[madaxe_again]

I thought so too - we recruited heavily this way.

There is however the ever present law of unintended consequences.

Referrals are often friends. People like working with their friends. Whoops, a clique forms. Whoops, the leader of the clique has decided that the clique is going on strike unless the leader is given a promotion and a raise, and the entire clique will quit if you don't. While you're mulling this over the clique explodes as it turns out the leader's lieutenant has been shagging the same married clique member as the leader.

You can't fire them without cause, you can't chasten them for how they conduct their personal lives, you can only hold your head in yourself if hands as you watch politics tear chunks from your business like coursing hounds.

So, referrals are good but I learned the hard way that one shouldn't rely on it - it leads to confusion over whose damn company it is.