Using A Referal Scheme To Recruit Quickly And Cost Effectively
By: Sital Ruparelia

The quickest and most cost-effective way to hire new staff is of course through referrals from your employees.

As most large businesses are moving towards trying to cut the cost of recruitment while still trying to identify new people, they typically have some kind of incentive scheme to encourage existing staff to refer friends as potential recruits.

In return, the member of staff is given a cash reward for the referral as a ?bounty? for finding the person if they join. Many of the large businesses I have worked with in fact pay quite sizeable amounts to their people, up to thousands of pounds.

The costs of the reward far outweigh the huge costs of using recruitment agencies or advertising. And as I have said before, referred candidates are almost guaranteed to be good.

This same principle can be applied to smaller businesses too.

The key things to remember are:

1. Make the incentive reflect the savings you?ve made on the recruitment process

2. Keep reminding your staff of the scheme

3. Be creative with your incentive

It does not have to be a cash reward. Look at your team, look at your budget ? as an example many recruitment firms in London now offer iPods to people who refer candidates: something extravagant and desirable but without a huge cost.

4. Two-Part Payment.

If you offer a cash incentive, it?s a good idea to make half the payment when a candidate starts and then pay the balance after say 3 months, once they have successfully passed their probation period

So look at how you can set up a refer a friend scheme to both incentivise your team and quickly fill your vacancies now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sital Ruparelia, the ?Recruitments & Retention Specialist? works with small businesses that struggle with recruitment and retention issues and helps them implement strategies proven to Find and Keep the Right People consistently.

Sital writes a FREE newsletter twice a month with tips on how to Find And Keep The Right People. To sign up now, visit http://www.authenticresourcing.com.

Back to Article Index