International FMCG company Diageo offers a £500 cash reward to staff for referrals that result in a hire. However, Essie Russell, Diageo’s global talent research & acquisition director, said it wasn’t uniformly effective across the company.

She said that while it worked in sales and marketing, it wasn’t effective or even required in the company’s distilleries in Scotland, where jobs are often “passed from father to son”.

However, in Budapest, where the e500 (£417) ’bounty’ made up “a large percentage” of the workers’ salaries, it was proving very successful, she said.

Russell said that in China, where travelling abroad was highly valued, the offer of a free holiday in Thailand was popular. “People really want to win that prize,” said Russell.