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.

I don’t share his definition, by the way, but I do think his definition is how those of us involved in any form of recruitment, staffing, hiring, or talent acquisition, should think about what we do.

There are plenty of people thinking about the opportunity side of the equation; that’s where the money is. But far too few of us really stop to consider the poor schmuck who is looking for a job. I am talking about the new college grad who has to start repaying loans in 6 months, and the single mom who needs someone to watch her kids while she goes to a networking event, and the 58 year old guy who was laid off after 20 years because he was too naive to read the signals that he needed to upgrade his skills, and the highly educated administrative assistant (premed at Stanford) who, although highly engaged with and committed to the company’s business, neglected to negotiate a fair salary and demand appreciation for her value to the firm.

There is a shortage of people who have the requisite skills for many positions open in this country. In this article, I will look specifically at jobs in IT, because I know it well. I believe the same issues occur in areas such as healthcare, skilled manufacturing, and services.

In my area, middle TN, specialized IT jobs are open for months. Employers wrestle with relocation and work visa challenges while those doing the work of IT wonder if they will be able to take a vacation. Those who lack skills try to find a way to get them, but the educational institutions teach dated and irrelevant skills. What is wrong with this picture?

In the meantime, “staffing” firms, internal recruiters, and agencies chase the same resumes on job boards and LinkedIn. They post positions everywhere they can think of. They make calls to people in their databases and ask for candidate referrals. Local candidates play musical cubicle and nothing really changes.

Many, if not most, would say that this is just a result of simple supply and demand. But, if there are plenty of people of average intelligence (the majority of us) who are willing and able to work, we should be able to acquire enough skills to do this work. When nearly everyone who is near a public library can access the internet, it should be easy to find out where we can go to learn something new that will help us get paid a reasonable wage.

Companies have contributed to this shortage. When some realized they could find cheap help desk talent in India and decided to outsource in droves, this dried up one avenue of apprenticeships or ways that people could learn on the job. It also discouraged people from pursuing these jobs because of concerns that once they did acquire the skills, they would be laid off anyway.

Now, one of my clients has international help desk support in the US, Europe and backup support in India. It’s a model that works well and the help desk is the primary entry point for people with minimal technical experience (a year or so) to get into a global company, build skills, and move into more demanding roles. This is great, but more entry points are needed. This scenario is what every IT manager I know goes through each time a key person leaves.

What are companies doing to address this problem?

They are forming talent communities to try and connect talent with their culture. I am not sure this is working as well as intended, but it is an interesting development.

There have always been college internships and entry level positions for recent grads.

But, what about people who aren’t in college? Many are able to do these jobs, with a little training.

What are staffing firms doing to address this problem? Could they partner with community colleges and/or training companies to train and test potential workers, then place them in entry level positions to gain some work experience?

All parties would have to give a little. Employees would need to accept lower wages than those with experience. Staffing companies would need to accept lower margins. Companies would need to invest in training people who aren’t actual employees, but, they could cherry pick the best and the brightest with minimal risks.

I’ve had discussions with local thought leaders who proclaim that the colleges in our area aren’t doing enough to provide relevant education. But, education is not the same as training. Someone pursuing a computer science degree is on a bit of a different path than someone who wants to learn how to maintain a computer network. I think the gap is in training opportunities. Companies aren’t training workers the way they used to.

When it comes to the build or buy decision, they’d rather buy. It’s perceived to be faster. But, as long as there is a huge gap between the demand for skills and the supply, the buy decision will work best for those with vast resources. The rest of us need to be resourceful and innovative as we find ways to equip people to become the talent we need to compete.

Those of us who comprise the “industry” need to propose and promote practical and workable solutions. One thing that will help is the educate job seekers on what they can do to be more competitive. No one is helpless; we are just woefully naïve and unaware of what our options might be. Since I am on my high horse here, I will put a stake in the ground and offer a series of three free one-hour Career Catalyst Audio Conferences to help job seekers. I would love to actually have a practical panel of experts. Who would like to partner with me on this?

As a recruiter and hiring manager we walk a fine line trying to balance relationships with our candidate pool while also looking out for the company where we work and represent. Someone hiring often often spends time in their current databases mining for qualified candidates. But more often than not, someone hiring takes the easy route posting, reposting, listing and promoting an job opening throughout the web.

There is no doubt that prospecting and mining qualified yet passive candidates takes work. However, you don’t have to spend all day to be a sourcing master.  Candidates are often in places and communities you’ve likely overlooked.

• References. If your candidate pool has provided a list of professional references, these are a great place to start mining for passive candidates who may just fit the bill. A quick phone call or an examination of their online profile can help level the playing field.

• Employee Referrals. I have found that when providing an employee incentive as part of a company referral program, can yield positive results.  Employees tap into their personal networks providing a realistic review of your company’s culture, expectations, and the job.  Employee recommendations also to have lower turnover, as opposed to hires from other sources. A simple $500 incentive program with 50% of the referrals bonus provided on the day the referral was hired, as well as their 90^th day, can lower cost per hire, and in my experience produce better quality candidates than other sources.

• Your Current Database. Putting together a value-based distribution list and community of past job seeker candidates can yield positive results. Not every job seeker is the right fit for you but using an employee referral based strategy. AT&T has used their Talent Community to successfully build talent pools by providing helpful tips, hints, and resources available to their database of active and passive job seekers. A simple email newsletter with an opportunity to opt in with an ATS can foster relationships beyond your first level candidate connection.

 
Candidate sourcing and building relationships doesn’t have to be a large and involved task. With a little creativity and value-based relationships, you can build a strong community, providing a steady string of qualified candidates with minimal effort.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers. Photo Credit The Digerati Life.