2. Program Components:
• Who can refer / restrictions?
• What’s the referral process?
• Is the program exclusive to internal employees?
• How are referrers compensated for their referrals?
• Are there team incentives or goals?
• How will duplicate referrals be handled? (and expiration dates, if any)
• What’s the method of referrer notification?
• Contests & Competitions
3. Those canned HR referral center emails:
there’s a reason they go into the virtual circular
file
It’s not about you!
…or shouldn’t be
5. Referrals: the dark side
• Why don’t employees make more referrals?
o It’s too often too cumbersome: who needs the hassle?
o What if my referral doesn’t workout?
o It’s not like they’re going to get to work in my group
o I don’t know anyone
• Diversity: if birds of a feather really do flock together
• Incentivizing cattle calling
6. Identify | Target | Extract
University Programs
Professional Organizations
Previous Employers
LI Contacts
Turning your Hiring Managers and teams into your Sourcers!
7. Pointers:
• For the company
• High-touch
• Beware the referral black-hole
• Put a name on it!
• The least we can do…
9. Hey Mobility Engineers! Yeah, you, put down the phone, unless of course you’re
reading this on your phone, and in that case, carry on. There’s a talent war
happening right now. If you didn’t notice, it’s probably because you’re busy
creating world class products. We applaud that! You know what else we
applaud? Referrals! And not just the random LI stalker who keeps pinging you.
Who knows better who deserves to work beside you than you? This doesn’t
have to be someone you already know to be looking. If that makes you shake in
your super-hero shirt, then your referrals don’t even need to know it was you
who gave us their name. Just let us know who you’ve worked with, known
professionally, collaborated with on school projects, or just heard was
awesome, and give us as much information as possible. The 2nd
best part: you
get your referral fees! The best part: you’re helping build our brand and making
sure you’re working beside the best. Talent Acquisition thanks you! Your
company thanks you.
10. Employee Referrals:
YOUR BEST SOURCE OF HIRE
• Highest Impact
• Referrers and their referrals are more invested
• It’s all about synergy
• Softer candidate sell
11. It’s not all about the
referral fees, or
shouldn’t be, but
people rarely turn their
nose up at additional
cash. Aggressive pay-
outs can be a great
incentive
12. Active Vs. Passive
What do you mean you don’t know anyone?
So what if they’re not actively looking?
Do you believe we have something exciting to tell candidates about?
Be a ghost writer!
13. Act Like a Start-Up:
Refer or Die!
• Make it part of the review process
• Recognize top referrers
• Get aggressive & get creative
• Random drawings
• Drive referral generation campaigns
• A little healthy competition
• Three words: Talent Acquisition Mission
Talent Acquisition is EVERYONE’S Job!
16. A robust EE Referral Program: the best parts!
The obvious:
More qualified interested applicants
Better and more qualified hires
An easier/quicker candidate sell
The less obvious: (and most impactful)
Employee Engagement!
18. Onboarding: Pre and Post
• New hires are a goldmine of additional names
• Strike while the iron is hot!
• 90 days
• It’s a quick way to add value
19. Additional Pointers:
• K.I.S.S.
• Find every reason to payout
• Interviewing the referred
• Be mindful of diversity: in all senses
• Change it up
• Sometimes you just gotta think small… micro-rewards
Editor's Notes
Not if for their own group.
This focuses on internal, though I’d be remiss not to mention that some companies do consider external referrals when setting up their programs.
When will they receive their bonus? 90 days or…
How will you notify the referrer both if their referral is hired, and if not? …and update during the process
Doing a multiplier
Hot Jobs
This isn’t an HR program. This is a company-wide ongoing initiative.
it’s about their needs
appeal to their ego – they’re awesome and we want more of the same
touch on their sense of team and community
And that’s not to say I would recommend doing away with them, just adding also a targeted approach.
If this slide came with sound effects, I feel like it would be dun, dun, dun.
Many companies make things like referring talent a labyrinth of intranet links. When surveyed, a major reason employees share they don’t refer more talent is that the process is too cumbersome and frustrating. We should be rewarding good behavior, and not with frustration.
A throw it against the wall approach to referrals will quickly tax the bandwidth of your TA department, and much worse, could lead to hiring less qualified talent if pushed by the wrong motivations.
Competency Models – Why? When one company becomes like the last. HS groupings. Be open. Sometimes intentionally target a total outsider. And make sure the non-referred don’t feel like outsiders.
Not everyone knows how to think about providing names of quality referrals.
Go through the LI contacts of your HMs and influencers. Work through the list with them, identifying the best talent, availability and interest level of mention, should it be known, though not a factor if not.
Teach them to search and source, how to do strings on GitHub, to either do their own reach outs or bring to you a list of those they’ve identified. Make it a game. Make it a challenge. Make it a joint effort. We’re all in this together!
Referrals, like all candidates, are for the company. Thinking about it that way, vs. for a particular job or team, encourages a bigger picture, we’re all in it together attitude.
You know what your engaged employees don’t want to hear when they take the time to make a referral and especially after personally connecting with someone they’re excited about? … crickets
We make fun of the cute names companies give things, but you know what? We remember them! Name your program. Give it brand status.
Be timely with referral calls. VIP treatment.
talent knows talent
you’ve gotta have a friend
head out of the clouds
Yes. Cold call their name reccommendation and give them credit.
Make it a solution. They are in pain. You are here to help!
there’s likely already an understanding of your company’s culture
on the topic of culture: having an expansive EE referral program gives current EEs the ability to maintain and shape the culture – they’ll feel more invested
Bill needing to add a line-item to his budget.
Just make it about more than that, the referral bonus.
works to simultaneously increase internal excitement + refines the elevator pitch
put to their LI to generate more buzz and referrals – they can direct those interested from within their network to their email
(or to yours, referencing them)
PayPal event entry fee: a referral
When embedded in the culture it becomes second nature, vs. feeling like you are tasking them. The attitude of “it’s not my job to recruit” softens, because it really is the job of everyone.
Look for trends: the referred and referrers likely have similarities and some overlap, though it’s highly unlikely that’s with everything. By reviewing the respective backgrounds you’ll identify other areas to target. Example: your newly hired referred employee worked with a particular and sought skill at a company prior to having met the referring EE. That’s a new target to explore.
send them out as ambassadors
part of the culture
increases engagement
much more invested
the BML event: not just referral as admittance, but bring them to the event
the PayPal Game Changers project
fresh in their mind + they’re excited to get going + they are thinking about those they left behind + likely having farewell lunches and such
They can refer now and we’ll put in for the referral as soon as they onboard, still ensuring they get their payout.
Their excitement will come through when talking about the new opportunity AND process. It builds curiosity, which makes passive candidates far more receptive.
Yammer campaign: different times and with different approaches
