5 Tips to Boost Employee Referrals

Employee referrals are already gaining traction, with 82% of employers worldwide relying on its effectiveness to welcome new employees.  Although resounding in theory, the reliance on employee referrals is no surprise. Curious? Let’s find out why!

Employee Referrals: A Corporate Boon?

The most attractive part of an employee referral system is that it promotes an inclusive culture at the company.

When you ask your employees to refer their friends and connections for a specific role, you automatically make them an integral part of the company’s growth. These actions may add to an employee’s morale and, in turn, increase their commitment toward the organisation. They also foster a symbiotic relationship with the organisation.

What’s more, your workforce will include new employees from diverse backgrounds. In return, the existing employee gains a suitable reward.

In fact, both sides benefit from this exchange. Your organisation gains a valuable and reliable employee, saving you the hassle of interviewing potentially hundreds for the role. Besides, employee referrals help significantly reduce their workload and leave them open for more meaningful work that can help improve company culture. But this is not where the benefits end!

It has been found that the cost-per-hire for employee referrals is USD 1,000 lesser than traditional recruiting. Strengthened by the fact that 45% of referral hires stay for more than four years, the system shows immense promise.

Despite unparalleled benefits, the system might not succeed without enthusiastic participation from the employees. What are some ways you can promote this culture at your organisation? Let’s dive into it!

5 Effective Methods to Facilitate Employee Referrals

It is no surprise that employees are the most integral aspect of any organisation. Their involvement and initiative are vital to driving companies toward the doors of success. 

Any organisation that makes its employees feel valued will receive a positive response to the employee referral program. In fact, you can use some methods to ensure an increasing number of individuals are willing to participate. 

Here are five proven ways to increase employee referrals:

1. Focus on Employment Brand

Before bringing on new associates, it is vital to know about the work culture at your organization. How happy are the employees here? What does your work culture look like? Naturally, a positive work culture will encourage employees to recommend the company to their acquaintances, allowing for reliable new hires.

According to TeamStage, 46% of job seekers cited company culture as an essential factor in their decision. Due to this, it is vital to have a two-pronged employee marketing strategy in your organisation. It achieves two things:

• Targets the relevant employee base to attract new hires
• Communicates the employee value proposition to current employees

2. Curate a Comprehensive Job Description

The key to attracting more employee referrals is to be as transparent as possible with your job descriptions and your organisation as a whole. On average, only about 8.6% of the people visiting the job posting online decide to apply. 

To help increase these conversions, some questions you can answer in your posting are:

• What are the core objectives of the company?
• What is the company vision?
• What are your company’s essential needs?
• What is the role and the responsibilities that come with it?
• What is the estimated pay for the position?

Through these questions, the candidate can glance at your company’s culture and may gravitate towards the advertised position. You can mention what’s not required in the company to give applicants a more precise idea. 

With a tool like Suitable, you get complete flexibility to create a well-rounded job description. You can either customize the premade templates for job descriptions or write your own. What’s more, you can also specific unique attributes for the role—like diversity requirements, skill level, and more.

3. Ensure Rewards with every Referral

This is perhaps the most important and effective way to boost employee referrals. In fact, about 42% of candidates expect a rewards and recognition program opportunity while applying for a role. 

You can dish out appropriate rewards in cash or vouchers every time a new referral is successful. Not only does incentivisation help build morale, but it also increases the synchronicity between all tiers of management. 

Suitable offers a tiered reward system to offer employees some rewards for each stage of the hiring process. Instead of compensating only for successful referrals, you can distribute reward points when the referred candidates pass different rounds. This will increase employees’ motivation to participate

4. Facilitate Quick and Uncomplicated Referrals

Traditional referral programs are known for a complete lack of transparency and complex workflows. Employees are often unaware of their referred candidates’ application status and recruitment teams are unable to track every referral. 

Instead, create a transparent workflow to keep employees posted about their referral’s application. This will also give your HR teams a clear and seamless process to map every referral to the right employee and distribute rewards the right way. 

Suitable simplifies this entire process by automating large parts of the hiring process. Both the employers and employees get a full-fledged dashboard to track the progress for different referrals and jobs. This ensures that employees get real-time updates about their referrals and can claim their rewards easily.

5. Leverage Social Media Platforms

In this digital age, it is impossible for brands not to have a social media presence. Through this platform, you can engage with your customers and reach out to potential job seekers who can use the employee referral program.

For starters, you can expand your reach with the help of your employees, asking them to promote the organisation on their personal accounts. As this reach increases and potential job seekers are enamoured by the company culture, your employees can use their referrals to allow them to apply for an advertised role.

With Suitable, you can encourage employees to add their LinkedIn connections on their account with a simple Chrome extension. This way, employees can directly share a candidate’s LinkedIn profile to refer them for a job. 

Summing Up

You might think that the entire process sounds like a hassle. But worry not; using employee referrals is easier than ever with a power-packed tool like Suitable. Not only does it offer a single platform for all your referral-related worries, but it also allows you to customise your rewards according to the employee.

If utilised efficiently, the referral program can help bring forth reliable employees and convince the existing employees to stay and be an integral part of the company’s growth. It is also cost-effective in the long run, helping save valuable company resources. 

Ultimately, the employee referral program allows you to have a more engaged workforce with unmatched diversity. It also ensures healthy competition and leads to employee retention in the long run.