By ROBERT HALF INTERNATIONAL

Hiring new employees is tough. Just ask managers surveyed by Robert Half International and CareerBuilder.com. Eighty-one percent of those polled said today's employment market is equally or more challenging than it was only one year ago, and more than half consider a shortage of qualified workers to be their biggest recruitment hurdle.

In light of the current market, hiring managers are turning to their employees for help when filling open positions. In fact, many firms are offering everything from free dinners to time off to cash bonuses for employee referrals.

While recommending someone you know for a position with your company can benefit you financially and the organization as a whole, it's important to look before you leap. Strongly supporting someone who does not work out or repeatedly suggesting that your manager hire unqualified candidates can affect your professional reputation. So, when it comes to making referrals, keep the following do's and don'ts in mind.

By MARY LORENZ, CAREERBUILDER.COM WRITER

You know the woman -- the one who could wear a paper bag to a board meeting and still manage to look both beautiful and perfectly professional. As if it weren't annoying enough that she maintains her obnoxiously flat abs by lifting doughnuts to her mouth, it turns out your gorgeous co-worker may also be out-earning her less genetically-blessed colleagues.

by Rachel Zupak, CareerBuilder.com writer

After Sue, an event planner, sent out the initial information about a national conference to all the members, vendors and speakers attending the conference, she knew she'd accomplished a job well done. Unfortunately, Sue accidentally wrote the wrong start date of the conference in her message. As a result, when all was said and done, the company had to pay upwards of $20,000 in penalties, like airline change fees. Needless to say, it wasn't a job done as well as she thought.