When looking at the statistics, it’s clear which hires are more viable candidates: employee referrals. One in 16 referred candidates is hired, according to Lever, compared with one in 22 agency candidates, one in 72 sourced candidates and one in 152 normal applicants. It’s the most effective and cost-friendly way to hire, and that’s not going to change. But not every company is maximizing their referral programs enough. Not only does it take dipping into the talent pool, but it also requires participation from the ones who are looking for the talent.
As a staffing agency, you can help your clients to round out their strategies with employee referrals. Here are some of the most effective ways to get more employee referrals, courtesy of Lever.
Drill employee referrals into company culture.
Hiring needs to include everybody. It’s a team sport where everyone should feel like they’re involved. If you want your company or client company to grow as a high-quality team, employee referrals need to become a commonplace. Here’s what you need to do:
- Begin with onboarding. Make sure employees know from the get go about employee referrals and how they can contribute to the agency.
- Discuss recruiting and employee referrals during agency meetings. When you have a meeting, get down to the nitty-gritty. Let employees know what’s going on with recruiting. Share to your team what you’re looking for in an employee and see what they can come up with for a solution.
- Host sourcing jams. When you need to get things done, call a big breakfast or lunch for a team sourcing jam. This is the time to review roles that are open and what candidates you may have for them.
- Get executives involved. When the higher ups are involved, participation increases that much more. It makes your team see how much of a priority it is to hire people.
Incentivize employee referrals.
There’s plenty of ways to incentivize for your employees. Here’s some of the ways you can, listed below:
- Provide recognition
- Award cash
- Try non-cash alternatives
- Reward the intent
- Put up a leaderboard
Saying thank you, giving some cash or a gift, or even turning it into a fun game for your employees is just some of the ways that you can incentivize employee referrals. Long story short, a little goes a long way. Show your appreciation in some way and you’ll get back what you’re looking for: referrals.
However, when offering incentives, make sure that all employees are able to participate and given an equal opportunity. Incentive programs can be effective, but offering them unevenly or appearing to employ favoritism could open your client’s company or yours up for EPLI staffing insurance claims.
Make it simple for employees to make candidate referrals.
Sometimes, it might just come down to making things easier for employees. If employees have a generic idea of what to look for in candidates, know what to ask them and what kind of information needed, then this process can be made quite a bit easier. It all comes down to your employee knowing exactly how to do the task. If it’s simple to do every time, then they’ll keep referring candidates.
About World Wide Specialty Programs
For the last 50 years, World Wide Specialty Programs has dedicated itself to providing the optimal products and solutions for the staffing industry. As the only insurance firm to be an ASA commercial liability partner, we are committed to that partnership and committed to using our knowledge of the industry to provide staffing firms with the best possible coverage. For more information about Staffing Professional Liability Insurance or any other coverage, we have available to protect your staffing business, give us a call at (800) 245-9653 to speak with one of our representatives.