Zalp Webinar - Raising your employee referral program result

6. RAISING YOUR EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM RESULTS TO 50% OF ALL HIRES “50% is the new ERP target”ERE.Net, May 8, 2013 ©Dr John Sullivan www.drjohnsullivan.com

7. My goals for today… To demonstrate the business impacts of referrals To expose you to dozens of proven action steps that can increase your ERP results to 50%

8. Part I What are the business reasons for focusing on referral programs?

9. Referrals produce the highest volume

10. Referrals are #1 in volume

11. Referrals are a high volume source Reached 90% of it’s hires from employee referrals Ernst & Young and Deloitte’s ERP’s both reached approximately 50% of all hires last year 11

12. Referrals produce high quality applicants

13. #1 in quality of applicants In a survey of 73 major employers… 88% said that… referrals are the # 1 best source for above average applicants Source: 2006 DirectEmployers Association/BoozAllen Recruiting Trends Survey

14. High quality applicants • Although only 7% of job applicantscame from employee referrals • A whopping 40% of ERP candidates get hired Source: 2013 JobVite Survey

15. High quality applicants Referrals have the highest interview to hire ratio • Data analysis by SilkRoad reveals that 17% of referral applicants are interviewed • And 25% of those interviewed are hired (#1) Source: Silk Road 2013 http://blog.silkroad.com/?utm_source=TLNT&utm_campaign=ec74d7751a-tlnt-daily-most-of-your-job-applicants-really&utm_medium=email

16. Referrals produce quality hires

17. Referrals are #1 in quality hires

18. Referral produce more profit • Referral hires produce moreprofit • Hires from referrals produce a nearly 25% higher profit… than hires from other sources Source: “The Value of Hiring through Referrals” (source: UC Berkeley by Burksy, Cowgillz, Holman and Housman http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/bo_cowgill/papers/Referrals.pdf)

19. Referral hires have high retention rates

20. Retention results • Referral hires have higher retention rates • Referred workers are between 10% and 30% less likely to quit than workers hired from other sources Source: “The Value of Hiring through Referrals” (source: UC Berkeley by Burksy, Cowgillz, Holman and Housman http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/bo_cowgill/papers/Referrals.pdf)

21. Part II Benchmark firms that you can learn from

22. Benchmark firms that you can learn from AmTrust Bank Deloitte Edward Jones Accenture Ernst & Young DaVita Aricent Children’s Hospital Owens Corning Accolo CACI International Acumen Solutions

23. Part III Let’s start off with 4 high impact strategic action steps

24. Strategic action #1 Prioritize and focus your ERP effort

25. Strategic action #1 Focus ERP efforts on high priority jobs including: • Mission critical jobs and business units • Revenue generating jobs • Jobs with a high previous referral success rate • Hard to fill jobs • “Sudden” key vacancies Tip – begin with a shortlist of targeted jobs and then add positions

26. Prioritize the employee with the closest relationship • Accolo uses a referral community • For every open job, it selects a few employees based on the likelihood that they will know the right person • As a result, Accolo has averaged 8 referrals for every job (#1)

27. Be careful Homer will refer people also

28. Prioritize your employees Focus on referrals from top performing employees • Why? Because referral hires from top performers…produce nearly3 times more profit… compared… to a referral hire from a below average performer • Seek out and prioritize referrals from top performers • But also… warn, restrict or ban employees that routinely make weak referrals Source: “The Value of Hiring through Referrals” (source: UC Berkeley by Burksy, Cowgillz, Holman and Housman http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/bo_cowgill/papers/Referrals.pdf)

29. Strategic action #2 Do not overemphasize monetary rewards

30. Strategic action #2 Use “help the team" motivation (not $) • The most effective referral motivation approach emphasizes the opportunity to work alongside great people… because the team wins more frequently… when it has the best players

31. Strategic action #2 You can build a “help the team” mentality… by emphasizing these benefits to employees • Higher quality hires will improve business results and thus raise employee stock value and bonuses • It’s part of the responsibility of being a team player • You will be recognized for “helping the team” • You will learn more from higher-quality new hires • You won’t have to work alongside slackers Note: A feedback loop is required to tell employees whether they made a “junk” or a “star” referral Also show them the correlation between improved business results and a higher % of ERP hires

32. 2 examples… referrals don’t require $ bonuses Reached and maintained a +70% referral rate with no $ rewards Edward Jones reached 55% with no bonus 32

33. Strategic action #3 Be proactive in seeking out referrals

34. Strategic action #3 Why you need to be proactive? • “Great people know great people”, howevermost employees are extremely busy… so to maximize your referrals… you will need to proactively approach your top referring employees • Here are 3 proactive ERP tools to consider

35. “Proactive” referral tools A) Give me 5 –Proactively approach top employees Ask them to identify and then contact the… • Best manager they ever had • Best team leader • Best idea person or innovator • Best person that "runs into" burning buildings • Best problem solver • Best sales person that beats you • Best student in college that was so smart • Best mentor • Best technical skilled person • Best international talent • Best customer service person • Best external replacement for you when you’re promoted

36. “Proactive” tools B) Reach out to job references for referrals • Identify top performing hires from last year • Call their references that said accurate things • Thank them • Ask them “Do you know anyone else as good?” • Ask them to be a future reference source

37. “Proactive” tools C) “Most wanted list” forrelationship building • Executives identify… a list of gamechangers and potential “magnet hires” at the beginning of the year • Employees are asked to seek outthese highly desirable individuals and to build a relationship with them over social media(Relationship recruiting) • When they eventually agreed to consider becoming a referral… speed hiring is required

38. Strategic action #4 Broaden the program and expand it’s eligibility

39. Strategic action #4 Broaden the program • Add on-boarding referrals – proactively ask new hires for referrals during on-boarding (Eli Lily) • Add college referrals – the college population is well connected through social networks, so add a referral sub-program for college hires and interns (Endeca, Intuit) • Add referrals for executive positions– advanced ERP’s also cover openings for executive positions • Focus on boomerangs – encourage your employees to target your best corporate alumni… (also allow them to make referrals)

40. Strategic action #4 Broaden the program • Add internal movement referrals - have a referral program that is designed to encourage internal movement. The best practice firm Booz Allen has a “Career mobility” team (Also MS, Cisco)

41. Expand program eligibility Expand eligibility • Executives are encouraged to refer- a “white glove treatment” recruiter can be assigned to encourage executives to make referrals (Deloitte) • Managers and HR are made eligible – managers and those in HR are also well connected, so they should be eligible to make referrals (Accenture) Note: you can help minimize conflicts of interest by offering the option of contributing any ERP reward to charity. It can also be a significant motivator for those that are not driven by bonuses (Accenture, DaVita)

42. Expand eligibility Expand eligibility to non-employees Open up referrals to non-employees including • Family • Contingent workers • Consultants and vendors • Customers • Board members • Corporate alumni (Internosis, Clearlink, CACI, Verinon)

43. Next: A long list of tactical action steps that can dramatically improve results

44. Action steps Tips for improving referral volume

45. Best practices for increasing referral volume • Hold referral events – hold physical referral events and “virtual meetups” in order to garner attention, to educate, and to get "spot" referrals (Monster.com) • Alerts – send targeted alerts to the most relevant employees with a successful referral track record in order to make them aware of your current need. (CACI International and Quicken Loans) • Competition– friendly internal contests between teams can dramatically improve results (Deloitte)

46. Best practices for increasing referral volume • Harness social networks – closely integrate referrals with your firm’s social media effort • Recognize managers – set targets, make it a promotion criteria and then… track, report, recognize and rewardindividual managers for high referral rates within their team

47. Increase volume by requiring less upfront • Accept profiles –at least initially, allow LinkedIn profiles in lieu of resumes • Accept just names – instead of requiring the full resume, accept names only (Children’s hospital in Dallas pay $100… just for name in key jobs… even if they are not hired… and 25% of the names result in a hire)

48. Action steps Educate your employees

49. Education and help Provide them with hands on help • Provide virtual “referral coaches” • Offer sample social media profiles and provide templates that can guide employees on how to develop contacts and relationships online • Offer to critique their profile or their blog • Provide them with stories – develop "story inventories" that employees can access and then use to "sell" the firm to potential referees

50. Google has a story inventory A story Inventory for recruiters and employees 50