What an Employee Referral Program Can Do for You

One initiative that has long existed across organizations worldwide and continues to prove efficient today is the ERP- the employee referral program- by which an existing employee recommends another professional he/ she knows to fill a vacant position at the workplace, often resulting in saving employers both time and money. A recent article about employee referrals - by HR World editors- confirms that many HR units claim rewarding their employees (via ERP Systems) while enjoying greater savings and often attracting great talent.

Why adopt an EPR?

• Greater outreach for talent: Many top professionals might be passive on the job hunt but would not mind getting nudged and alerted of better positions. Your existing staff can lead you to such talent.
• Quality Candidates: Your staff is most aware of the company’s culture and the requirements for any given job. Moreover they will usually make it a point to scrutinize and dissect their acquaintances/ friends/ family members’ CVs and their set of skills and qualifications before referring them to your HR department, so that they avoid making an unwise decision. Employees perceive “candidate referral” as a form of reiteration of their faith in their company’s position and value statement and thus usually strive to only refer truly outstanding and competitive talent who will most probably fit most smoothly within the corporate culture and align well with the corporate objectives.
• Cost Saving: ERP cannot, and does not, replace an organization’s ongoing involvement with a leading job site (such as Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job-site which offers both CV Search and Job Posting services) or newly developed and pioneering platforms such as Virtual Job Fairs (Bayt.com’s leading VJF presents employers with the opportunity to interact on a real-time basis with top talent from all over the globe). It cannot stand as the sole or primary recruitment tool that a company fosters to source talent, but it can, save considerably on advertising and sourcing costs over the long run as part of a cohesive holistic strategy that includes online recruitment and sophisticated HR management tools such as those provided free with any recruitment package on leading jobsites such as Bayt.com.
• Staff Morale Boost: ERPs emphasize the fact that the management trusts their staff’s intuition and judgment. This builds up employee confidence and gives loyalty levels a boost.
• Staff Motivation: Reward schemes do wonders as far as employee motivation is concerned. Placing a reward scheme for successful recruits via ERPs keeps employees proactive, alert and motivated. The results of this on the company’s bottom line can be very significant.
• Time saving: The recruitment cycle is naturally shorter for a referred candidate than it is for an unknown candidate applying to a position within your organization for the first time. The reason for this is that your corporate ambassador (the referring party) would have already taken the liberty to build up the company’s image in the eyes of the referred candidate and to position you as an absolute Top employer, an employer of choice! Moreover, the candidate already comes with a reference and is to some extent a known entity, lessening the time required to conduct background checks and reference checks and tests on character and ability.

How to ensure your ERP prevails?

• Involve all corporate career levels alike: Start with top management and make you way down the corporate ladder. Communicate to all positions and career levels alike that you are in the process of implementing an ERP and that everyone in the company, without exception, will be involved, and the more involved he/ she gets, the more likely they are to reap rewards.
• Reward, reward, reward! Nothing works better with employees that knowing their contribution is valuable (and much appreciated) and thus could possibly entitle them to a monetary incentive. Make sure to draft a reward scheme early on and make it public to your staff from the beginning (in most organizations, employees usually earn their reward once their referred candidate has successfully completed their probation period).
• Make it easy: Do not complicate the process! Keep your staff informed as to where they can access open vacancies (aim for posting everything online on your intranet) and ensure the procedure is fast, smooth and hassle-free in order to encourage them to visit more often. Why not also introduce an internal “Hot Jobs of the Month Newsletter” and send it to all staff to keep them filled in as far as internal job vacancies are concerned.
• Keep your staff updated: Your accountant has referred a cousin to fill your vacant “graphic designer” position? Do not keep him in the dark and encourage gossip and speculation. Make the employee feel at ease by dropping a note to update him about the status of the referral. Setting up a feedback module that specifies how often/when an employee is to be updated on the referred candidate will make the process much more manageable for you.
• Do not drag: An employee will probably share the referral updates with the referred candidate concerned and would want you, the esteemed employer of choice and top player in your industry, to keep up appearances. Treat referred CVs with diligence and make sure you do get in touch with the candidates quickly and professionally. This will not only reinforce your position as a professional “recruiter”, it will also relieve your employee, give him a source of pride and encourage him to use your ERP again!