Tips to Get More Employee Referrals - ApplicantStack

The best recruiting tool for your business is walking among you: current employees. Happy workers can be cheerleaders for all the good things your company has to offer. Read on for some ways to get more employee referrals.

Benefits of Employee Referrals in Recruiting

One of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses is competing for talent. “Eighty percent of companies say there is a skills shortage,” according to LinkedIn, and competition is stiff. LinkedIn recruiting experts suggest employee referrals are valuable for five simple reasons:

• ​Help you hire faster
• ​Lower your cost per hire
• ​Deliver high-quality candidates
• ​Increase employee retention
• ​Protect corporate culture and build your brand

How to Involve Employees in Recruiting Efforts

It’s important for employees to feel like they work hand-in-hand with hiring managers to recruit qualified job candidates. Employees are likely to bring friends, acquaintances, or even family to the recruiting table, so it’s vital to establish trust and transparency in the process. Ensure the experience is overall positive, even if every interaction doesn’t result in hiring.

Offer Employee Referral Incentives

A company’s average cost to list a job, screen candidates, hold interviews, hire, onboard, and train is about $4,700 according to the SHRM. Investments in software or extra time push that number even higher. Even generous monetary referral incentives can be less, and will streamline the amount of time spent.

Some companies may choose to offer an initial bonus and then further bonuses at intervals if the referred person stays with the company, such as once at 60 days and again at 180 days. Your company may choose to offer bonuses commensurate with skill level or role. HR professional Laurie White suggests setting internal policy on how the incentive structure works. Management positions or roles that need to be filled quickly may come with a greater monetary incentive.

Advertise, Advertise, Advertise

Companies need to get out the word about referral incentives, company policies on referrals, and open positions with urgency. Talent acquisition manager Adam Fitzer offers some suggestions:

• ​Set hours where hiring managers are available to take referrals or answer questions about how it works
• ​Have regular meetings with employees and the recruiting team
• ​Involve employees in the interview process
• ​Bring employees to recruiting events
• ​Encourage employees to share open positions on their personal social media channels, alumni message boards, or personal networking groups

Make Referrals Trackable

Employees who offer referrals likely have a connection to the person they’re suggesting for the role, and want the process to go well for the potential employee. These employees put their trust in the organization to follow through with meaningful contact, so allowing them access to the process shows the referral is valuable, and not just a suggestion that goes into the void.

Immediately flagging referrals into applicant tracking software helps hiring managers prioritize those candidates within the interview process. Laurie White suggests adding the referring employee to the tracking software so they can monitor their acquaintances’ progress as the candidates progress through the recruitment cycle. This transparency is key for keeping employees engaged in the referral program.

Acknowledge All Employee Referrals

To craft a successful referral program, employees should feel confident that any referral is valuable and desirable, even if the person doesn’t end up getting hired. Some employees have expressed concerns about how they might be judged for their referral. They worry they may be held responsible for how the interview process goes for their referral, or whether or not the person takes the job.

Clear and grateful messaging around referrals can help mitigate these concerns. Every person who submits a referral should be acknowledged and thanked. Adam Fitzer suggests you can even give prizes to employees whose referrals don’t get hired, just to make sure that message is clear.

Make it Fun

Gamification of referrals can lead to friendly competition among employees. Setting time limits on referral events with a leaderboard and frequent announcements about the standings can get people excited about the prospect of bringing friends or acquaintances into the company.

These specific events could have prizes other than monetary bonuses, like extra vacation days, spa trips, golf excursions, or valuable gift cards. You could consider a sponsored lunch or dinner to kick off referral events to get employees excited and help them clearly understand what the company is looking for.

Use the Right Tools

Use the right tools to track referrals and keep all potential new hires together in one, easily accessible place. Stay on top of the hiring process while keeping everyone involved on the same page. These efforts are easier with ApplicantStack, a proven applicant-tracking system (ATS) that is built for today’s business needs.

At both large and small organizations, employee referrals can make up some of the most promising and valuable hires. Molding your company culture to be open to all referrals, along with incentives and encouragement, you can find the best employees to make up your team.