Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [10]
Finally, continue to promote your referral program, as well as any new job openings, through e-mails, an online newsletter, and other company publications. Don’t forget that new hires can be a good source of referrals—they all have friends and business contacts from their previous jobs.
SOURCE: “Improving your Employee Referral Program and Justifying your Investment” by Dave Lefkow, Ere.net (February 21, 2002).
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Start publicizing job openings with the people who know your business best—your employees, customers, and suppliers. Asking customers to help you find talented employees shows that you value their opinions and can be a good way to strengthen your relationship. Your suppliers also have an interest in your success, because it could result in more business for them. Therefore, they are likely to go out of their way to help you find good job candidates.
Employee Referrals
One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to recruit candidates is through your own employees. They have a vested interest in the success of your company and are unlikely to recommend people they wouldn’t want to work with.
Because these referrals tend to yield such strong candidates, an increasing number of companies have instituted referral reward programs, offering money or other incentives. For instance, Gail Repsher Emery reported in Washington Technology that SRA International, a technology-consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia, began awarding employees $500 when someone they recommended was hired. As a result, 40 percent of the company’s new hires have been referred through employees. If your company currently has such a program, make sure your people know how to make a referral and what the rules and rewards are.
Whether or not you hire a referral, follow up with the referring employee. If you don’t, you may find your staff much less likely to recommend another friend. Remember, a strong referral program turns every employee into a recruiter for you. But running such a program takes time, manpower, and a budget. At some larger companies, dedicated employee-referral recruiting teams investigate each person who is referred. Depending on your company’s size, you might find yourself doing a lot of the legwork yourself during the referral process—yet the rewards could be worth it.
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Outside the Box
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REACHING OUT TO EMPLOYEES
Traditional employee-referral recruitment efforts encourage workers to recommend family and friends. International pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly & Company recently developed a three-part strategy to recruit more aggressively. Current employees are invited to human resource roundtables, where they identify the top performers in their field, after which human resources designates an individual to reach out to each of them. When a new employee comes aboard, they also are asked to list the best people they’ve worked with, and someone is assigned to make contact with them. Lilly’s third step is to invite supervisors to “share your Rolodex” meetings, where they are encouraged to recruit strong prospects from their networks outside the company.
SOURCE: “What’s Wrong with Employee Referral Programs?” by Peter D. Weddle, CareerJournal.com (September 19, 2005).
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Alumni Referrals and Rehires
When employees leave a company on good terms to pursue other opportunities, it makes sense to stay in touch with them as another source of referrals. As Kate O’Sullivan reports in “Keeping in Touch” in CFO Magazine, Ernst & Young has a very successful program for returning employees, or “boomerangs,” as the company refers to them.
You could initiate such a program in your company. Handle exit interviews with warmth and cordiality. Invite the employee to contact you when he or she makes a change down the road. Finally, stay in contact with all your alumni. Even if they don’t come back, they may be able to send good candidates your way.
Internships
Taking advantage of your company’s internship programs presents both you and your