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How to Motivate Employees to Refer

Posted On : Feb-20-2015 | seen (942) times | Article Word Count : 576 |

Employee referral programs have become integral to the recruiting strategies of most organizations with some organizations using referrals from employees to successfully fill more than 50% of their job openings.
Employee referral programs have become integral to the recruiting strategies of most organizations with some organizations using referrals from employees to successfully fill more than 50% of their job openings. But the success of employee referrals is not universal and getting employees to participate remains the biggest challenge for referral programs. Most organizations with mediocre referral programs witness participation from at the most 30% of employees with the vast majority of them choosing to stay away from participating due to lack of motivation.


Employees participate only when they are given a good enough reason to do so which is why organizations offer cash rewards to referring employees whose referrals are successfully hired. Since not all referrals get hired, cash rewards are not sufficient in themselves to motivate all employees to participate and refer. Getting employees to refer means getting them committed to a cause which they understand and empathize with and are keen to work towards achieving. I have captured below some possible ways to motivate employees to refer.


Market employee referrals through fun referral events


Market the cause of employee referrals in an employee friendly way through referral events and collaterals that spell out what the organization aims to achieve through the program and how employee participation is crucial to success. Get senior management to advocate the program if required so that the importance of the program is well communicated and employees understand that the program has top leadership support.


Be selective in opening positions for referrals.


Not every open position warrants a referral, ask employees for referrals only for positions which require specialized skills or expertise or which are not easily available in the market. This helps employees to focus on finding connections which add value both to them and to the organization rather than looking for all available skill sets


Make your reward scheme attractive and inclusive

Employees are not recruitment agencies who get rewarded only for results. The motivation to refer is likely to come only when the effort is also rewarded irrespective of the end result. Devise a rewards program that seeks to recognize employee contribution to the program through small rewards while keeping the bigger chunk of reward for the employee with the successful referral.


Provide them the tools required to succeed


Make it easy for employees to refer and you will see participation more than double. Invest in a referral tool that makes it easy for employees to share jobs with their connections through social platforms and likewise upload profiles directly from platforms like LinkedIn. Coaching employees on how they can harvest their connections to get the best candidates to apply also makes the job of referring that much easier which in itself is a big motivator for employees to participate.


Make the referral program responsive and transparent


Employees are motivated to participate only when they see their referral efforts leading to some concrete action on the part of the organization. Giving employees feedback on their referral and keeping them updated on their status through the recruitment process builds up trust in the process and motivates them to keep referring.


Getting the basics right is part of what motivates employees to participate, so ensure you have these employee referral program basics in place to get the desired level of participation from employees.

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_How to Motivate Employees to Refer _312839.aspx

Author Resource :
Savio Vadakkan is the Marketing Professional at ZALP, a leading employee referral software. ZALP enables organizations to boost their employee referral hires by implementing an effective social media employee recruiting program.

Keywords : employee referrals solution, employee referral program, social media recruiting, employee referral, employee referral tool ,

Category : Computers : Software

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