Introduce the employee referral program to your employees using a step-by-step guide on how they can participate. Don’t make it complicated as this may dissuade them from joining. Tell them the purpose of the program and what they can get in return if they participate.

2. Assign a contact person

You need to assign someone who will be the point of contact for the employee referral program. This person will be the one answering any queries that the staff members might have about the program.

It’s good to have just one contact person so that there won’t be any confusion when you start rolling out the program. You can also ensure that there won’t be any misinformation if you just have one contact person assigned.

3. Hold a town hall meeting

You can explain the mechanics of the employee referral program at a town hall meeting in your office. You can spend an hour or 30 minutes to present the initiative as well as answer the audience’s questions if they have any.

4. Create a special and unique referral program page

For some companies, it’s worth creating a special and unique employee referral program page. This page not only serves to promote the program but can also help explain the terms and conditions to your current employees, as well as those they refer. Use this opportunity to explain the benefit of joining the program too.

5. Send out a targeted email

As a follow up to your town hall meeting, you should send out a targeted email to your employees to communicate the latest vacancies in your company. For example, your email containing the vacancy for an engineer should be sent to the engineering department as they would be more likely to know another engineer than people from, say, the accounting department.

6. Include sign-up banners on your internal website

Many companies may have referral programs in place, but it’s sometimes hidden within the internal website that employees don’t know about it. To effectively promote a referral program, place sign-up banners strategically on your homepage. That way, when an employee visits your website, they’ll see the program front and center.

7. Promote on social media

Use your company’s social media channels to post about current vacancies that you are trying to fill. Tell your employees about your social media posts so that they may also share the posts on their own networks.

8. Continue referral program promotion well after launch

Launching a new employee referral program needs a lot of time and energy into making sure your employees know about it. But, if you want your referral program to be successful, you need to promote it well after the program launches. Whether this means sending out periodic emails, finding new places to promote the program on your web page, or coming up with an automated system, you need to promote your referral program long after you launch.

Employee referral programs are a proven low-cost way to bring invaluable new staff members. Now, it’s time to let your employees help you find your great candidates using your referral program.

Don’t have an employee referral program yet? Visit Firstbird.