Episode 1: One easy thing to do right now to help set you up for winning the war on talent in 2022
Let me just say something at the outset of “the most important thing we do” series. Obviously, there are FAR more “important things we do” than what this series is going to be about. Relationships, self-care, children, family and friends, the planet, world peace, and good old “just not being a tosser” are more important. High also on my personal list is maximising joy in our lives and in the lives of others, and that applies both at work and outside it.
But in this series, I’m talking about what is, quite possibly, the single most important thing we do in our organisations, as business owners, managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, or members of talent acquisition teams.
Mark Benioff, CEO of the madly successful company Salesforce, believes that talent acquisition is the most important thing we in this cohort, do, as part of growing our organisations. According to Mark, “Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was – and still is – the most important thing we do”. I for one, agree.
(I also happen to hold a strong opinion on the second most important thing, but that’s for another time…)
Anyway, Mark’s right. And it’s a big topic, talent acquisition. So today I’m kicking off the series, and 2022, with one easy thing we can all do right now that has huge potential to find your organisation the best talent during this calendar year. It’s something that my 20+ years as a business leader has proven time and time again to be one of the most effective methods for attracting the employees that arrive for the right reasons and are likely to stay.
I’m talking about the good old Employee Referral Programme (ERP). Hey, it’s nothing new, but some of the best ideas are the old chestnuts. You probably already have an ERP. We do. We’ve had one for decades and we blooming well love it. But we’re in the process of taking ours out, polishing it up, and marketing it internally (again!) to make sure new people are aware and long-term people are excited.
The “how” behind our employee referral scheme is simple. If an existing employee recommends someone they know to apply for a role with us, and that person applies, goes through our recruitment process and gets hired, then the employee that recommended them gets $500 when their contact starts work with us. Then another $500 once the hired contact has been on board for 6 months. Simple! Not at all original. Most organisations do something similar. If you don’t, then you’re really missing out.
But that takes me back to the “take it off the shelf and give it a polish” part because even if you do have an ERP, you might still be missing out.
I’ll tell you a story. It’s a bit embarrassing. On Friday at end of work office drinks, I was sharing a beverage with two fabulous new hires, and I was feeling smugly self-congratulatory about getting them on board. During said drink, it emerged that the slightly longer-term fab hire had referred the brand-new fab hire to our organisation and had no idea they were owed the referral fee. Now, I know the good deed happened anyway. But how many more referrals might we have gotten if we had kept the ERP front of mind with all our people? It’s not about the money. It’s about the excitement of it all and it’s linked to recognition and reward. It’s gamification, and what’s not to love about that?
Having dropped the ball on our own Employee Referral Programme, I consider myself amply qualified to give you all some hints and tips on how to do it properly. Ahem. Here are a few ideas:
- Have a recurring calendar event to re-market your ERP quarterly to existing employees, to keep it exciting and front of mind.
- Make the ERP part of induction information for all new starters and make sure they know they can refer people they know, straight away.
- Build excitement around your ERP. Gamify it, publicise it and celebrate the wins internally.
- Ask referees why they referred their contact to the organisation and listen carefully to their answer.
- In your regular Employee Engagement Surveys, ask your people how likely they are to recommend a contact to work with your organisation. Ask why or why not. Listen carefully to the (anonymous) answers.
- Use any stories of successful employee referrals as wonderful ‘people stories’ for the careers section of your website and embed them in your recruitment advertising, if the people involved are keen.
- Make sure your existing employees have the information they need about your organisation—its values, vision, goals, playbook and so on, to provide this to any contacts that might be interested in joining. An Employer Branding project is a massive ‘great to have’ to help with this, but if you can’t do one right now, don’t let that be a bottleneck to making sure your current employees are well-informed.
- Don’t inadvertently drop the ball (ahem) on the admin around actually paying the money when a referral has been hired (and/or stays on board for the prescribed time). Have a system for this (obviously administered by people more organised than I am).
Finally, get joy out of your Employee Referral Programme. Feel pride that people working in your organisation like it enough to recommend contacts to work there too. It’s a big thing! Nobody knows better than a current employee, who is most likely to enjoy and thrive in their organisation. Share the joy with the leader/s of the referring employee. They’re clearly doing something very, very right. Crack the champagne and take the opportunity to do some storytelling, either in words, on video (an iPhone video is totally fine) or both. Share the story internally and into your talent database.
Most importantly of all, say a huge, sincere, heartfelt thank you to the employee that thought enough of your organisation to recommend it as a great place to work! Because that means the world.