In the January/February issue of HR Magazine, Josh Bersin with Deloitte, makes nine predictions of “what’s in store for HR in 2015.”   This is part five of a series of nine articles looking at each of these predictions.

Networking has a long history beginning around the industrial revolution. Before that, people lived in stable communities and interacted with the same people for most of their lives. They knew approximately 150 people. This number is known as Dunbar’s Number. Its definition is that 150 is “approximately the number of people we are programmed by evolution to know with some reasonably degree of familiarity.” This is according to ChangingMinds.com While networking via social media has not been around quite as long, networking to recruit is a classic tune and always stays at the top of the charts.

When working in human resources departments of hotels a number of years ago, we offered a monetary reward to those employees who brought in someone they knew to apply for a job. If hired, the individual had to stay at work for 90 days and then the incumbent received his or her reward. When going out and about, especially if we ate at a restaurant, we were given cards to give out to someone we thought would be a good addition to our team all the while, singing the praises of our hotel. One networking “tune”, the “old boy network” has probably been around since Adam discovered another male romping around on the planet. So recruiting via networking is certainly not new. The way we do it has a new melody.