Employee referrals on social media are vital for finding top talent!

March 8, 2023
6:23 pm

Joy Olaivar

Word of mouth has always been the most effective way to discover new talent

Even with the incredible quantity of new technology devoted to finding and acquiring future talent for your firm, that is still true today. Given how effective employee referral programs (ERP) can be in locating top talent, it might be time to adopt a different recruiting strategy. Using their social media accounts, current employees can help “spread the word” about the fantastic job opportunities at your organization.

The average employee has 400 contacts on Facebook and LinkedIn

according to SMARP. Several also have more than 250 Instagram followers. What if you were able to reach out to these networks with certain specific job postings? You need to start considering new recruiting tactics to fill vacancies because there are currently more open positions than there are available workers and the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in years. Otherwise, your company’s growth will stall. The social media channels used by your present staff might help.

It is difficult to get staff on board with helping you with your recruiting plan, which is precisely why so many companies turn away. The word “social media” comes first in the main justification. The possibility that one of their employees will publish an offensive statement and expose the company to legal liability for discrimination terrifies companies. Businesses worry that it might go too far and encroach on their employees’ personal space.

The amusing thing is that businesses have long asked their staff members to assist with recruiting. If they recommend the recruited applicant, the conventional ERP notifies staff members of bonus-eligible positions. This is a fantastic illustration of this from RIVCO. This is a wonderful place to start if you don’t already do it, at the very least.

A social referral program is much trickier. Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Make sure your social media policy is easy to comprehend. Whether or whether you ask employees to share job vacancies on their social networks, you still need this.

2. The material you want your staff to distribute must be created by you. Excellent content is necessary for a successful social media strategy. Although this is difficult, there are several organizations (such as Shaker) that can help. Adding this content to Google Drive, Dropbox, or Slack is also an option.

3. Have all content available on your employee portal so that your staff members may “share” it with a single click. Making something as simple as possible is crucial. Utilize the share buttons in your internal employee email to disseminate hot jobs.

4. Give your workers an incentive to share. What if you offered them a $5 Starbucks gift card in exchange for sharing an article on Facebook or LinkedIn? You just linked to 5,000 individuals for $50 if just ten employees shared your message and they all had 500 LinkedIn relationships. The actual strength is in the likelihood that your current employees are connected to others who share their interests.

5. It’s okay that you will never have 100% participation. Those who want to spread the word will do so because the program should be so simple to use.

This is a simple method to begin considering the potential uses of a social media ERP. There are numerous ERP businesses with outstanding technologies available to assist you (Zao, Simpplr, Boon, ZALP, etc.). I would suggest starting with a couple of jobs and making them easily shareable. It won’t cost a lot, and you might be pleasantly pleased by the outcome.