When turbocharging your recruitment game, one secret weapon can transform your organization's talent pool: employee referrals. With the help of your company's biggest advocates — your employees — you can bring in top candidates for less.
- Referrals are 4x more likely to be offered a job than website applicants.
- Employee referrals account for 30-50% of all hires.
- The cost-per-hire of employee referrals is $1,000 less on average than other hiring sources.
- 88% of employers rate employee referral programs as the best source of applicants
Convinced? We've compiled four strategies to activate your employees and inspire great referrals. If you're ready to automate and maximize your employee referral program, schedule a time to chat with us here.
Cultivate a Strong Employer Brand
Want to set the stage for your referrals? Start by cultivating a vibrant culture — and sharing it externally! Research shows that 75% of candidates will investigate a company's reputation before applying for a job, and 50% won't work for a company with a bad reputation. Ensure you (and your employees) share externally on social media why your company is a great place for talent. Think: Why would someone want to work for you? From sharing benefits to wellbeing days, or volunteer time off, we recommend sharing it all!
Incentivize and Motivate Employees
Let's face it: your employees are busy! Taking time out of their days to share an open role with their networks might not make it on their to-do list. Yes, many companies offer employee referral bonuses — this is a great start! The issue with relying only on an employee referral bonus is that it can often take weeks, if not months, to pay your employees.
In the world of instant gratification, this can be critical to keeping your employees engaged and motivated to share open roles. To help combat this, we recommend you create micro-incentives. Micro-incentives are rewards people can get during the recruitment process, versus at the hire stage. For example, Katy refers her former colleague Mark to a role. Once he is selected for an interview, she receives 25% of the employee referral bonus.
We recommend a leaderboard with prizes for your top employee referrers to keep employees further engaged. With leaderboards, you can say hello to engaged employees while they say hello to a $100 gift card to the local steakhouse. It's a win-win.
Streamline the Referral Process
Often, managing the referral process itself is the biggest roadblock. From spreadsheets to calendar reminders for payouts and having to draft communications, what if you could automate the entire thing? Rolling out an ultra-user-friendly online referral platform that's easy to use is the key to keeping your employees engaged and providing a great candidate experience. Looking for a platform that automates everything? From start to finish? We can help — set a time to chat with us here.
Unleashing the potential of employee referrals is the not-so-secret sauce for assembling a dream team and boosting your organization's recruitment efforts. By cultivating a strong employer brand, incentivizing your employees, and streamlining the referral process, you'll harness the power of your employees' networks to attract top talent anywhere.
Ready to get started? We can help. Set a time to chat with us here.
