How to Use and Implement an Employee Referral Program to Fill Positions

Engineering, Architecture, and Construction roles can be a real challenge to fill, especially a mid-level (5 to 8 years of experience) role. There are a variety of concepts and strategies that can be used to recruit top engineering talent – but sometimes the greatest candidate can come from a referral within your organization.

Let’s take a deeper dive together on the idea of implementing an ‘Employee Referral Program’ as a part of your recruiting strategy.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together” right? Employee referrals can provide high quality, passive candidates for those hard to fill roles. Why, might you ask? Because your employees have a clear understanding of your company’s culture and the type of person who will be most successful within it. Additionally, there is often a sense of responsibility attached to the candidate they refer – they feel it reflects on them and their performance. The same holds true on the candidate’s side – they feel the need to perform their best as it reflects the employee who referred them.

There is plenty of evidence to support this idea. For example, a study by Stanford states that employees hired through personal referrals have higher productivity, lower turnover, and lower screening costs. Another study by Haas Berkley states that referred workers are substantially less likely to quit.

So where do you start?

There are many factors to consider when designing an Employee Referral Program. It is best to involve an HR professional to assist with the designing of the program to ensure there is no disparate impact and that the coordination, communication, and the measurement of the program are all covered.  Below are a few ideas to assist you in creating an effective Employee Referral Program or improving your existing one, that converts reliable hires for your company!

Make it easy to navigate – Nothing can kill a well-intentioned referral program like complicating it with all kinds of hoops for an employee to jump through. Keep it simple. When designing your program, look at it from your employee’s perspective. If you make it easy for them, you will have much more participation in the program resulting in a much better outcome.

Create a reward system – A key component to encouraging employee participation, is creating a reward system. Most of the clients we work with offer some sort of bonus tied to the successful hiring of a referred candidate, retention of that candidate or a combination of the two. There are several creative ideas to incentivize your employees to participate, such as: extra time off with pay, gifts, gift cards, entry into a quarterly drawing for a larger prize, or recognition in staff meetings or company newsletters. It may be beneficial to have a brainstorming session you’re your staff for ideas that are meaningful to them. Remember, you want them to participate.

Build your Referral Program into your culture – Effective communication and promotion of your referral program is critical. We have worked with several companies who had an Employee Referral Program in place, but more so an afterthought – not as a part of an overarching recruiting strategy. Your referral program should be built into the fabric of your culture. Get your employees excited about it and keep it top of mind! The more participation, the better the result.

Last, but not least…

Be proactive – ALWAYS accept referrals. Whether you are hiring or not, it is crucial you keep your network plentiful – especially when talking about those hard to fill positions. There is nothing worse than being behind the eight ball when your hiring need does arise, and you miss out on potential opportunities or miss deadlines because you don’t have the talent you need.

Your employee’s desire your company culture to be as strong as you do. So, it only makes sense that they would want to work with people that they know will make great co-workers and add to the amazing culture you’re already created… what better than someone they were able to refer?! Implement an Employee Referral Program to ensure you don’t miss out on top-tier talent ?.

 

~Alissa