Here's an example of a hair brained scheme:
We should reward
people’s effort to go above and beyond their normal duty in hiring process, just like we reward outstanding efforts in other areas of
work. We can send a memo to say that we will consider efforts in hiring process that do not qualify for reference fee bonus award as part of the overall evaluation during year end compensation process.
We can mention a “hypothetical” example, w/o calling names, in the same memo to illustrate and address
dinner-
table discussions. We can also note that at the same
time we want to be strict for the purposes of the official reference bonus awards to avoid conflicts, to avoid perception we are bending rules for some but not for others.