An internal referral program can eliminate the need to outsource recruitment to an agency while empowering current employees to become the company’s brand ambassadors. This will reduce hiring manager frustration, lower the sourcing burden, and ultimately, save recruiting dollars.
Here are 6 easy ways to boost your employee referral program:
1. Conduct staff training
It’s good to teach employees on how they can help the company recruit the best talent. Give them tips on how to find potential co-workers they could refer to HR, every chance they get. Let them know that they can go beyond their personal networking circle and find good candidates even when attending seminars, conferences, professional association meetings, or even in their spare time.
2. Invest in a corporate career website
A corporate career website can host insightful information about the job, company, culture, etc. Tell your staff to link the website when they share vacancies on social media. Show them some samples of well-written social media posts that can grab a reader’s attention. However, let them know that they should portray the company’s professional image at all times.
3. Give incentives
Show your staff that you appreciate their recruitment efforts by giving them rewards. Incentives can be highly motivating for your staff if you offer different options from which they can choose. It could be financial rewards, extra time off, a holiday trip abroad, shares or products of the company, a paid educational course of their interest, or the option to donate the reward fee to a charity.
You can make two reward tiers – one for having referred great people (who were not hired now but could get hired in the future for similar positions), and one when the new employee has completed their probationary period.
4. Print “recruitment” cards
Similar to business cards in the format, recruitment cards can be used by employees as a way of spreading the word about the company’s recruitment. Tech giant Apple uses these cards containing the message, “You’re amazing. We should talk.” while on the other side it says, ”Your customer service just now was exceptional. I work for the Apple Store, and you’re exactly the kind of person we’d like to talk to. If you’re happy where you are, I’d never ask you to leave. But if you’re thinking about a change, give me a call. This could be the start of something great.”
Be creative in crafting your spiel for the recruitment cards. It could be a great tool to facilitate new hires.
5. Set team referral goals
Another way of boosting referrals is to do it by the department, where each group with the highest volume of referrals gets a reward.
They can come up with their own strategies, but they have to beat the minimum referral goal at the end of every month. For example, the department who can refer a minimum of five people can get free concert tickets. The rewards can vary, depending on your preference.
6. Write thank-you notes
Write personal thank-you notes to those employees who successfully referred a great candidate for the company. Tell them how the new hire has impacted the company’s performance/success.
A handwritten note would be something unexpected and surely appreciated. It can also motivate them to refer more people in the future.
Do you know of other brilliant ways to improve your employee referral program? Share your tips and ideas in the comments section below.
If you want to get started with referral recruitment but don’t know where to start, we can help. Visit Firstbird website to learn more about our online employee referral software, or get started today.
