A Test of Sincerity: How Black and Latino Service Workers Make Decisions about Making Referrals

In this article, Susan Smith illustrates the relationships between jobseekers and jobholders. It is full of a series of interviews with black and Latino service workers from UC Berkeley to understand how/when jobholders are likely to provide information about a job opening or are willing to give a referral. From her study, a rough 60% of blacks are job-matched through personal contact from which they are told about the position they got hired for. The percentage of Latinos however, was just 40% that were helped through a job-match.

During the interviews, the patterns for reasons provided by the jobholders as to how likely they were to help a jobseeker varied. “Black jobholders were more likely to decide against helping and to help passively, while Latino jobholders were more likely to assist proactively by talking to hiring personnel on behalf of their job seeking relations” (Smith, 32).

There are many advantages also from getting a personal referral. Having a personal contact during a hiring process “improves quality of applicant pools”. A personal contact can also tell jobseekers the right time to apply when times are less competitive which would improve their chances of getting an interview. It is also very helpful to have them personally vouch for you and research shows that people hired from a referral “receive more on the job training from personal contacts, and so they learn the job faster and stay on the job longer then non-referrals; they are less likely to quit or be fired” (Smith, 33).

When it comes to the sincerity of the jobholder, there are several things they can do, or not do. “They can talk to hiring personnel on behalf of jobseekers, act as references, provide jobseekers with an abundance of information about how best to improve their chances of hire, or limit their information strictly to what jobs are available or where jobseekers might go to learn about openings…they can also do nothing” (Smith, 37).

If a jobholder decides to not help someone out, there are a wide variety of reasons. It was most likely when they perceived that the jobseeker was lacking motivation to put in the hard work. Many jobholders opposed helping those if there was any evidence of a lack of determination, stability, credibility, if they were unreliable, untrustworthy, irresponsible, if they seemed lazy—all several reasons why jobholders would withhold information.

There was one woman, Maria Hernandez a custodial worker, who even admitted to not even helping her own husband to get a job. She said that her husband was lazy and evidence of his poor performance of not cleaning up at home will reflect on his job performance. Many of the workers claimed that people “wanted” to work, but it didn’t necessarily mean they were actual going to put in the effort and do so.

For Latinos, 30% had decided to go against helping others compared to the 68% of black jobholders. It was noted that motivation is a very important factor to look for before offering any type of help. There must be a desire to work to show the jobholder that the applicant is serious and will not let them look bad in front of their employers, something Maria was worried about also. She felt ashamed because of her husbands laziness and didn’t want to ruin others perceptions they had of her. It was also noted that jobholders won’t refer someone they don’t know, but would tell applicants to go to a website and apply or let them know where to pick up an application.

A person’s marital and parental status also played a role when it came to receiving help from a jobholder. People with a strong family background were “family people” and “hard workers”. Because they had children, it showed that they were a “good husband” and “responsible” (Smith, 44). Another fact that was constantly stressed was how eager the jobseeker was. “Being constantly asked” was a common theme that the jobholders mentioned. If a jobseeker was constantly asking for positions, or if they had spoke to their supervisor yet, or when they will be receiving a call, show’s the jobholder that they really want the job and are trying to do as much as they can to get it. it illustrates their motivation and willingness to perform well at their job.