What would you do and where would you go if you were offered a set dollar amount toward an experience of your choice? This was the exact question three Smartians answered just before our annual company shutdown for the holidays. 

As part of an FY22 referral competition, our teams collectively put on their recruiter hats to connect the best talent they know with the exciting job opportunities we have available at SmartRecruiters. 

While offering incentives is a keystone to the success of any employee referral program, instead of a cash prize, we at SmartRecruiters award our winners a designated amount to spend on an experience that lights them up. So, how did our Q3 winners spend their time off over the holidays? From cruising the Caribbean to savoring Savoy, these Smartians made the most of their rewards!

Nikki LaDeur, Customer Success Executive in the US, and her family launched from Miami into a week-long celebration of fun, food, and family

During their vacation, they had the opportunity to enjoy a variety of unique food, explore new beaches and even test out various waterslides aboard the cruise ship.

“The experience provided me an opportunity to fill my family bucket and reconnect with family I hadn’t seen in nearly two years due to COVID,” she said.

Across the Atlantic, Henda Khelifa, Account Executive in France, swapped sun for snow when she took her family to experience the joy of the mountains

From skiing to snowball fights and indulging in Savoyard specialties, Henda shared that this trip allowed her to feel refreshed and ready to tackle a new year.

Also hitting the slopes, Agile Coach Agata Śladowska shared her experience prize with her family by taking a trip to Ski Amade, Austria

Their four-day weekend led to an adventure for her son that included a ski track nearly 60 km long! 

Developing a robust referral program can improve all measures of Hiring Success

Not only can proactively pipelining candidates significantly improve Hiring Velocity to ensure critical roles are filled on time, the nature of referrals often reduces overall hiring budget and will likely result in a higher Net Hiring Score.

Employee referrals continue to be a cost-effective way to hire, especially for hard-to-fill positions. And in a day when the job market is increasingly competitive for employers, instead of scrambling to identify brand new ways to attract candidates, tried and true methods, like referral programs, should not be overlooked.

As we launch into 2022 and approach the beginning of our FY23, we anticipate rapid growth and will continue to encourage referrals to support our mission of connecting people to jobs at scale. And if you’re ready to step into a new phase in your own career, we promise you’ll want to jump on this rocketship. From sales to engineering and everything in between, we’re hiring the best people across the world to support our growth and our mission.

Not the right time for you? In the spirit of referrals, share this with someone you know who is ready to make an impact now!

Put your referral program into overdrive with this step by step guide (plus templates for outreach)!

If you don’t use referrals, you’re missing out on a killer opportunity to pour some rocket fuel on your recruitment process.

Yes, inbound and outbound channels yield amazing hires.

But referral hires…

• Have the highest applicant-to-hire conversion rate at 40 percent.
• Run with the company longer, with 46 percent staying over one year and 45 percent over two years.
• Cut the time-to-hire to 29 days from 55.

There’s more…

• Industry giants like Google, Intel, and Accenture do referral recruitment.
• Thought leaders like Patrick Burke (Pebble), Tim Diss (Facebook), and Theresa Singh (Asana) also use it.

Now, do you want to access hiring excellence? Strap in. This is going to be a fun ride.

Put Lead Generation on Autopilot

Imagine a constant pipeline of qualified candidates… wouldn’t that be nice? The good news is you’re about to learn how to make this happen.

Spotlight Open Positions

Employees kind of know what internal roles are open and they kind of know who might be a good fit. The result is underwhelming. Passive lead generation does not a superb hiring program make. However, you can flip things around and start highlighting open positions at all-hands meetings and in a company newsletter. It’ll help employees connect the dots.

Go on LinkedIn

An average employee has 100 or so LinkedIn connections. Put another way, if you have 50 employees, you can reach 5000 potential hires without lifting a finger. Here’s how: Encourage employees to like your job posts and link their LinkedIn accounts with the company’s page (see how). It’ll help employees stay on top of things and help your openings gain traction.

Use an Internal Jobboard.

If you’re a massive company with offices sprinkled across the globe, internal jobboards can offer a lifeline and make passive referral hiring Hulk-level strong.

Skip the Referral Bonus and Focus on Culture

You may want to lightsaber cash incentives. Aleksandra Włodarczyk, HR Specialist /Recruiter at ResumeLab explains why: “If you promise employees $1K for a successful referral, they won’t care if their friends make a great fit. They’ll want the bonus.”

However, If employees feel they work in a hip company, they’ll naturally want to intro others.

Tap into Employee Networks

You’ve made it to the juicy part. Put your party pants on because you’re about to discover a magical path to next-level referral recruiting. Consider making this part of onboarding. Remember, if you don’t sit down with a new employee to fish out referrals, you’ll walk right past low-hanging fruit.

Need proof? PURE (American property insurance company) gets a whopping 40-60 percent of hires via early referral. You can too. Here’s how:

1) Create a spreadsheet.

2) Sit together and comb through an employee’s network on LinkedIn.

The key is to ask ultra-specific questions: We’re looking for a [Content Marketing Specialist] to [write high-quality guest posts for major outlets]. Do you know anyone like that in [Chicago]?

3) Extract the basic info.

Record the connection’s name and LinkedIn URL by dropping them into the spreadsheet.

4) Fish out email addresses.

To do this, you must first get the staffer to login to LinkedIn, click ‘See connections’, and do a first-degree network search.

5) Once you pinpoint a potential hire, fire up their profile and click ‘See contact info’.

Bingo!

In the end, you should end up with something like this:

Note: You can mine employees’ networks once/twice a year without limiting yourself to new hires. People amass new connections regularly so it’s best to stay plugged in.

Do Outreach Like a Pro

You’ve got a golden list of stellar talent. Next, you need to reach out and sway them to the dark side. Problem? It’s a sucky manual task (especially if you end up with a list of 50+ contacts), but it doesn’t have to be if you use outreach automation tech that lets you create templates, track opens, and schedule follow-ups.

That said, you can do things manually. All it takes is some elbow grease and time.

1) First outreach… time for some heavy-duty action.

When you open the first email, be sure it includes:

• A note that you’re reaching out because their friend thinks they’re a great fit.
• What your company does.
• A link to the job ad.
• Heavy personalization (no one likes generic messages).

Need an example?

Hi [Marianne],

My name is [Max], and I’m a [content team lead] here at [The Boring Company].

Your friend [Josh] is on my team, and he says you’re killing it when it comes to [writing delicious content that drips with value].

I like people who can [write] like that, so I wanted to reach out and say hi.

[The Boring Company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction company founded by Elon Musk.]

You can learn about our values and culture here: [Link]

Now, I’d love to have you on my team as a [Content Marketing Specialist] to [write about flamethrowers]. You can learn about the role here.

Is that something you’d be interested in?

Thanks,
[Max]

2) Follow-Up

If there’s no reply after three days then it’s time to circle back and give a nudge.

Example:

Hi [Marianne],

Just a quick follow-up in case you missed my last email.

Like I said, your friend [Josh] says you’re a rockstar when it comes to [writing].

With that in mind, I’d LOVE you to join my team.

Details about the role. [Link]

Our values and culture. [Link]

Look forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks a million,

[Max]

3) When you get a YES, ask the referral to have a little phone chat to screen them.

Example:

Hi [Marianne],

Thanks for getting back – I’m super pumped.

Will you be available for a quick phone chat on [October 5th] at [2 PM]?

Thanks,
[Max]

4) On the off chance, it’s a no….

It sucks when you get a message like that, but you can turn things around and ask the referral to pass the details about the opening to their friends. This will help you push the info along and potentially find awesome talent.

Example:

[Marianne],

That’s a HUGE pity, really.

Is there any chance you could pass along the info about our opening for the position of a [Content Marketing Specialist] to your friends and colleagues?

About The Boring Company. [Link]

Details about the role. [Link]

Sending a mail pigeon with a thank-you note your way!

Thanks,

[Max]

So, what do you think? Do you do referral recruiting? How do you use employees’ networks to acquire top-value asset? Let us know @smartrecruiters.

Companies have no greater brand advocates than employees, whose role in sourcing top-quality talent should not be overlooked.

Compared to previous years, hires resulting from employee referrals is declining, thanks in part to the rise of custom, targeted campaigns and social media outreach to build talent pools. As a result, referrals are no longer the top method for sourcing high quality candidates. But that doesn’t mean organizations should abandon their referral strategies. Recent studies report that referral and recruiter-sourced applicants account for 27 percent of all company hires.

The appeal of employee referrals is multifaceted: they typically draw a higher volume of qualified candidates who—by the virtue of already being an employee—are more likely to be a better company fit and often cost less than a non-referral candidate. Crowdsourcing your candidates through referrals is not only an effective method for finding great talent, it can align with a larger TA strategy emphasizing company branding and employee engagement.

1. Referrals Improve Quality of Candidates and Hires

In a competitive market, hiring top candidates quickly is the difference between success or failure. By leveraging your entire employee network to source both active and passive candidates, your candidate pool is already much wider and more diverse without additional effort. Fast-tracking vetted candidates cuts down on the need for several steps in the recruitment process, including job description writing, ad posting, resume collection, and candidate screening.

In Tech, where specialized skills are in high demand, referrals and custom campaigns are better at attracting the right talent than job boards or other traditional recruitment methods. When sourcing for specific roles, many employees only refer candidates they think are qualified for the role, as their recommendation reflects on their judgment. Recruiters are more likely to see an increased number of quality applicants that not only cost less than non-referral candidates, but are faster to hire and onboard.

2. Company Branding is the Focus of Recruiter Marketing

Today, recruiters and hiring managers are doubling down on their efforts to maintain a marketing-focused strategy in their talent acquisition, with brand values being pushed to the frontlines of these efforts. When marketing company brand to candidates, companies have no greater advocates than their own employees. Social media posts and other positive promotion can be effective tools to this end.

Websites like Glassdoor offer current and past employees a platform to express their opinions about companies, and this transparency directly affects candidate decisions. A 2016 study found that 75 percent of job seekers consider the employer’s brand and reputation before even applying for a position, so it’s important for companies to engage with their employees and, in turn, prospective candidates.

3. Referrals Impact Employee Engagement

Organizations often create incentives for referrals through employee referral programs (ERPs) that encourage current employees to think about and emphasize the positives that make the organization one worth working for, and to spread the news throughout their network. Employees have stakes in the company’s success, so if they are engaged and active in building out the team with top performers, they will feel more valued and appreciated. Additionally, recognizing the actions of your employees, rewarding quality efforts, and creating friendly competition to achieve a team goal will also boost employee appreciation, which helps raise motivation.

To avoid spamming your employees with all open positions, nurture a pool of specific referrers who have connections for the type of role that needs to be filled. This personal and targeted approach will significantly boost your response rates, as well as the quality of referrals. Targeting the company’s top-performing employees is a good first step.

4. Highlighting the Power of Inter-Org Relationships

Depending on your organization and industry, relationships can be a major factor in the company’s daily operations, and can play a role in how your employee referral program works. Often, the quality of the personal connection to the candidate is the top motivator for an employee referral, and can directly influence factors such as job satisfaction. Incidentally, referral employees tend to experience higher job satisfaction than non-referred. Referring employees often reciprocate these positive motivators, leading to a greater personal investment in the company and longer tenure, thanks in part to the implicit commitment to the referring friend.

With the right sourcing tools, businesses can build more strategic relationships within personalized talent communities, allowing hiring teams to organize and manage high-quality talent before the demand hits. Modern recruiting software or ATSs are designed to communicate directly with targeted talent communities and send branded messaging that drives impact and conversion.

Employee Referrals are Just One Part of the Strategy

With unemployment in the US dipping below 4 percent in April 2018—a first since the dot-com boom of 2000—recruiting top talent in today’s job market is becoming more difficult than ever. Individuals can afford to be picky, which puts pressure on cost-conscious organizations fighting over talent in a competitive seller’s market, particularly in tech. Thanks to direct sourcing practices, companies are reaching the right talent more directly, but the value of employee referrals should not be discounted as part of a larger TA strategy.

Though recruiters are changing how they source top talent, employee referrals still rank among the top candidate sourcing methods. As we have seen, referrals have a significant impact on your current employees’ engagement, your company brand, and the important relationships that drive business. Understanding these factors when leveraging your employee network for referrals or implementing an employee referral program ensures that your employees will champion the success of the entire company—regardless of their job description—and reach out to share what makes their company worth applying for. In an era where company culture and brand values are one of the top selling points for applicants, nurturing positive relationships with employees and boosting their engagement should be at the top of your company priorities.