Building an Internal Referral Program

Want more superstars on your team? Get your current top performers to refer them!

Great people tend to know other great people. That’s why employee referral programs can be such a terrific way to grow a team of like-minded, hard-working and successful individuals.

Read below for some ideas on how to create an employee referral program that works.

• The first thing you’ll want to do is to decide how you’ll reward employees for referrals. If it’s cash, how much will you offer? If not, what will be the employee’s prize for a good referral?
• You’ll also have to decide when the reward is given. Is it when someone simply refers someone? When that someone is hired?  Or three months after hire (to make sure the new hire sticks around a bit)? Or a portion when the person is hired and the remainder when the new hire reaches his or her three- or six-month mark?
• You may want to consider offering more money/a larger referral reward for hard-to-hire positions.
• Keep your recruitment budget in mind, of course. How many referral rewards can you afford each year?
• Make the referral process as uncomplicated as possible. The harder you make it, the fewer referrals you’ll get.
• Make sure candidates can easily indicate how they heard about the opening. You also should consider having a spot on your internal website (or some other place) where employees can refer individuals for either current openings or “just because I think she’d be great here.”
• Promote the program company wide. Aim to make a relative big deal of it when you either a) announce the first such program ever, or b) revamp an old one.
• Mention the program continually – don’t just bury it in your employee handbook. Place flyers about it throughout your office, department or building. Mention it in your employee newsletter. Tout it on your internal Facebook page, etc.
• Congratulate an employee (as well as the new hire) publically whenever a successful referral is hired.
• In addition to any bonus/reward given to the referring employee (and make sure the worker gets that reward!), send a personal, handwritten thank you note.
• Finally, either once or twice a year, take stock of the referral program’s effectiveness. How many current employees referred possible new employees? How many of those potential employees were interviewed? How many hired? How many have stuck around for at least three to six months after being hired? How much in referral bonuses (cash or the cost of purchasing the rewards) have gone from your budget? This will help you determine how effective – or not – your employee referral program is.

Speaking of finding great employees, if you’re in need of finding some good ones, either for temporary, temporary-to-hire, or direct hire opportunities for your firm, department or insurance company, contact Insurance Relief™. We know where the good ones hang out and we can source, vet and place these superstars at your company quickly. Contact us today.