Studies have shown that many organizations target as much as 33% of all new hires to come from the organization's employee referral program. Here are five of the reasons why:
. _" e/ t- n! H$ k3 L8 E- You get to interview candidates someone inside the organization knows.
- You don't have to pay any agency fee for the candidate.
- With successful referral hires, you can build real excitement around the program to get more referrals. (If you are really creative, you can use it to enhance internal communication, tie it into your website, use it for PR, and generally create some very positive buzz.)
- Someone in the company gets a check for turning over a name.
- Studies have shown that referred employees acclimate and become productive at a rate that is higher than non-referred candidates.
The referral program will help you fill positions at a lower cost per hire and with employees who are known to someone in the organization. (Two companies, Tenet and Fair Isaac, write about their referral programs in the June
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Certain employees will never come forward with names. With this in mind, I strongly suggest that when a new position opens, you do aggressive outreach to those employees who you know might have knowledge of candidates they have worked with in the past and who can do this job. The exact methodology of how to get this done will vary from company to company, but think of putting in personal appearances or phone calls to those who have the greatest chance of knowing the individuals you wish to hire.
" n1 X; e# u- eOthers can be contacted by e-mail, but this is less effective. (As an aside, remember to become friendly with as many new hires as possible, as they are endless sources of referrals from the organization they just left.)
& ~# e2 Y1 g4 Z" H0 D* ]Unfortunately, many employees will tell you right out of the box that they don't know anyone. This is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to you as well, especially coming from employees who are being asked to refer candidates in their own field of endeavor. An accountant might not know a nuclear physicist, but I do believe that most accountants have worked with and do know other accountants.
! r3 V* a/ k" `1 IWhen asking for referrals, the sad truth is that most people (both inside and outside of the company) will tell you they don't know anyone because it's just too hard to really think about it. I strongly hope that being in recruiting, you understand that this is a push business, and if you don't push, things don't happen. Lean on people if they're unwilling to take the time to think. Nicely, sweetly, gently, but do lean a bit, as it will work wonders.
! Y9 m; v {' q) ?; `I strongly suggest that you sit with them for awhile, review the position you want to fill, and ask them to really give it some thought. Under pressure, you'll begin to hear the rumblings of names and contact information almost coming to the surface. Often, they are covered with statements that are excuses not to provide names.
* y, L \4 m! J! P/ ]2 e8 k$ CConsider the following five common ways of sidestepping your request for names and see my counter to those statements:
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- Employee: "I do not know anyone who is looking."
- Recruiter: "It doesn't matter if they are looking, and even if they are, you might not be aware of it. Good people are always open to an opportunity, so give me the name and I will give them a call."
- Employee: "They might not be experienced enough."
- Recruiter: "Perhaps, but you knew them four years ago and they are not the same person now as they were then. Give me their name and I will let you know."
- Employee: "He/she will not remember me."
- Recruiter: "Not to worry. I'm sure that few people can forget a charmer like you." (Do not underestimate humor. It works so very well.)
- Employee: "I only have a name and that's from three years ago, and I think they moved."
- Recruiter: "Not a problem. I am a whiz on the Internet. Just give me the name and I will take it from there."
- Employee: "Let me call them and tell them about the job. If they're interested, I will give you the name." (This is my personal favorite.)
- Recruiter: "That is so nice of you, but you're an engineer and I would never even think of burdening you with doing my job and trying to represent the position to a perspective candidate. Besides, most candidates would rather deal with the one whose job it is to do the recruiting."
