8 Tips for a Successful Employee Referral Program Launch
Companies nowadays are in a fortunate position where they can select from a variety of resources and procedures when it comes to hiring new staff. Successful strategies range from advertising openings on job boards to working with recruiting firms to find qualified candidates. When aiming to expand, companies can and should look no farther than their current pool of talent.
Rewarding current workers for recommending new hires through a referral programme is an efficient way to increase productivity for several reasons. For starters, there are no out-of-pocket expenses other than time spent brainstorming when implementing these programmes. Second, because of their familiarity with the employee who made the referral, the referred prospects are more likely to be knowledgeable and interested in joining the organisation. Last but not least, a well-designed employee recommendation programme can increase employee engagement and pride in their work.
Even while involving the team in the recruitment strategy is a simple task, it does require some preparation. Effective employee referral programmes can be implemented by following these steps:
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Pick out some objectives.
Referral systems have been shown to be more cost-effective than other methods of finding new employees, including newspaper adverts, online postings, and even recruitment firms. When the only outlay of resources is time spent planning, and the only outlay of money is the incentive for the referrer, it’s simple to see why the return on investment is so appealing (expenses that are easily written off in various ways – more on that later).
First things first: make a list of all the open positions and post them on your website’s careers page and in your HR system (see #3). The next step in developing a successful referral programme is to establish measurable objectives. For instance, your program’s goal could be to increase lead volume over time and improve conversion rates. Having goals in mind is useful for fine-tuning the programme later on.
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Set the incentive in place
Having assessed your hiring needs and set some concrete goals, you can now decide on the incentive that will be offered to employees who successfully refer candidates for employment. In a referral programme, employees will participate to assist their friends get recruited and to earn the reward, not because they want to do a favour for the company. This means that the incentive can’t be too expensive for the business, but it still needs to be substantial enough to motivate workers to go above and beyond. While most companies offer referral bonuses in the range of $250–$500, there is no universal rule in this area.
Some examples of non-cash incentives:
– Gift cards (especially for firms with which your organisation has existing partnerships) Products by Apple, for instance.
– Contributions made to the charity of the referrer’s choice.
– A complimentary flight to a regional office.
Such options are more cost-effective for businesses than straight cash compensation, while still offering substantial benefits to employees.
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Make use of Automation
The manual process of having employees submit resumes to human resources as part of a referral programme, without the aid of automation technologies, is not ideal. The programme needs to be beneficial to your HR department and your staff, and you should be able to measure its effectiveness.
Referrals from current employees can be tracked using automated solutions, which can help expedite the screening and hiring process and maintain tabs on who suggested them. They are efficient and informative. Many widespread HR programmes have an in-built method for spreading the word about your company to potential new hires. You may be possible to have a referral feature added to your system if it doesn’t already have one.
One of the most important things to consider when making a referral programme is making sure that anyone may use it. Employees are much less likely to take part in the referral process if there are too many hoops to jump through.
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Share the plan with people through a variety of channels.
If you want your employees to become excited about your referral programme, you need to do more than just mention it and let them find out the rules on their own. To clarify the regulations, you can send out emails and handouts or even have in-person gatherings. Each division’s leader can update their staff about job openings and describe the ideal applicant to fill them. Having a meeting to brief everyone on how they may influence the team’s future is more effective than just sending out an email.
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Talk about it with new hires as part of the orientation process.
During the onboarding process, it is recommended to give new workers a welcome packet that includes information on the referral programme. The organisation will benefit from having an extra set of eyes on the job postings, and the new hire will appreciate the feeling of belonging.
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Maintain consistent reminders for staff.
Employees may be enthusiastic about the referral programme at first, but they may lose interest if they don’t get the opportunity to recommend a high-caliber candidate soon. Remind personnel about the programme and the incentives on a regular basis (quarterly or semiannually, for example) and think about switching up the incentives to keep things fresh.
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Make it simple for workers to tell their contacts about open positions.
To get the most out of your employee recruitment efforts, it’s not enough to just tell them to recruit. Make it easy for your staff to spread the word about the open position by allowing them to share the page directly from their social media profiles. It’s possible that the automation software you’re using has features that make it simple to disseminate the job opening.
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Adequately acknowledge the outstanding “recruiters“
It’s a good idea to periodically share the names of those who have been very helpful in introducing high-quality applicants with the rest of the team. At the annual company meeting, for instance, call out the employees who have brought in the most new hires and reward them with a bonus. This demonstrates to potential participants that the programme can be useful.
In conclusion, empowering existing staff to proactively seek out new candidates is an effective recruitment strategy, however it shouldn’t stand alone. Referral programmes should be one component of a more comprehensive employment strategy.
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