One of the most effective ways to secure candidates for positions is to implement an employee referral program. If you’re looking for ways to improve recruiting for your supply chain organization, encouraging current employees to refer people in their own networks can increase your number of hired candidates and the level of talent you have in your company. There are just a few guidelines that will make all the difference as you build your referral program.
1. Offer Incentives
First thing’s first: you need to incentivize your employees to make referrals. Offering small bonuses, prizes or gift cards should be enough to get employees interested and engaged. People like to feel recognized or rewarded for putting in a little extra time and effort. Knowing they have something to gain will be a strong motivator.
2. Show Appreciation, No Matter the Outcome
There may be times when an employee recommends a candidate who doesn’t get hired. An employee who doesn’t feel appreciated or acknowledged, even if their referral didn’t pan out, will be less likely to make referrals in the future. The logical solution to this issue is to offer small rewards for referrals and then bigger rewards for successful ones. This will encourage employees to put extra thought into their choices.
3. Target Critical Positions
If your company is looking for specific positions, communicate this to your employees. These may be harder-to-fill positions or ones that the company especially needs. Feel free to offer extra incentives to employees for making referrals for those jobs to speed up the process.
4. Create a Referral Policy
Before you put your employee referral program into practice, you should create a referral policy that details your exact expectations. Communication with your employees is essential to your program’s success, and it will help keep everything organized and streamlined.
5. Accept and Implement Feedback
A large part of building or improving any program is about experimenting to find out what works and what doesn’t. Ask your employees for feedback and try out new ideas whenever you’re able. You need to be comfortable with a bit of trial and error if you want to build the most effective policy possible.
Improve Your Company’s Supply Chain Recruiting
If your company is part of the supply chain discipline, you need to constantly consider how you can recruit new job candidates. This is why having an employee referral program is so crucial. It allows you to hire from within your own ranks and find even more qualified candidates than if you did your own sourcing on the outside.
The supply chain always requires an inward and outward flow of candidates and employees. These program guidelines will help your company recruit more efficiently and reliably, so you can trust the best candidates to take on invaluable leadership roles.
If you need professionals to help your company refine its hiring strategy, Optimum Supply Chain Recruiters offers fast and effective supply chain recruiting. Contact us today with any questions you have on hiring or recruiting!
Don Jacobson
Don Jacobson was born and raised in New York City, and graduated with a B.A. degree in Management from the City University of New York. For 10 years, Don managed Operations and Supply Chain departments for consumer products companies. He then turned his attention to supply chain recruiting and for the past 27 years, has specialized in recruiting and placing supply chain executives throughout North America. Don is certified by the National Association of Personnel Consultants. He was a Partner at Hunt Ltd., and more recently was the Founder and Managing Partner of LogiPros LLC, a logistics recruiting firm. Don is a regular contributor of topical human resource articles for DC Velocity magazine, the CSCMP Supply Chain Comment, and The WERCSheet, published by the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC). He is Past President of the NY/NJ/CT chapter of WERC.