer accepts the request by clicking or opening the link upon which the virtual connection is generated of the social network which is shared with the user.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein virtual connection with the social network is used to utilize to perform referral hiring.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein the user manages the referrer by resending the request to the referrers who have not shared their social network.

8. The system according to claim 1 wherein the user manages the social network of a referrer who has accepted the request sent by the user by short listing the identified member of the social network based on at least one identified member detail.

9. The system according to claim 8 wherein the user sends the details of the shortlisted identified member of the social network to at least one of the referrer.

10. The system according to claim 1 wherein the referrer associates the referral action to the short listed identified member of the social network.

1 1. The system according to claim 1 wherein the user manages the social network of a referrer bookmarking, marking, adding notes to, and deleting particular identified member.

12. A method for referral using social network service comprising:

sending a request by a user to at least one referrer to share social network;

accepting the request by at least one referrer and generating a virtual connection of the social network which is shared with the user;

managing a social network of the referrer having at least one member by the user for a referral action wherein the referral action includes the identified member according to attributes of the member that match the received attributes provided by the user.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the virtual connection is generated when the referrer clicks or opens the request to share the social network with the user.

14. The method according to claim 12 wherein the social network is shared with the user, the system of user fetches the social connections of the referrer and adds them to the user database to generate the virtual connection.

15. The method according to claim 12 wherein the user can send request by entering the email address of the referrer to which the system generates at least one link to at least one referrer.

16. The method according to claim 12 wherein the referrer accepts the request by clicking or opening the link upon which the virtual connection is generated of the social network which is shared with the user.

17. The method according to claim 12 wherein virtual connection with a social network is used to utilize to perform referral hiring.

18. The method according to claim 12 wherein the user manages the referrer by resending the request to the referrers who have not shared their social network.

19. The method according to claim 12 wherein the user manages the social network of a referrer who has accepted the request sent by the user by short listing the identified member of the social network based on at least one identified member detail.

20. The method according to claim 19 wherein the, user sends the details of the shortlisted identified member of the social network to at least one of the referrer.

21. The method according to claim 12 wherein the referrer associates the referral action to the short listed identified member of the social network.

2. The method according to claim 12 wherein the user manages the social network of a referrer bookmarking, marking, adding notes to, and deleting particular identified member.