Developing an effective employee referral program largely depends on how agile and flexible you can be with the referral process itself. It’s paramount that recruitment managers have the entire process at their fingertips and they can really focus on selecting the right candidate for the job.
Consider what Cathy, an HR Generalist, has to go through in a traditional referral process and how automating some or all of her tasks, allows her to get to quality candidates quicker. In discussion with the business unit, Cathy identifies a need for three junior accountants to be recruited. She drafts the job description and sends it onto job sites but she also wants to tap into employee referrals to fulfil this opening. In her experience, this channel returns very good quality leads.
Traditional
Cathy uploads the job description on the company intranet and sets about drafting the referral invite email to all the employees. In the email, Cathy encourages the employees to refer from their network and stand a chance to win two tickets for a new “Star Wars” movie that’s creating a buzz amongst fans.
Firstly, Not all employees are immediately excited with this reward as not everyone is a fan and therefore don’t participate. Secondly, it arrives into the employee’s inbox, while they are working on an important deadline, therefore it’s not looked at. Then those who are interested have to know their friend’s email address to forward it on. Similarly, prospects review the opportunity in their own time and send on the CV to the employees who in turn send it to the HR.
From the time of the initial email, Cathy has no way of knowing how many employees have shared the role. The first feedback she will see is when the actual applications start coming in.
Also, from the employees perspective as well, there is no way of knowing the status of their friend’s application.
Cathy individually informs employees who have referred, which is an administrative nightmare for any HR professional but an important aspect in making referrals successful. This entire process is clunky, cumbersome, time-consuming and not engaging for all the parties.
Streamlined & Automated
Now consider Cathy, in charge of recruiting three accountants, but has the benefit of the automated process at her fingertips!
Cathy drafts the job description and enters the relevant details on to the system and sits back to monitor progress.
The referral solution, based on the job effective dates, notifies all employees of the opening on a dedicated mobile app with tailored rewards based on predefined employee segments. Employees can easily review the opening and simply share this on their social media networks with a single click.
Cathy already has data points to analyse and react. She can tell how many employees have shared the opening, when the job was shared, through what channels and ultimately, how many applications came in.
Prospects who find the job opportunity interesting, have the ability to simply click the link on the posts and submit their details. It’s not necessary for employees to worry about sharing the CV with HR anymore.
Cathy and the referring employees are notified of the incoming application, keeping everyone up to date in real-time. Similarly, the referring employees and the applicant are notified automatically of any change to the application status. As and when Cathy updates the status in her ATS, it automatically reflects in her referral solution as well.
Overall, Social and mobile technologies go a long way in maximising returns on recruitment channels. Automation helps remove admin heavy steps and hiring managers can retain the value of human decision making.
HireUp offers a unique referral solution that not only makes the hiring process slick and seamless but also brings the hiring function and the organisation’s workforce together with user-friendly features and gamification ideas.
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Harini Praturi
