Teachers, engineers, social workers, carers, IT and other council staff are being offered incentives to recruit their friends and family to Aberdeenshire.
The local authority has had a long-running problem attracting prospective employees to the north-east due to the high cost of living and a lack of housing.
There are currently 181 jobs advertised on the website – half of which are for teachers, including senior posts in Aboyne, Huntly, Longhaven and Fraserburgh.
Education bosses even flew to Canada and Ireland last year to recruit teachers, while a specialist home care recruitment team was set up to fill carer vacancies faster.
Now Aberdeenshire Council has launched an employee referral scheme, offering existing staff at £50 gift voucher if a friend or family member they refer is successfully appointed.
A card outlining the scheme has been sent out to staff with their pay slips, explaining they can recommend jobs through various social media sites or e-mail to their loved ones to be in with the chance of claiming their voucher.
Council leader Jim Gifford said he was pleased the scheme was being rolled out, and was just another “innovative” method the authority is using to fill vacancies.
He said: “This is a great scheme. Eighteen months ago we said we had to do something different to fill the gap in all realms of the council.
“There are a number of innovative ways of recruiting people and hopefully it will pay off. Bring a friend to the council has a ring to it. We have to try new things to bring people to the area.
“It’s a major challenge, there’s not enough people in the north-east to fill all the jobs that are available. There are a whole variety of reasons why people are put off coming here, such as the cost of living and the availability of housing.
“We are also competing against the oil and gas industry, so non-oil and gas industry employers are looking at the same pool of people to fill jobs, it’s not easy.”
A council spokesman said: “The best people to sell Aberdeenshire and working for the council are clearly those who already work and live here. That is why we are asking them to help us attract and recruit the best candidates and in return they can earn high street vouchers.”
He stressed applicants would still have to go through the usual recruitment process, and that a referral did not guarantee a job or even an interview.