How do Job Referral Campaigns Work in Talent Acquisition

Finding the best candidate for a job position is challenging for any talent acquisition team, as recruitment is a time- and resource-consuming process. From locating the finest candidates to onboarding them, recruiters carry out numerous tasks that predominantly occupies frequently occupies their time. That's why talent acquisition teams are always on the lookout for efficient strategies to acquire quality and qualified candidates.

One such strategy that could be implemented confidently is a job referral program. According to SHRM job referral is one of the most efficient and preferred sources for quality hiring as it accounted for more than 30% of the hiring where more than 14 million candidates were sourced.

This is a motivating reason why organizations and recruiters should have a well-structured job referral program. But before that, let's first understand what a job referral program is and how it works.

What is a Job Referral Program?

A job referral program is a strategy where talents are hired mainly based on candidate recommendations given by the current employees of the organization. A well-structured job referral program makes it easier for recruiters to hire the best talent while simultaneously making their employees feel valued. It mainly helps in attracting and hiring talent for difficult-to-fill positions.

Types of job referral programs

A job referral program can be carried out both internally and externally. An internal job referral program is exclusive for the internal members of an organization while an external job referral program allows even individuals who are not affiliated with the organization to participate.

According to CareerBuilder, 82% of recruiters believe that job referral produces the best return on investment.

Benefits of Running a Job Referral Program

Recruiters have long been using a referral system for hiring because of all the advantages it offers.

1. Enables building a talent pool

A job referral program connects the recruiter to the personal network of the current employees or some of the well-networked niche industry professionals. This helps the talent acquisition team to quickly get their hands on the enormous talent pool which is one of the significant benefits that it offers.

2. Improves Hiring Quality

Your current employees can readily propose the candidates who will be the best fit for the position because they are already familiar with your company's culture, goal, and vision. It allows you to engage with the connections of industry experts. The program will also help you engage passive candidates which has a huge impact on the quality of your hires.

According to CareerBuilder, 88% of recruiters rate job referral above all other sources for acquiring new quality hires.

3. Enhances Employee Retention Rate

The quality of hiring has a strong correlation with employee retention. With better employee retention rates better would be the quality of the hire. Candidates who come from other sources, including job boards, are less familiar with you as a worker than those who speak with your present workers. There will be less candidate attrition and offer rejection as they will have a better understanding of the company and its culture.

Job referrals increase employee retention by 46%.

4. Reduces Time and Cost to Hire

Job referrals from your current employees or a well networked individual allow you to quickly contact qualified prospects and invite them for an interview. Here recruiters may consider saving their valuable time by skipping the application sourcing and pre-screening processes. Shorter hiring times result in lower hiring costs and thereby job referrals become cost-effective and quicker than other modes of talent acquisition.

An organization can save over $7,500 on each new hiring with job referrals.

5. Strengthens Your Employer Branding

Here either your employee speaks on your behalf or the campaign gets promoted through word of mouth with the prospective candidates. This becomes a personalized and reliable recommendation for a candidate and it automatically creates a cost-free job promotion. Also, this is a terrific technique to develop your company's employer branding strategy and go-to network for upcoming job vacancies.

How does the Job Referral Program Work in Talent Acquisition?

Before launching a job referral program, enterprises need to decide when and for which positions do they want to use referrals to find qualified candidates. The hiring team should arrive at a way to integrate the job referral programs into their talent acquisition pipeline as it cannot be the only mode of acquiring talent. Above all, the effectiveness of a job referral program solely relies on how the hiring team engages with the employees and the potential contributors in the process.

Steps to create a job referral program

• Give a clear description of the job role.

• Give an idea about the profile of the ideal candidate who will be the perfect fit for the role.

• Explain how to submit the referrals.

• Announce an attractive reward or a placement pay-out to motivate the participants.

• Share an agreement with the necessary terms and conditions to avoid miscommunications.

• Share a document or a link to collect and store the necessary referral data.

• Utilize an efficient platform to launch and run the campaign.

• Customize the ways to communicate such as sending notifications and bulk emails.

• Assesses and evaluates the profiles received.

• If the profile matches the requirements, follow the regular hiring procedures.

Promote your Job referral program

Any employment recommendation program must be properly planned, designed, promoted, and maintained to be successful. Without these, you will find the process to be confusing and less effective.

The talent acquisition teams can run a job referral program both online and offline. In an online job referral program, recruitment teams can ask for a job referral via email, messaging apps, LinkedIn, social media, or intranet. On the other hand, in an offline job referral program, talent acquisition teams can leverage university job fairs, in-house talents, company employee referrals, seminars, job fares, and networking events.

Job referrals through Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is an evolving trend used in talent acquisition where you can also make use of a hiring marketplace to acquire better talent faster. It will help you source talents by seeking candidate referrals from social and job networking platforms. It is a method where recruiters notify their personal and professional contacts that their clients (companies) are seeking fresh talent. Employers can reach out to recruitment platforms and recruiter communities that leverage referrals to crowdsource talent.

Top Talent Crowdsourcing Platforms

1. MyRCloud
2. Jobhuk 
3. CrowdRecruiting 
4. Recruiterly 
5. Bountyjobs 

Final Takeaways

Talent acquisition could be a nerve-wracking process for recruiters, but it can be partly simplified by asking for a job referral. If you want to give a boost to your job advertisement, do not hesitate to launch a job referral campaign. You can consider utilizing the niche network of every potential employee and your extended professional network who could vouch for you. In summary, job referral programs can significantly speed up the hiring process, reduce the overall hiring cost, and increase the talent retention rate if the campaign turns out to be successful.