One might wonder why a company would need employee referral programs when there are managers and HR departments to perform the functions. For this reason, businesses are skeptical of implementing an employee referral program as an integral part of their recruitment process. But that was until a few years ago.

Brands are now adopting new measures to make their hiring process more effective. They are willing to go beyond the traditional approaches to finding the right candidate for their company.

And, they have rightfully succeeded in doing so. Brands worldwide accept that they have integrated software for generating employee referrals to make the entire recruitment process simpler, effective, and more powerful.

Why Companies Need Employee Referral Solutions?

Most managers and HRs in organizations have multiple responsibilities, handling more than one function at a time. And though hiring is one of the most important responsibilities they hold, there’s a limit to their reach and the number of CVs they can scrutinize. An employee referral program works infinitely and performs multiple tasks at a time.

Here are some ways that make Employee Referral Programs more productive:

a. Greater Referral Reach:

One of the ubiquitous difficulties in the hiring process is the limited reach of job postings. The notifications stay valuable for as long as the medium sustains itself: newspapers, or offers it visibility.

A smart employee referral program comes with social widgets that let employees share a job opening notifications with their contacts on multiple social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.

Now consider all company employees referring a job notification to their friends, family, and acquaintances. Don’t you estimate a massive reach accrued instantly? That’s the power of employee referrals.

b. Greater Work Diversity: 

Once the employees have realized how successful hiring will positively affect the workplace and task progress, they will have their objectives aligned with the companies. Gone are the days when people had limited networks. Social media has brought people from different races, and backgrounds close.

It has become more accessible for them to connect with people from other ethnicities, educational backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. Here, we add another badge to employee referral programs for bringing diversity to businesses’ workforce.

c. Motivate Employees: 

It is the employees who carry the plan ahead. Give your employees a reason to stay active. Align employee referral activity with opportunities to earn social recognition and exciting rewards.

Give away small cash rewards or vouchers to keep them happy. Often it’s not even financial motivators. Employees do not always seek cash rewards for their efforts. They look forward to tokens of appreciation or recommendations that might help them raise their status.

Here are a few things brands can offer to motivate their employees:

• • Social badges
  • ‘Thank you’ notes
  • Special mentions at company events or lunches
  • Develop a hierarchical system where employees are ranked monthly and rewarded based on their performance
  • Exciting Contests

A more significant number of companies are now developing employee teams to foster a competitive spirit among employees. Run a contest and set standards for winning, such as the team that generates the most referrals wins.

For better results, the team that gets the maximum conversions through referrals would win. It becomes easy to engage employees in groups and generates better results. 

d. Better Quality Candidates: 

There’s no reason an employee would think of referring an unworthy candidate. When their reputation is at stake, they will think of bringing the only quality workforce to the company.

e. Savings on Time: 

If we tell you an employee referral program expedites the entire hiring process, imagine days of hard work and planning reduced to hours. Consider an employee referral software scrutinizing tons of CVs based on the standards set by the company. It ensures only the most relevant employees get shortlisted for interview.

Compare this against the considerable effort and time managers and HRs have to invest in getting job posting published, shortlisting candidates, and conducting interviews.

A smart employee referral program will also offer online tools to evaluate CVs and schedule interviews. Post evaluation, the referral program also automatically informs shortlisted candidates at once. Such features help businesses save a lot of time.

f. Reduced Expenditure: 

Why spend on multiple sources to get prospects for your company when you have one software package to distribute job posts information, generate referrals, assess CVs, shortlist candidates, and inform the interview schedule!

That means with an employee referral program; businesses do not have to spend separately on seeking services on headhunters, online and print ads, and paying commission per hire. Small rewards or social motivators usually do just enough to boost employee morale and deliver results.

g. Improvise for better results:

With useful program features, unless employees get an insight into how they are being evaluated, the company will never perpetuate the sense of responsibility and self-motivation. A feature-rich employee referral program lets employees track referrals.

This way, they can track results: referrals converted, email opens, and links clicked. Tracking allows them to monitor developments and work on their shortcomings. If employees’ referrals are transforming, they will try to send more referrals to earn better rewards.

h. Employee retention through a dash of gamification:

Companies around the world aim at developing healthy competition among their employees. Embedding gamification features with your employee referral program not only makes it engaging but also delivers better results by motivating employees to contribute to building a healthier workforce.

Leaderboards display a list of top referrers and diffuse sense of competition through the workforce. Employees can further be motivated by raising their social levels or offering titles, such as Contributor of the Month.

Conclusion

NextBee’s Employee referral programs are designed to excite employees and build stronger bonds with them. Companies have realized that designating employees’ responsibilities and offering happiness in the form of rewards results in employee satisfaction and retention. 

Of course, hiring is a necessary process for every company. Still, when there’s a more effective solution offering better management and savings on expenditure, it makes complete sense to rely on it.