10 Steps To Increase Your Employee Referral Program Results

By Author: Savio Vadakkan
Total Articles: 58
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Employee Referral programs are now an integral part of the recruiting strategy of all organizations, irrespective of the nature and size of business, due to the overwhelming advantages it offers both in terms of cost and quality of hire. It is easy to design a good employee referral program; however running it successfully requires attention to a whole lot of details, failing which a well-designed referral program is also likely to fail.The good news for you is that with just a little effort and re-tooling, you can awaken the most powerful weapon in your recruiting arsenal, and soon your Employee Referral Program will be your most effective source of great hires.

Here are 10 action steps you might want to consider to improve the results of your employee referral program:

1) Branding your employee referral program

Give the employee referral program a good catchy name with a tagline and a logo. A name gives your program exclusive identity and is a significant step in branding it. We would suggest taking this to the next level by creating a logo. This instant recognition is an essential part of getting employees ...
... into the “referral” mindset.

2) A simple employee referral program is a winner all the way
A good Employee Referral Program is clear and precise about the rules (who is eligible, who isn’t, the terms of the program, bonus payouts for different positions, minimum qualifications needed for a referral to be considered “qualified,”etc.) Remember that simplicity and clarity encourage more qualified employee referrals.

3) Set expectations from your employees

An Employee Referral Program is a company based initiative and not an HR project and hence expectations from the program should be communicated to the employees.
The organization should make sure that the employees understand the benefits, track the result of referred candidates, reward successful employee referrals and discourage referrals spams.The employees need to realize that these referral programs not only help hire good talent but will help play a key role in building a great team

4) Using social media for employee referrals

Social recruiting is an efficient and cost-effective way to find qualified candidates.
Social networks are free, practically everyone uses them already, and they’re a good means to showcase your brand. Encourage youremployees to take open jobs in front of a large pool of qualified candidates within their social networks using social media integrated tools available today. Using social media for employee referrals is an effective strategy used by most organizations today.

5) Use referrals for high priority jobs

Prioritized jobs when filled with a great hire, have the highest business impact. Don’t waste employee time and burden your program’s administration with “junk referrals” and referrals for jobs that can be adequately filled through normal sources. The best referral programs do not cover all jobs and instead prioritize high-impact and hard-to-fill jobs

6) The reward policy of your employee referral program is of prime importance

Reward your ERP’s early participants and champions right away. You’d be amazed how something as simple as movie tickets or a $10 gift card can boost a referral program.
Don’t forget, many employee referrals are made because your employees are anxious to help a friend get a job. Try to focus on what would appeal to your employees to ensure high motivation levels.

7) Have a responsive referral program

If your employees are working hard to give solid referrals, those referrals should be processed in a timely manner since it speaks volumes to employees about how serious you are.It is also important to acknowledge every referral received and is more important to keep the employees’ updated on the status of their referrals.

8) Promoting your employee referral program is the key
Frequent reminders like company emails and status notifications are great. If the terms of the program change, communicate it to your employees and keep them updated. Make sure the referral program stays fresh in the minds of your employees.

9) Remember that every referral is valuable

Every ERP is bound to receive referrals that may not be relevant to current vacancies.
However every referral is valuable and must be systematically stored for future use as and when corresponding openings come up. A mechanism should be in place to store unused referral resumes in a centralized database with tags which would be accessible to all recruiters

10) Analytics is the key to the success of an employee referral program

Evaluating your employee referral program is as much important as making it work. Every step needs to be monitored to keep track of your open positions, see how many candidates have applied, and even see how long it takes your company on an average to complete each step of the referral process. This will make sure that your program is running and running successfully.

With these simple steps you are sure to see improved results in your employee referral program. And if you need a tool that will help you seamlessly achieve all of this while automating and boosting your employee referral program, request a ZALP demo now.

You can read more on latest trends and technologies in recruitment on http://www.zalp.com/theemployeereferralblog/

Author Bio

Savio Vadakkan is the Marketing Professional at ZALP, a unique employee referrals booster. ZALP helps organizations tap the full potential of their employee referral program using advanced social recruiting, Zalp demo and interesting features like gamification.