The success of a well defined and structured employee referral program is much more than a generic or an informal program. Find how to optimize your referral program to make it work smarter for you.

1. Key to a smart
Employee Referral
Program
zalp.com

2. What is an Employee Referral Program?
Finding and retaining exceptional talent in
your company can be a tedious exercise
An organization uses various sources to
find the right talent and one of the most
effective source is employee referral
An employee referral program is an
internal sourcing method used by
organizations to hire talent by tapping
their current employees’ social network
As an incentive the current employee gets
a bonus from the organization on the
successful placement of their referred
person

3. Advantages of using an
Employee Referral Program
•Current employees know candidates who have
the similar skill set and mindset thus resulting
in improved candidate quality and fitment
•Stability and loyalty towards organization
•Employees screen better as they are aware
that the quality of the future candidates
indirectly impacts their and organization ’ s
performance
•Employee referral programs are the most cost
effective. The only cost involved is the referral
bonus to the existing employees. Third party
expenses, marketing and advertising costs are
eliminated. There is a considerable reduction in
the hiring cost as compared to other hiring
methodologies

4. Referrals are here to stay
Active employee participation is very important for
the success of an employee referral program. This is
especially critical because :
•As per a recent study, 1 out of every 5 referrals is
hired. The success rate of employee referrals is
therefore tremendous.
•Referrals give the highest ROI among all hiring
sources with the added benefit of quality hiring and
also better cultural fitment
Hence every organization should evaluate the
effectiveness of their employee referral program and
whether it is smart or attractive enough to
encourage employees to give references.
The success of a well defined and structured employee referral program is
much more than a generic or an informal program.

5. Company Culture
•The kind of organisational values, working
environment and culture espoused by an
organisation plays a very important role in
ensuring the success or failure of a referral
program.
•An organisation where employees do not
feel connected to the organisation will not be
able to run a successful employee referral
program.
•Before launching any employee referral
program, the employers should gauge
satisfaction levels and launch initiatives to
improve employee engagement and connect
programs to drive for more effective
referrals.
It is important to remember that every employee is a brand ambassador of
his/her organization and what they feel for the organization is what they
portray to the outside world

6. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Involvement
•Incase of a newly launched referral program,
send an invite to everyone from senior
management to entry level employees of the
organization.
•Make sure to communicate the features and
benefits of the program to all the employees
through a well designed presentation
•Offer incentives to employees who are
signing up for the program within a particular
time frame.
•Incase of an existing program, it should be
explained to every new employee as a part of
their induction.
•Communicate with the employees to make
them understand why referrals are important
for the organization.

7. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Keep It Simple
•Employee Referral Program should be
simple to understand and sign up. Simple
signup formalities encourage more and
more employees to participate.
•Implement a system that is easy to use
without the need of putting in tedious
effort from employees
•Minimal time should be invested by the
employees in procedural aspects like
referring a candidate, checking the status
etc.

8. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Awareness
•Employees should be made aware that
apart from the tangible benefits, employee
referrals will give them the power to
influence the people with whom they will
be working.
•Employees should be made aware as to
why the new hiring is important for the
organization.
•A brief on the new project or
diversification or any other important
information which can be shared with the
employees goes a long way in ensuring the
success of the program.

9. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Make them a part of the hiring
process
•Involve employees from the very
beginning of the Employee Referral
Program.
•They can be asked to brainstorm the job
details, design the job descriptions and
list out the attributes of the candidate
required.
•When employees feel connected to open
positions, they are more likely to give
good referrals and also make an extra
effort in finding the correct person.

10. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Social Network
•Tap your employees’ social network and
make good use of them.
•You can guide employees on how they
can search for prospective employees
from their network using keywords in the
job description as most of the social
network users add their skills and job
titles in their profiles.
•Advise employees to use personalized
one-to-one messaging rather than opting
for public announcements or wall
postings.

11. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Its all about rewarding
•Repeated surveys have indicated that
the foremost change suggested by
employees to make referral programs
more effective is to increase the value
of the reward/ bonus
•For the success of any employee
referral program, it is critical that
employees are recognized for their
efforts and Cash rewards are the most
popular form of recognition.
•Amount of Reward can vary as per
the complexity of the position. For
positions which are difficult to close,
the referral bonus can be higher.

12. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
It is all about rewarding
•The amount spent on recruiting
through external sources can be one
of the criteria in determining the value
of the cash reward. Half or one – third
of the amount spent on hiring
externally is generally considered as
appropriate.
•Some organizations also have a policy
of giving small rewards to all the
employees who participate. These
awards can be vouchers or coupons.
•Top performers can be rewarded
separately also apart from the referral
bonus.

13. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Make it fun and competitive
•You can add a leadership board in
your employee referral program which
allows the employee to see his/her
efforts and where they stand as
compared to their colleagues.
•There can be rewards for consistent
top performers.
•Interdepartmental competitions for
referrals can be introduced

14. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
Timely Feedback
•Give timely feedback to your
employees on their referrals to ensure
that they are aware if they are on the
right track . It is not a good practice to
keep employees waiting for feedback
on their referrals.
•Timely feedback will keep them
motivated as they know that their
referrals are being actively reviewed.
•Send an acknowledgement mail to
the employee after receiving any
referral. You can top it all by sending
an appreciation / Thank You mail.
•Give employees feedback on both
good as well bad referrals.

15. How To Make Your Referral
Program Work Smarter
•Once you start receiving the referrals,
screen the applicants quickly, as good
talent might receive multiple offers.
Complete the process fast
•Reject unsuitable and inactive
applicants.
•Start interviewing the shortlisted
candidates and complete the HR
process of pre-offer and offer.
•Make sure recently hired employees
are signed up for the referral program
and actively engaged.

16. About Zalp
ZALP is a unique SaaS (software-as-a-service)
based social employee referral software
designed to help organizations efficiently
source the highest quality candidates through
the most valuable source of recruitment–
Employee Referrals.

17. About Zalp
Empowered with breakthrough features that
tap into the full potential of Social Media and
an extremely user friendly interface, ZALP is
every organization’s perfect Social Employee
Referral and Social Recruiting Software.
ZALP helps organizations boost their employee
referral output by upto 72%
%

18. Why Zalp
7 easy and convenient ways to refer
The success of any employee referral program depends on one primary factor:
Employee Participation
ZALP gives employees not one but seven easy and convenient
ways to make referrals. This ensures increased employee
participation like never before.
ZALP’s social media integrated features make the referral
process for employees not only easy but also fun.

19. For more information, visit
www.zalp.com
To book a free demo, drop a mail to
info@zalp.com
www.linkedin.com/company/zalp
www.facebook.com/zalp03
www.twitter.com/zalptweets
You may also call us for any other assistance
1-866-217- 1267

20. Do you already have an
Employee Referral Program?
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you benchmark your referral program against industry leaders and
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ER-i is the first ever initiative on employee referrals that brings together recruitment leaders
from all across the world to set the benchmarks of an employee referral program.