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8 tips for effective referral recruitment

Referral recruitment is the recruitment of staff through your own employees. You attract better candidates who stay with your organization longer and you don't have to dig as deep into your wallet for it. With referral recruitment you make use of your employees' networks. On the one hand the formal network, think of memberships or meetings. On the other hand the informal network, such as family, friends or acquaintances via offline and online channels. One aspect is very important here: pride. After all, your employees don't open up their networks just like that. In addition, the application procedure must be in order to prevent embarrassment among your employees. Referral recruitment is also called social referral recruitment or employee referral recruitment.

Benefits of referral recruitment

Referral recruitment has several advantages. Besides low costs and better people, there are additional benefits associated with social referral recruitment. For example, your employees already carry out a preselection, giving you a better idea of what kind of people you have on board. The result? You attract people with the right mentality, who also fit your company well. In addition, the recruitment process proceeds faster with referral recruitment, because you are better informed about someone's qualities and therefore need to schedule fewer interviews. The candidate also already knows what culture prevails within the company, which increases drive and enthusiasm. The onboarding process runs more smoothly, because the new employee already knows where he will end up. In the end everyone wins: it brings you something as an employer, but there is also something in it for employees. Through social referral recruitment goes the employee engagement namely up if they are also allowed to nominate new colleagues.

With referral recruitment you recruit better candidates who stay longer with your organization and you don't have to dig as deep into your wallet.

8 tips for referral recruitment

Tip 1: Component of your recruitment policy

It's not as if referral recruitment is something on the side. You need to think carefully about the approach, what your goals are, how you want to achieve them and how you are going to measure the process. Referral recruitment is really a part of your recruitment policy.

Tip 2: Create support

The top layer of your organization must be one hundred percent behind the referral recruitment policy. The board and management are, after all, the engine. But note, referral recruitment is not suitable for every organization. It must fit within your culture, mission and vision.

Tip 3: The entire organization helps out

The engine also needs to be oiled. You'll need your employees for that. To ensure that you reach your objective, the entire organization must be on board. Referral recruitment is important for everyone. To spread this mindset across all levels of the organization, it's important to make one person responsible. He or she will, from recruitment, instill the objectives in everyone.

Tip 4: Keep communicating

The person responsible for referral recruitment must convey a clear message. But management must also communicate clearly about the referral policy, both within the company itself and to the new employees. That way you keep everyone internally involved . To achieve that, you can make use of various channels, think of a newsletter or intranet. The extent to which you communicate depends on your objective: how many people are we looking for?

Tip 5: Use the right referral recruitment tool

The right referral recruitment tool ensures that your policy remains a success. With the right referral recruitment software you can keep everyone up to date on the entire selection process: in the software you record who refers which candidate and during which period. This can also be useful when determining a reward. You can also communicate open vacancies internally using this kind of referral recruitment program, such as with Recruitr for example. And you can measure the result of your referral recruitment strategy via certain software. In short: the right referral recruitment tool is an important link in the overall process.

Tip 6: Awarding a referral recruitment reward

Whatever the outcome, employees who refer a potential colleague should be granted a referral recruitment reward. That can be done in different ways. A financial bonus is always appreciated, but a personal thank-you or a message on internal channels and social media are also valued. Here you must guard against repetition: you must keep surprising them. Extra days off, gift vouchers or travel vouchers. All different ways to keep your employees motivated.

Tip 7: Measuring the outcome

Referral recruitment needs to deliver something and you must measure that result in order to make any necessary adjustments. To organize all outcomes, it's best to use, as mentioned in point five, a tool that fits your organization. Only in this way will you derive value from your referral recruitment results.

Tip 8: Evaluate the process

Once you know what your referral recruitment-strategy delivers, you go on to evaluate. ‘Am I reaching: what I want to achieve? Have I now attracted the right candidates? Is the hiring process too slow? How about the budget: is everything going as expected?’ After the evaluation the circle is complete.

Referral recruitment as part of your company culture

Kort gezegd: referral recruitment is an ongoing process within your organization that you must devote sufficient time and attention to in order to make it succeed. If it doesn't fit within your organizational culture ? Then don't start working on it. That can be disastrous for the overall recruitment process. But it starts above all with the mindset: make sure employees are proud of the company they work for. That is already a big step in the direction of finding new suitable talent.