Referral Blues - HR practices

Employee referral programme has always proved to be an efficient recruiting tool. However, for consistent performance output it is important to work through a checklist...

Key learnings:

• Design and execution are two critical parameters for gauging the success of employee referral programmes
• An insight into the attributes of a world class referral programme can help frame an effective employee referral programme
  

Employee referrals have been touted as one of the most efficient recruiting tools. The efficacy of the programmes can be gauged by the percentage successes of recruiting deals made through employee referrals. In addition to the efficiency factor, employee referral programmes (ERP) offer a number of other advantages also. The time and cost-effectiveness of employee referral programmes figure among the most attractive benefits of the tool. This apart, better use of recruiter and management time, insight into moral and ethical stand of individual employees and better quality of talent are other benefits of ERPs.

Since ERPs impact a host of organisational factors, their efficacy can also take a beating when one or more these factors become less favourable. Hence, to offset adversity of any kind recruiting managers must focus on the design and execution of ERPs. Most referral programmes have been known to succumb to their own internal flaws in programme design or execution.

ERPs have shown a recruitment rate of 50%-70% . To attain this level of efficiency organisations have to work hard on the design and execution aspects of the programme.

Design

As mentioned earlier, design of employee referral programmes makes all the difference between success and failure of the initiative. Hence, to attain impeccable design and immaculate referral plan , recruiting managers should incorporate the following attributes in the design component:

• The entire process should be web-based making it a completely paperless effort, saving both time and effort
• Provision to gauge satisfaction levels of referred employees
• Provision to recruit referrals from non-employees
• Rewarding employees who get referrals from competitors, especially for senior level positions
• The programme should allow employees to send emails to friends regarding job openings
• A successful referral in a position that seemed difficult to fill should be given extra bonus and rewards
  

Organisations could add more design components to make the programme more customised.

Execution

Even when the design components are in place, referral programmes could fail because of poor execution. Execution issues are often related to the workability of the design. The following execution problems are encountered most commonly:

• Lack of constant monitoring by authorities
• Referrals get turned down because of redundant rules and policies
• Lack of control on the quality of referrals can make the entire exercise ineffective
• Undue stress on diversity can take the steam off referral schemes
• Bonuses and rewards may lose their sheen over a period of time
• There is no distinction between referral bonus/reward for junior and senior positions
• Lack of disciplinary measures to tackle referral misuse and abuse

After ascertaining the right design and execution process , organisations should institute the right measures to scale the efficacy of referral programmes.

Metrics

The measures to determine and assess the effectiveness of ERPs include:

• Cost per recruit
• Time saved in reaching out to potential recruits, identifying them and processing their job requests
• Manager satisfaction levels with the referee performance
• Rise in employee participation in ERPs
• Percentage of diversity referrals
• Success rate of referrals made by employees
• Number of senior level positions filled through ERPs
  

Referral programmes are undoubtedly one of the best tools for accomplishing corporate recruiting needs. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that more than 70 pc of organisations using the programme for filling up job positions have shown only mediocre results. This is primarily because corporates fail to take ERPs seriously and use it as a subordinate recruiting technique. However, for organisations that value employee referrals truly and announce attractive rewards for every job that gets filled through it have indeed shown that ERPs are at least twice as effective as the traditional approach to recruiting.

Organisations that wish to leverage the real potential of ERPs need to begin their efforts at the deign stage. The design for employee referral programme must be competitive enough to meet world class standards. Using this design , then leaders can move forward with execution of the programme . Thus, by ensuring the right design and execution measures organisations can aim at enhancing the success rate of their recruiting efforts significantly.

Recruitment marketing- Sell to Recruit

Recruitment is in effect selling. Here's how recruitment managers can strike a good bargain...

Key learnings:

The marketing streak in the human resources function will help managers position their recruitment strategy better

Recruitment managers can improve their chances of finding talent in an economic downturn by marketing their offers aggressively

"All recruiters are salesmen, while all salesmen may not be recruiters!"

The statement sums up the essence of recruitment recas a sales activity where a recruiter is either selling an employer to a potential employee candidate or a potential employee candidate to an employer. Either Both ways there ing happening. This facet of recruitment has long been debated and those who like to give recruitment it a more ahave often denied the '"selling'" aspect of th functio.

However, the debate over the selling mentality of the recruitment function vs. the process-oriented nature of the human resources function has never been conclusive in favour of either; and a majority of recruiters agree that at some point in time they have indulged in hard-selling. The truth is both hard selling and process-oriented recruiting have their own specific applications. While hard selling works well in situations where recruiters have deadlines to meet, the milder process-driven recruiting helps in filling positions when there is no leash on time. Selling is also resorted to when recruiters are looking to fill senior-level posts. On the other hand, the process-driven approach is suited for positions that are not very strategic, and therefore do not need an aggressive suitor. This kind of recruiting strategy rarely manages to get a good catch, especially for top slots, and the effort often ends up in a compromise. Such uncertain means cannot be applied during uncertain times, like the current global economic downturn. Then what options do organisations have in such situations?

Recruiters' woes
In times of economic gloom, the recruitment function will be in the line of firing first. Organisations freeze recruitment, resort to job cuts and lay-offs, and axe staff benefits and training budgets. However, one needs to understand that while a downturn is difficult to handle, there are ways to weather the storm. In the context of recruiting, experts believe that managers should look at alternative means to fill job positions. Leveraging the potential of social networking, employee referrals and other social media can help recruiters meet their needs even during tough economic times. Like recruiters, potential recruits too use these media for job search.

While it may seem self-contradictory for organisations to seek talent even as they cut their staff numbers, experts say such contradictions in the functioning of an organisation are but natural and recruiters must go all out to meet the need for talent.

Information explosion
The selling streak in the recruitment function has got accentuated with the information explosion. Today, job seekers are aware of the employers' requirements, interview patterns, loopholes in the recruitment process and other such 'classified' information. Unlike before, when the equation was in favour of the recruiter owing to the access he had to employee details, today the equation seems to have evened out with both the parties equipped with information equally. This has made employment negotiation both simple and tough. It simplified the process because candidates are as aware of things as the recruiter, and therefore do not base their demands on unfounded expectations; and tough because awareness has made it easier for people to draw comparisons.

In an economic downturn too much information is known to create further chaos. When the mood is desperate, employees tend to respond to every single job opportunity that comes their way, irrespective of the job requirements. This clogs the recruitment pipeline and compels managers to either take what comes their way or suspend their search for sometime. It is therefore recommended that in such desperate times, recruitment managers need to frame a specific and aggressive recruitment marketing strategy.

Recruitment marketing
The change in the economic scene has also led to an overhaul in the concept of recruitment marketing. Unlike in the past, where recruitment marketing was limited to advertising job positions in the print media, today more innovative channels are used to 'sell' jobs. Use of blogging sites, social networking platforms and other social media, and web analytics is becoming increasingly common for filling job positions. Recruiters are able to filter resumes faster and the quality of response too has improved significantly. A good recruitment marketing strategy is one that is very specific and makes it clear through its job announcement the kind of talent it is seeking.

Organisations that are focused on recruiting the best have to resort to aggressive recruitment marketing. While those that prefer to recruit 'average talent' may do well by taking the traditional process-oriented approach.

Ref: TheManageMentor