Importance of Analytics in running a successful Employee Referral Program

  • Added:
    Jul 03, 2014
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    1412
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Importance of Analytics in running a successful Employee Referral Program Photo by Savio Vadakkan

Big Data, Analytics and Data Mining have become buzzwords across all industries. In the recruiting function, however, there is still a lot of ambiguity on how data can be mined to make the recruiting function more robust & accountable.

One area where analytics can be of tremendous importance is in the sphere of Employee Referral Programs.

Here are some insights that can be drawn through efficient data mining:

• Create ideal candidate profiles through mapping data of your best performers. With Big Data tools this profiling need not just be restricted to their skills & competencies but can also extend to areas such as frequency of their online interaction, for example. 

• Map profiles of referred employees against this ideal profile


• Study the type of jobs for which maximum referrals are being made

• Study how employee referrals are doing vis-à-vis other recruitment sources, in terms of:
a) Days required to-fill a position b) Cost of hire etc.

• Study productivity of referrals

• Study Retention Rates


• Measure how the different referral bonuses stack up & what should be the optimal referral bonus

• Identify poor versus great referrers &accordingly seek participation


• Study metrics such as the time taken for recruiters to contact referred employees & how that impacts the quality of workforce, a stop candidates are likely to have many competing offers.

• Study which locations are high and which low on Employee Referrals. Accordingly, it would mean beefing up promotions in those locations.

The opportunities of harnessing data towards the success of an Employee Referral Program are therefore endless. For example, research has revealed that employees looking for a change in job are more likely to update their professional profiles as well as increase their professional connections. Such users are more likely to react to referral messages.

Similarly, collecting data continuously is likely to reveal who the most active referrers are and if they have strong relationships.

Analytics therefore come in handy not only towards making your employee referral program a success, but also helping you identify key employees when it comes to making quality referrals.

In the wave of big data hitting HR functions, there is just one word of caution though. Organizations need to focus on the problem being faced & not start with the data. In Employee Referrals too, therefore, the focus needs to be on the decisions the company wants to make. If the focus is on looking at, as much data is available, it can often lead to a lot of time & energy spent without commensurate results.

Zalp is the only employee referral tool which not only helps generating comprehensive reports and statistics of the referral program but also gives real time referral activity useful to track the performance of the program.

Visit zalp.com to know more or drop a mail to info@zalp.com

Author's Profile

Savio Vadakkan is a Marketing Professional for ZALP, a unique employee referral software. ZALP guides organizations about how to create a successful employee referral program by means of social media integrated recruiting techniques.


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