The trouble with this strategy is that it's really just cronyism - employing your friends and relations - rather than trying to do a less heavily biased search for the best candidate. Resumes/CVs, imperfect though they are, at least represent a sort of level playing field, whereas employing your friends via opaque methods is blatantly cronyistic.
Not necessarily. My company is often hiring and I have friends who potentially need jobs, however unless I don't think they would be a good (or great) fit, I probably wouldn't mention it to them.
In that case the thing you need to ask yourself is whether you're employing the person because they're the best from a range of possible candidates, or whether you're employing them merely because they're your friend.
