Why Your Business Shouldn’t Be Scared Of Referrals

Why Your Business Shouldn’t Be Scared Of Referrals

Despite what research has found about candidates that come via referrals often making longer-lasting and better-performing employees, many HR teams still seem hesitant to embrace the full benefits of referrals as a means of unearthing potential new staff.

Here are some of the reasons for that – together with reasons for your firm not to fret if you have been thinking twice about launching your own employee referral programme.

No, They Aren’t Just Adding To Your Long List Of Candidates

If you’ve already got a pretty good Applicant Tracking System (ATS) like our Fusion solution here at Webrecruit, you might have already gathered the details of plenty of candidates for your latest vacancy. So why on Earth would you need more?

The truth is that referred candidates aren’t quite the same as those you might come across through a more manual hiring approach. A referral from a familiar colleague is one that you can place a certain amount of trust in, even before you consult the candidate’s CV.

Nor Is A Referral Bonus A Waste Of Money

It might be tempting, after you have recruited a referred employee and paid a referral bonus to the staffer who referred them, to wonder whether it was truly worth the money.

However, given the track record that referrals have of matching well-suited staff to companies, we would humbly suggest that such expenditure is worthwhile. If the colleague who referred your new hire is an A-grade employee themselves, the likelihood is that they will only refer people who they consider to up to their own high standards.

Plus, by embedding referrals into your in-house recruiting, you can encourage your entire workforce to take some responsibility to find the right next hire for your company.

But Won’t Employees Just Refer A Load Of Mediocre Candidates To Make Some Money?

If this is your belief, you should perhaps have slightly greater faith in your workforce! Studies have consistently suggested that employees making referrals are primarily motivated by the opportunity to help their employer, rather than the prospect of a bonus.

In any case, good people generally want to work with other good people – it’s unlikely that they will want their own employer to suffer in terms of morale or productivity, due to a referral that they themselves made.

Ultimately, it’s likely that you will learn much more about any given candidate from those who know them and have your trust, than from the candidate’s own CV. Give referrals a chance alongside the right applicant tracking system (ATS), and you may be surprised by the considerable organic benefits gained by your company.

This article is written by Liz Seyi, Digital Marketing Manager at Jumpinngspidermedia LLC.