An introduction to Referral Recruiting

Referral recruiting is one of the best ways to fill vacancies in your company.

Through your staff and their connections you can reach out to and find candidates that your traditional recruitment advertising would struggle to reach.

What is referral recruiting?

Referral recruiting is a recruitment strategy that is is based on referrals by your existing employees. In other words, you tell your staff that you are looking to fill a vacancy in your company and your staff go out and find people and refer them back to you to apply for the job. While not always the case, it is usual that the person who makes the referral will receive a referral bonus or award of some kind.

Many companies run informal programmes where they simply mention to their staff to that they are looking for someone. This can be effective in very small companies; but in larger organisations it is better to create a more coherent referral programme.

Creating your referral recruitment programme

Like any other part of your business, success in referral recruiting will only be possible if you are clear about exactly what it is you are trying to do. Start by deciding what kind of referral scheme you will adopt. Is it a one off job; or will it be an ongoing programme? Is it for a lot of people or just for one? Is it for a junior role or a senior role? By thinking about the needs of your organisation you will be able to decide how significant referral recruiting will be in your recruitment strategy.

Think about what reward people will receive for referring successful candidates. People do lots of things for lots of reasons, but the reason most of them go to work is to pay the bills: financial rewards are among the most productive kinds of referral award. Vouchers, days off, and brownie points can also offer motivation. Whatever reward you choose for the referral, be sure to make it clear. Also, work out your procedures early: is the referral award payable on referral, on interview, on hire or on completion of probation?

Give staff clear direction on how they can leverage their networks to find quality referrals. Give them concrete examples of how to engage with the referral programme. Tell them to put the word out to their friends and relations. Tell them also to use their online social networks to achieve further reach.

If your programme is anything is more than a one-off event, make sure when you start the referral programme it gets a proper launch. Rather than a word in someone’s ear make if official company policy do a proper internal communications campaign so that everybody, from most junior to most senior, is aware of the programme.

What’s more, for a referral scheme to work everybody needs to be involved and everybody needs to be seen to be involved. Unless senior management lead by example, the referral programme will wither. And even after a successful launch, be sure to continue to engage with staff and keep it fresh and alive.

Making referral recruiting work

Be sure to do a proper job and person specification for each referral scheme. Creating a job spec will not only help you be clear about the role you are trying to fill and the kind of person who will fill it, but it will also give your staff a clear idea of where to target their referral activity.

Protect your referrals

There is a tendency for recruitment staff, from the best egalitarian intentions, to treat all candidates the same way. However, all research suggests that this is the worst way to manage referral candidates. Avoid automating the process and treating these candidates like those that have come via traditional advertising routes. Your company has been referred to them by a person: show them why that person was keen to recommend your company as a place to work.

Further, and perhaps more important, your staff have put their professional reputation on the line for you. Respect that. Poor treatment of a referral will be communicated very quickly to the referee. And the referee will be very quick to offer that feedback to your wider workforce and scupper your entire programme. Go the extra mile and contact the candidate quickly for an initial telephone chat to sell the role and your company.

Referral recruiting is one of the most successful ways of recruiting. It is an invaluable way of bring quality people into your organisation.

Next steps? Check out these other guides and articles:

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Careers Sites
• An introduction to Careers Sites for employers
• An introduction to Psychometric Testing & Assessment
• An Introduction to Recruitment Branding
• Search Engine Marketing for Recruitment
• Ten tips for a great careers site for employers
• Ten tips for choosing an applicant tracking system