Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/182340
Talent Management to drive employee referrals. Using those best practices, you can also create additional campaigns to drive other results, such as submitting cost-saving ideas, process improvements, or feedback for senior management. Instead of giving cash bonuses for employee referrals, integrate the campaign with an online rewards and recognition program and give employees a choice of rewards. By keeping the program online, participation becomes measurable—plus, a little friendly competition spurred by a live feed and leaderboard will encourage participation. An employee referral program is a great way to give your more introverted employees recognition. Your quieter employees are just as networked as the rest of your staff, and by giving them public praise on your company's recognition feed, you help raise their profile in the office. Instead of emailing job announcements to employees with requests to forward them to friends or contacts, move the whole process online. You'll eliminate hours of sifting through databases, reviewing lists of connections, and importing resumes. Social media networks are also powerful sources of referrals. According to new research by Aberdeen Group, recruiters in 53 percent of best-in-class organizations use social media networks for referrals, compared to only 37 percent of less successful organizations. But while the use of social networking sites to recruit potential job candidates increases by about 10 percent every year, it's still no match for the 79 percent of job applicants who are likely to use social media in their job searches—many of whom are Millenials. Smart companies meet the candidates where they are: online. Particularly if your company hires a lot of young employees—87 percent of whom have already selected their preferred employer [80] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2013 before entering the workforce—a presence on social media is a must. Your employees already have vibrant professional and personal social networks; make sure you capitalize on them. These networks include former co-workers, professional associates, classmates, suppliers, and others beyond the reach of traditional recruiting methods. Don't miss the chance to tap these networks for referrals. Enable your employees to share open positions on social media. Send a companywide email every week to all employees with four featured job openings. Employees can forward those openings to people in their social networks who might be good prospects, or post them to their pages and groups. Technology allows for organizations to use referral buttons on their online job postings. This allows job seekers to see who among their Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections currently works at the company. If any matches are found, the applicant can send them a referral request. Some vendors even offer software that scours social media networks for candidates with work history, credentials, and a location that fit a current job opening and then alert the candidate's contact at the company. The employee then has the opportunity to forward the job posting to his friend that the software has identified as a good fit. There's no question: employee referral programs are effective. With almost no overhead, you can take advantage of the embedded team of recruiters you never knew you had: your employees. Even a generous referral reward will undoubtedly cost less than a headhunter. By including your employees in the recruitment process, you're demonstrating that you value their input and this will make them feel like a stakeholder at the organization. Cari Turley is a copywriter at Achievers. SUCCESS STORY: Meridian Credit Union In 2011, Meridian Credit Union launched an employee referral campaign as part of their overall employee rewards and recognition program with Achievers. Their employees were directed to a streamlined, online portal where they could easily submit resumes, with the promise of public recognition and a $500 reward for every successful hire. In the first year of the program, one in four external hires (26 percent) were employee referrals— more than double the ratio of employee referrals before implementing the new program. Within nine months, their average cost per hire was just $511.