A good employee referral program is a gold mine for employers hiring high-quality talent. Strategies like this can mean all the difference in a tough hiring market. Professionals today are looking more critically at their employers. So, a good word from a trusted friend can be the help you need to get the best talent. Here are some of the benefits of leveraging employee referrals and some creative ways to encourage your current employees to participate. 

Start With a Plan to Solicit Referrals  

Employee referrals are one of the easiest ways to find and recruit high quality candidates. You know your people are close enough to the work to understand what skills and knowledge is required to succeed in role. But getting those referrals doesn’t happen on its own. Having a system in place is important to encourage existing employees to provide referral candidates for open jobs. If your team doesn’t know that you are looking to hire or welcome referral candidates, you likely won’t receive too many recommendations. Part of your strategy should be to incorporate a referral program into your company culture. Make it a familiar and encouraging process. Referral programs should be responsive, timely, targeted, and incentivized. Successful programs are supported by a company culture that thrives on employee experience and rewards. 

Reward and Recognize Referrals 

While establishing a good incentive to encourage employee referrals, it’s important to remember that referrals are not just about getting a cash bonus. The program should be part of a larger culture of employee engagement and team commitment. That said, financial incentives are a reliable way to encourage successful referrals. Depending on the size of your company and your hiring budget, you can evaluate how much to reward your employees for a successful referral.  

There are also non-monetary incentive options that you should also consider as part of your reward system. These rewards can include public recognition, responsive tracking of referral status, lunch with the company leadership to honor employees who make qualified referrals, and positive feedback in performance reviews. If you do decide to financially incentivize employee referrals, make sure that the corporate culture also rewards employees for their contribution.  

All referrals should be recognized (if not financially compensated) to help encourage future referrals. Even if a referral is not brought on board, taking the time and effort to recognize the effort an employee took into suggesting a candidate can do wonders for creating a culture of confident and engaged recruiters. 

Relationships Matter 

Word of mouth has long been a key part of building a robust talent pipeline. Similarly, social and professional networking has become a natural extension of personal and community relationships. An important aspect of talent outreach and recruiting now involves creating a positive relationship with potential candidates. This then works to attract their interest to your company and prospective opportunities. A great way to do this is through your team’s pre-existing social media channels.  

LinkedIn and Facebook are particularly powerful networking tools. Use engaging and personalized content to get the attention of local talent. Be unique and targeted in your approach to recruiting through these channels. Make good use of your brand and put greater emphasis on your daily interactions with candidates through engaged conversation, valuable content, and a mentor-mentee tone of voice. These elements alone will help build trust and interest in your company. They will inevitably draw the interest of talented professionals. So when an employee mentions a job to a friend or connection, that referral has next steps to take.  

For more support building out a robust talent pipeline consider working with a staffing agency in Madison TN. Connect with the team at All-Star Personnel today.