Implementing an employee referral program can empower you to create a win-win situation for both your company and current workforce. To help combat the prevailing competition of talent acquisition, your employee referral program will play a significant role. This recruiting approach to entice current employees to refer qualified candidates for open positions does not demand any substantial effort. In turn, you get the advantages of reducing your recruiting costs, a lower investment in time and resources, and increased staff morale.
Statistics show that referred employees are less likely to quit by 30%! So, increased employee retention is certainly another perk of not only having a referral program in place but making sure all employees know about it!
What is an Employee Referral Program?
An Employee Referral Program, or Referral Bonus Program, encourages existing employees to share job openings with their network and offering a type of bonus or perk. If done right, your referral program will significantly reduce the time to hire and improve the overall quality of hires in your organization.
Setting Up Your Company Employee Referral Policy
How will a referral program work for you and reward your employees? Here are some things to think about when you’re putting your policy together:
- Develop the program overview – the rules and guidelines
- Outline how your employees will refer candidates – you need an easy way for employees to share open jobs with potential candidates and be able to track those referrals
- Who they should ideally refer – your job descriptions should handle this for the most part, but suggesting certain skills such as “we’re looking for people with great customer service” could be helpful to suggest. Promote diversity, but just remember to stay away from saying things that could put you in an EEO bind!
- What incentives or perks are available for a referral – they do not always need to be monetary (but it surely helps!), you can offer things like event tickets, vacation, gift cards, or something relevant to your employees that would get them excited to make referrals! Just remember to keep it simple and clearly outline your incentives.
Ideas to Kick Off Your Program
- Ask employees who they would like to work with again from a previous job – friends like to work with friends!
- Host a referral coffee, lunch, or happy hour where employees can invite potential candidates to meet the team and apply!
- Encourage employees to share about their experiences, the culture, and their roles on social media.
- Make sure your open jobs are all up to date, available online, and easy for candidates to apply – p.s. Efficient Hire can help with that!
Get the Good Word Out!
- Create a fun video, landing page, or downloadable document with instructions for employees.
- Send the announcement and guidelines with paystubs.
- Collaborate with HR, managers, and even marketing
- Do you know someone who has had success with employee referrals? Highlight that!
- Most of all, make it exciting – because it is!
Attracting and engaging great talent is keeping everyone on their toes right now! An effective employee referral program can be the star performer in your recruiting efforts – and a quick approach to engage and onboard top talent.
Need help with the right hiring tech? We’ve got you covered. Get in touch with our sales team today to learn how we make hiring easier.