The theory is good people know other good people. This has been the underlying principle driving employee referral programs for as long as I have been in the private sector. You have your superstar performers and you know if you could just get one more of each of them, all of your production, creative marketing, or sales problems would be solved. Clients would flood in and bottom line profits would soar. I just have one question. How is that working for you?
The problem is the traditional employee program is a passive effort. You dangle a carrot and hope they act. The program is dependent on your employees actually going out to their network and driving traffic back. This is the same premise as a channel partnership in sales. You are depending on your channel partner to deliver a consistent, effective, and attractive value proposition with the same zeal with which you would. Don’t get me wrong, there are great employee referral program and there are great channel partnerships. Wouldn’t you make it better though if you could?
The reality tends to be that unless you are a company known as an “employer of choice” (i.e. Microsoft, Google- a company where people want to be) your staff may have a hard time driving candidates to you. Moreover, many do not feel comfortable with talking to their friends about their company. Not everyone is a sales person or marketer. Some are shy and introverted. Some just will not mix social and work. Some may not really like working for your company! They may have a great network of people with skills that would be attractive to your company, but your message will never reach them.
Enter Talent Retriever’s Active Referral Program (ARP). We have established a program that addresses the problems with a passive Employee Referral Program, by making it an active effort. We are working with our clients and identifying their top performers and driving referrals for them. Interested in hearing more about how this works? Give me a call. I can’t give out all of my secrets.
Steve
781-425-6656