This document provides action steps to improve employee referral program results. It recommends holding referral events, setting clear expectations to limit "junk referrals", utilizing technology to track referrals, rewarding frequent referrers, and avoiding program killers like not properly rewarding referrals or allowing referrals to get "lost" in a company's general job application system. The goal is to increase referral hires to 50% of all hires through focused efforts.

1. RAISING YOUR EMPLOYEE
REFERRAL PROGRAM RESULTS
TO 50% OF ALL HIRES
“50% is the new ERP target”
© Dr John Sullivan
1
www.drjohnsullivan.com

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Tactical Action Steps that can
dramatically improve results of an ERP

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Action steps
Tips for improving referral volume

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Best practices for increasing referral volume
Hold referral events – hold physical referral
events and “virtual meetups” in order to garner
attention, to educate, and to get "spot" referrals
(Monster.com)
Alerts – send targeted alerts to the most relevant
employees with a successful referral track record
in order to make them aware of your current need.
(CACI International and Quicken Loans)
Competition – friendly internal contests between
teams can dramatically improve results (Deloitte)

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Best practices for increasing referral volume
Harness social networks – closely integrate
referrals with your firm’s social media effort
Recognize managers – set targets, make it a
promotion criteria and then… track, report,
recognize and reward individual managers for
high referral rates within their team

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Increase volume by requiring less upfront
Accept profiles – at least initially, allow LinkedIn
profiles in lieu of resumes
Accept just names – instead of requiring the full
resume, accept names only (Children’s hospital in
Dallas pay $100… just for name in key jobs…
even if they are not hired… and 25% of the names
result in a hire)

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Action steps
Educate your employees

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Education and help
Provide them with hands on help
 Provide virtual “referral coaches”
 Offer sample social media profiles and provide
templates that can guide employees on how to
develop contacts and relationships online
 Offer to critique their profile or their blog
 Provide them with stories – develop "story
inventories" that employees can access and then
use to "sell" the firm to potential referees

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Google has a story inventory
A story Inventory for recruiters and employees

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Action steps
Set referral expectations
in order to minimize “junk referrals”

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Setting clear expectations can limit junk referrals
Expectations before an employee refers (guidelines)
1.We are exclusively seeking superior individuals
that will make our firm significantly better
2.Because we only want the very best… we expect
no more than 3 referrals per employee a month
3.Throughout the referral process… we expect you
to put the firm’s best interests first
4.Except in extraordinary cases, we do not want
referrals from relatives or individuals that
approached you and asked to be referred

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We need the following information
Provide the following 6 pieces of information
1. The job title or req # you are referring them for
2. How you know or have assessed their work
3. Assess and then tell us about their skills and
knowledge… and how they are superior
4. Assess and then tell us about their cultural fit…
so we do not dilute our culture
5. Assure us that you have sold them to the point
where they will accept an interview, if asked
6. Honestly rate them with a A+, A, or B+

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Action steps
Referral cards can have a high impact

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Referral cards can be powerful
Your customer service just now was exceptional.
I work for the Apple store and you’re exactly the
kind of person we’d like to talk to.
If you’re happy where you are, I’d never ask you to
leave.
But if you’re thinking about a change, give me a call.
This could be the start of something great.

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Electronic versions of referral cards
Electronic referral cards
An alternative is to provide employees with
electronic referral cards to send to their social
media contacts (the cards can have a tracking code
to ensure that the employee gets credit for the
referral)

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Action steps
Utilize high-impact
but low-cost rewards

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Rewards
Action steps for improving rewards
 Realize that the average bonus amount generally
falls between $500 and $1,500…amounts above
$1,500 have proven to have little impact
 The best ERP’s never pay "equal" bonuses and
most vary it by job, location and competitor $
 "Grossing up" bonuses (so that they are in effect
tax-free) really WOW’s employees
 Pay off quickly and consider a “prize patrol”
approach to add excitement (Quicken)

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Rewards
Inexpensive rewards to consider
 A referral dinner/luncheon held once/ twice a
year with the CEO to celebrate referrers
 A $25 gift / Starbucks card for your 1st referral
 A handful of free movie tickets for the family
 First choice at vacation, schedule or other
desirable work items

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An example… rewarding frequent referrers
Expedia’s frequent hire club
$1000 plus a travel coupon for each additional hire

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Action steps
Technology features to consider

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Referral technology features
Impactful technology features
1. Referrals are tagged and prioritized in the ATS
2. The referring employee gets an e-mail “thank
you” within 24 hours
3. The referred candidate gets a “thank you”
phone call within 24 hours
4. The employee is notified via e-mail when a
referral is scheduled for an interview
5. Interviews can be scheduled by the candidate
on a web site (Alaska Airlines)
6. Relevant job openings are “pushed” to the right
employees (With their permission)

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Technology features
Technology features (continued)
6. Employee referrals can be made directly from
their mobile phone
7. Referring employees have a referral scorecard
8. Employees and candidates can track progress
during the process (Accenture & Aricent)
9. A+ and A “rejects are told what they must do to
improve their chances
10.An e-newsletter is sent quarterly to A+ and A
rated referrals that were not hired… in order to
build a relationship

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Action steps
Administrative actions
for improving program results

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Administrative actions to consider
 Improve responsiveness – responsive is the #1
critical success factor so… prioritize the handling
of referrals and develop service level timelines
 Dedicated recruiters – a dedicated ERP
recruiter can improve candidate relationship
management (CRM) and much more effectively
sort and expedite top referrals (CACI)
 Expedited interviewing – make a commitment
to interview all A+ and A quality referral
candidates for key jobs within a certain number of
days (Owens Corning)

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Administrative actions to consider
 Measure quality of hire – measure the on-the-job
performance and the retention rates of new hires
from referrals… and then use the information to
improve the ERP
 Conduct a follow up interview – after a
successful referral, send a recruiter to interview the
employee in order to identify best practices and to
ask for additional referrals (Amazon)
 Develop a referral program SLA – increase the
responsiveness of both line managers and HR by
instituting service-level agreements that spell out
expectations. (Aricent)

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Action steps
Avoid these 4 high impact
ERP program killers

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The 4 most impactful program killers
 Do not allow executives to win the argument that…
you don’t need a formal ERP program and
marketing effort… because “it’s part of their job”
 Do not withhold rewards during the new hires
probationary period
 Avoid “referral spam” where a high volume of
messaging causes your targeted employees to
eventually ignore all referral messages
 Avoid sending employee referrals to apply on
the standard corporate careers website