3. Employee Referral
Definition
Recruitment method in which the current employees are
encouraged and rewarded for introducing suitable
recruits from among the people they know
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 3
4. Why referral?
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 4
5. Why referral?
Summary various external articles/research
• Costs are lower
• Quality of inflow is higher
• Turn-around time is quicker
• Staff turn-over of referred employees is lower
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 5
6. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Quality
• External agencies produced the lowest quality of hire
• Targeted sourcing, referral and internal labor market yield the best quality of hire
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 6
7. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Labor market
• About 15% of the (Dutch) labor market potential are active job seekers
and approx 50% are latent job seekers
• With the standard recruitment methods we are not able to reach an
important part of our labor market potential
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 7
8. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Speed
The network of our employees is large and we have easy and quick
access to that network
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 8
9. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Costs
The costs per hire will decrease. For Philips the priority is:
• Quality
• Reach
• Speed
Who believes referral is an important source for recruitment?
Who has an effective referral program in place?
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 9
10. Concept
What did we have in mind?
• One structured program for Philips in the Netherlands
– Coming from scattered small initiatives in departments & sectors
– Limited use of networks
• Ability to Introduce candidates for
– Current vacancies
– Pre-defined profiles for inflow referral pool
• Use as a tool for the roll out of our Employee Value Proposition
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 10
11. Creation
The road to a successful referral program in a multinational
• Clear guidelines and policies
– Terms & Conditions
– Privacy Aspects
• Approval and support from all stakeholders
– HR Community & Sectors
– Works Council (Centrale Ondernemingsraad)
– Privacy Committee
• Backend for administrative processes to facilitate candidate handling
and bonus payouts
– Automation of communication
• Clearly defined process steps with roles and responsibilities
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 11
12. Creation - What does the program look like?
Easy, simple & clear
• Candidate introductions
– One Referral Portal
– Vacancy or pre-defined pipeline profiles
• Eligibility
– All Philips staff except recruitment
• Bonus
– Amount depends on the job grade
– If hired within 6 months after intro
– Paid in month of start date by vacancy owner
• Communication:
– Philips employee and candidate are kept updated throughout the
process (via automated e-mails)
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 12
13. Implementation
Introduction & Communication Plan
HR teams: Employees Banners
Presentations,
Mailing career
communication
materials hard copy pages (int.)
Posters Banners
Recruiters: on all HR
Presentation, websites
locations
training,
comm. tools Referral
Banners Philips
sector
Portal magazine
Corp Comm:
Toolkit with sites Hard copy
communication
materials
Articles Philips e-
sector newsletter
HR community:
Article about
magazines
referral
program
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 13
15. Evaluation
Continuous Improvement
• What went well?
– High candidate quality
– High inflow
– Many hires - 9% of total hires so far
– Administrative backend worked well for bonus payouts
– Up-front agreed guidelines help to settle disagreements
• What did we learn?
– A Referral candidate is no “regular” candidate
– Philips colleagues have high expectations
– Backend process was not optimized for recruiters
– Be ready for large volumes
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 15
16. Implementation
Follow-up 2011
• Targeted boost of referral program
• Encourage line managers to activate their network
• Enable Philips employees to be an ambassador…
Talent Acquisition Benelux, May 19, 2011 16