There is a secret group of talent that is hiding behind an often untapped network - your employees.

There are thousands of job seekers every month. A large percentage of them probably apply to your job openings. Yet, you find yourself spending hours and hours scanning through resumes and cover letters only to find out that none (or very few) are actually qualified. Then you find your one qualified candidate, hire them, and after six months they leave because they didn't fit. Sound familiar?

We'll let you in on a little secret – there's an easier way to hire, and that's through employee referrals.

What's so great about employee referrals?

Let's start off with the fast facts:

You end up with higher quality candidates.

75% of job applications come from job boards and career sites while only 7% come from employee referrals. However, referrals account for 40% of all HIRES, compared to only 15% from job boards. The message here is quality.

Referrals bring in higher quality candidates because candidates come in pre-vetted and briefed by your employees so end up having a more realistic overview of the company. No one knows the company's work culture and ethics better than your employees, so they will weed out anyone they don't see fit.

Another great thing is that your high-performing employees will likely know and refer their high-performing friends. Since no one is going to vouch for someone unless they think they can do the job, you end up with higher quality, pre-screened candidates.

The best part? These high-quality candidates come to you – care of your employees. Gone are the days where you are lost in a sea of resumes - if you have an effective employee referral system.

These candidates are faster to hire and are quicker to onboard.

Referred candidates are hired in less than a month as compared to an average of about 45 to 55 days for those sourced from job boards and career sites and a referred candidate is also more likely to accept the job.

The steps needed to find candidates are also lessened because of referrals. Steps such as creating job ads, collecting resumes, going through numerous cover letters, or screening candidates are not always as necessary anymore.

Referred candidates are onboarded faster because they can ask the person who referred them for help or advice. They end up with a "mentor" or a "buddy" that will help them adjust quickly and help them move towards success.

They'll end up staying longer than usual.

...Which, in the bigger picture, saves you time, money, and effort on having to find a replacement yet again.

Data shows that 47% of candidates hired through referrals stay longer than three years, compared to only 14% of candidates hired through a job board.

Referred candidates tend to stay longer because they are more satisfied with their job. As mentioned earlier, they come into your company with realistic expectations provided by the person who referred them, so they don't end up shocked and leave immediately (like what happens a lot of times, right?)

It also helps that they're working with someone they already know.

Having employee-referred hires builds a culture of engagement.

Going beyond just the numbers and data is a very important factor when it comes to employee success – engagement. Engagement combined with performance drives forward not just employee success, but business success as well.

When your employees make a referral, they will be invested in taking care of that candidate and ensuring that they are successful – maybe because they are friends or their reputation is now at stake. No one wants to be the one who referred a candidate who ended up failing, so they will take care of their referrals. This feeling of mutual support leads to better performance.

Employees that are involved in the recruitment process feel a better sense of engagement with the company and control over its future and direction. This motivates them to work even harder.

Engaged employees are extremely important to business success because engaged employees work harder, smarter, longer, and are happier – translating into business success. Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are less likely to be creative, and become unhappy, and unproductive – which can cost you a lot of money.

An automated system helps you streamline the recruitment process and allows you to focus on other important tasks.

Having an automated system from a third-party software system like Recruitday.com in place means getting your time back. Time spent scanning through endless candidates is lessened since it is done for you, so you can focus on other tasks you need to accomplish because we all know HR work does not stop at recruitment.

Having a good system in place makes things a lot simpler but at the same time more efficient.

Overall, you not only help yourself, you help your company, your employer's friends, and even your own friends. Everyone wins!

FEBRUARY 08, 2018

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