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Networking has always been used to get jobs.

Somebody knows a friend, family member or colleague who seems perfect for a job and recommends the person for the position. While social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are commonly used to make friends and share personal information, there's also job networking on the Internet.

One site that specifically uses referrals is a fledgling website called Bohire.com. It calls itself Canada's job referral community and works on a system of cash rewards for people who have successfully referred someone for a job.

"We all know someone," said Vincent Tsang, Bohire's vice-president of business development. "All we have to do is refer them."

Tsang estimates that in Canada there's a $4-billion potential market for recruitment and staffing.

Bohire is after a particular kind of employee, someone who isn't looking for a job and is known as a "passive job seeker."

"They're doing a great job for a company, but they're just not actively looking," said Tsang, who in 1996 co-founded Infocheck, a human resources consulting firm specializing in background checks and exit interviews.

"Search firms and agencies generally go after those kinds of people. It's just that the quality of the candidate is much higher."

People who make employee recommendations must have permission to use an individual's name and upload his resume, or the cash reward is forfeited in the event that person is hired, Tsang said.

Companies such as National Bank, Tyco Electronics and Dundee Wealth were posting positions this week with cash rewards for successful referrals ranging from $1,050 to $3,500, far less than they would pay for using a headhunter. The companies decide how much they want to pay for a referral, and Bohire gets a percentage of the fee if someone is hired.

Bohire was listing more than 850 job referrers and over $187,000 in cash rewards for successful referrals.

Job seekers can't find employment for themselves on Bohire because it's not a personal job search site, Tsang said.

He said Bohire has more than 100 companies using the site, including GE Canada, Winners/Homesense, Kraft Canada, Miller Thompson LLP, Hallmark, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Tyco Electronics Canada. Employers, who post their jobs at no cost, can rate and review the quality of the referrer.

Tsang said about 200 jobs have been posted since the site began in January and added that Bohire is keeping the number of jobs filled confidential.

Online job expert Peter Weddle said that trying to reach so-called passive job seekers is a growing trend.

But Weddle said the idea behind Bohire has been around since the late 1990s, without great success. And he noted a similar U.S. site called BountyJob.com, which gives employers and headhunters access to a large pool of potential employees.

"This site (Bohire) will only work if it builds significant traction and brand identity and credibility in a hurry," said Wheddle, CEO of Weddle's, a specialty publisher of print guides to Internet job boards.

"On the web anymore it's not about technology, it's about old-fashioned marketing, advertising, promotion. And sites succeed or fail based on their ability to capture mindshare," he said from Stamford, Conn.

"So this site, if it's properly capitalized or if it can generate some viral buzz ... then it might have a chance, but if it doesn't attract lots of people, lots of referrals it's not going to be worth the time of those employers. They will try it once and go somewhere else."

Employer Aaron Moscoe, president of the Promotional Specialists, said his Toronto-area company found a controller through Bohire and offered a reward of about $3,000.

"It's obviously more than a newspaper ad would cost but significantly less than traditional search firm," said Moscoe, whose company is a supplier of specialty advertising products and services.

But he also added that his company used a search firm to find a general manager and would do so again to hire at the executive level.

"Where you don't require that level of professional input in your search, then this is a very good option," Moscoe said of Bohire.

"Most of the other options, whether it's placing a newspaper ad, or online search engines, they tend to elicit a tremendous response but a very unqualified response."

Moscoe said that instead of getting hundreds of responses that would be typical of a newspaper ad, he received 18 Bohire referrals. He added that he likes the aspect of being able to check the track record of the person making the referrals.