Finder's/Referral Fee: SUMMARY

[Joanne Meehl <Jmeehl -at- datum -dot- com>]

Thanks to the 25 generous people who responded to my question (see below). 

Here's a summary (dollar figures are US):
Range of referral fee - $300-$5,000
Mean - $1,675
Most frequently cited amount - $1,500. Next: $1,000
Paid when: Usually paid once new employee is with the company 90 days. Two
of you said their referral $ was paid immediately, two said it was paid over
6 months.
Misc:
One person reported that their company not only pays a referral fee, but on
the new hire's first anniversary, they give the new hire a $500 bonus and
the employee who referred them $500 more.
One person says their company not only pays the fee, they pay you, the
referring employee, a certain amount at each stage of the prospective
employee's interviewing process--$X after the first interview, $Y after the
second interview, and so on. Even if they're not hired, you get these
payments. Verrrrry interesting.

Thank you one and all!
Joanne


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Joanne Meehl [SMTP:Jmeehl -at- datum -dot- com]
	Sent:	Wednesday, June 07, 2000 1:03 PM
	To:	TECHWR-L
	Subject:	Finder's fee

	Hi all,
	A common practice in high tech is to pay employees a "finder's fee"
or bonus
	for bringing in an engineer, for example, because it saves the
company
	recruiting costs, among other reasons. 

	I'm curious: Is such a thing commonplace when recruiting technical
writers?
	And if so, how much was the "fee", and was it paid to you once the
new
	employee was there a certain amount of time? 

	As a newbie, I was just wondering if this is done.

	Thanks,
	Joanne