Employee Referral Programs Need Top Management Support: Heres How You Can Get It
A sure shot way of ensuring the failure of your employee referral program is to make it look like just another initiative from the HR team rather than it being core to the talent strategy of the company, driven and led by the management.
An important pre-requisite for the success of an employee referral program is to secure commitment and buy in from the leadership team. Leaders across levels should not only actively promote the employee referral program, but also communicate on a sustained basis regarding the benefits of the program. An important part of the messaging and communication is to help employees understand how their active participation and support is important to ensure the success of the employee referral program which in turn can help the company achieve strategic business goals. Understanding the strategic importance of the employee referral program and their role in the process can act as a great motivator for employees which in turn helps to ensure high levels of engagement with the employee referral program.
Once an employee referral program has been rolled out, its success lies in the hands of the leaders who need to drive the program and lead by example. Referring people themselves and sharing the successes of the program through various channels of communication will help to sustain and build the momentum of the employee referral program.
However, it is important to position the employee referral program appropriately to the management team to be able to garner management support and commitment for the program. A proper business case for the program highlighting the benefits, both financial and business vis-a- vis other hiring channels needs to be properly highlighted to the management team. At the same time management concerns should be suitably addressed with data and statistics to ensure that the management remains fully committed to the program and plays an active role in ensuring its success.
Below are a few tips on how to effectively position an employee referral program to the management team
– Assimilate data for the last couple of years on hiring through various sourcing channels
– Analyze cost of sourcing from other channels
– Prepare budget and cost estimation for the employee referral program which can include
• Referral reward to be paid to employees
• Cost of marketing the program to employees
– Cost benefit analysis of hiring through various channels
– Summarize benefits of hiring through employee referral program
– Prepare to respond appropriately to management concerns
Management concerns on diversity and quality of hiring are sometimes well founded and need to be addressed with suitable process steps in built in the process to prevent misuse of the program leading to recruitment of people more due to their relationship with existing employees rather than fitment to the role.
Positioning the program right and assuaging management concerns regarding possible misuse of the program can go a long way in ensuring your employee referral program has enough champions among the leadership team who can lead and drive the program to success by getting maximum employee referrals out of it.
To read more on trends and technologies in employee referrals visit: zalp.com/theemployeereferralblog
