RAISING YOUR EMPLOYEE

REFERRAL PROGRAM RESULTS

TO 50% OF ALL HIRES

“50% is the new ERP target”

© Dr John Sullivan

1 www.drjohnsullivan.com

2

4 Action Steps to Kick Start an

Employee Referral Program

Strategic action #1

Prioritize and focus your ERP effort

Strategic action #1

Focus ERP efforts on high priority jobs including:

Mission critical jobs and business units

Revenue generating jobs

Jobs with a high previous referral success rate

Hard to fill jobs

“Sudden” key vacancies

Tip – begin with a shortlist of targeted jobs and

then add positions

Prioritize the employee with the closest relationship

Accolo uses a referral community For every open job, it selects a few employees

based on the likelihood that they will know the right person

As a result, Accolo has averaged 8 referrals for

every job (#1)

Be careful

Homer will refer

people also

Prioritize your employees

Focus on referrals from top performing employees

Why? Because referral hires from top performers…

produce nearly 3 times more profit… compared…

to a referral hire from a below average performer

Seek out and prioritize referrals from top

performers

But also… warn, restrict or ban employees that

routinely make weak referrals

Source: “The Value of Hiring through Referrals” (source: UC Berkeley by Burksy, Cowgillz, Holman and Housman

http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/bo_cowgill/papers/Referrals.pdf)

Strategic action #2

Do not overemphasize monetary rewards

Strategic action #2

Use “help the team" motivation (not $)

The most effective referral motivation approach

emphasizes the opportunity to work alongside

great people… because the team wins more

frequently… when it has the best players

Strategic action #2 You can build a “help the team” mentality… by emphasizing these benefits to employees

Higher quality hires will improve business results and thus raise employee stock value and bonuses

It’s part of the responsibility of being a team player

You will be recognized for “helping the team”

You will learn more from higher-quality new hires

You won’t have to work alongside slackers

Note: A feedback loop is required to tell employees whether they made a “junk” or a “star” referral

Also show them the correlation between improved business results and a higher % of ERP hires

2 examples… referrals don’t require $ bonuses

Reached and maintained a +70% referral rate

with no $ rewards

Edward Jones reached 55% with no bonus

Strategic action #3

Be proactive in seeking out referrals

Strategic action #3

Why you need to be proactive?

“Great people know great people”, however most

employees are extremely busy…

so to maximize your referrals… you will need to proactively approach your top referring

employees

Here are 3 proactive ERP tools to consider

“Proactive” referral tools

A) Give me 5 – Proactively approach top employees Ask them to identify and then contact the… Best manager they ever had Best team leader Best idea person or innovator Best person that "runs into" burning buildings Best problem solver Best sales person that beats you Best student in college that was so smart Best mentor Best technical skilled person Best international talent Best customer service person

“Proactive” tools

B) Reach out to job references for referrals

Identify top performing hires from last year

Call their references that said accurate things

Thank them

Ask them “Do you know anyone else as good?”

Ask them to be a future reference source

“Proactive” tools

C) “Most wanted list” for relationship building

Executives identify… a list of gamechangers

and potential “magnet hires” at the beginning of

the year

Employees are asked to seek out these highly

desirable individuals and to build a relationship

with them over social media (Relationship recruiting)

When they eventually agreed to consider becoming

a referral… speed hiring is required

Strategic action #4

Broaden the program

and expand it’s eligibility

Strategic action #4 Broaden the program

Add on-boarding referrals – proactively ask new hires for referrals during on-boarding (Eli Lily)

Add college referrals – the college population is well connected through social networks, so add a referral sub-program for college hires and interns (Endeca, Intuit)

Add referrals for executive positions – advanced ERP’s also cover openings for executive positions

Focus on boomerangs – encourage your employees to target your best corporate alumni (also allow them to make referrals)

Strategic action #4

Broaden the program

Add internal movement referrals - have a

referral program that is designed to encourage

internal movement. The best practice firm Booz

Allen has a “Career mobility” team (Also MS,

Cisco)

Expand program eligibility

Expand eligibility

Executives are encouraged to refer - a “white

glove treatment” recruiter can be assigned to

encourage executives to make referrals (Deloitte)

Managers and HR are made eligible – managers

and those in HR are also well connected, so they

should be eligible to make referrals (Accenture)

Note: you can help minimize conflicts of interest by

offering the option of contributing any ERP reward to

charity.

Expand eligibility

Expand eligibility to non-employees

Open up referrals to non-employees including

Family

Contingent workers

Consultants and vendors

Customers

Board members

Corporate alumni (Internosis, Clearlink, CACI, Verinon)