If you want to create a ‘tribe of headhunters’ — i.e. your proud, happy, engaged employees who can’t wait to tell others about you — you actually have to deliver a work experience that inspires such behavior.

Many companies put the cart before the horse.

They:

1. Offer employees monetary incentives for referring people without making sure they are delivering a work experience their employees would want to bring their friends into.
2. They spend great sums of money trying to recruit people and not enough time, energy, creativity, and resources to CREATE AN EXPERIENCE that compels people to talk about it to their friends and colleagues.

Everyone involved in talent acquisition needs to THINK EXPERIENCE, not just the overall employee work experience, but the many moments of truth that shape that experience.

For more on this, you might want to check out the article I did for ERE awhile back:

‘For a More Successful Employee Referral Program, Think Experience’

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/31BBF3CCFB8C44D5BC914414A2858AE1.asp

or

http://tinyurl.com/2htevj

Also, if you search my articles on Employer Branding at ERE, you’ll find a lot of ‘how to’ info on this.

Hope that helps.

You?re absolutely right, this is one of the biggest areas companies could really use to get ahead of the pack but so many don’t do it!! I work with thousands of people every year who are looking for new roles and the ones who come away unsuccessful often are the ones who talk the most…. only a had full of companies appear to recognize this, I?ve found a number of the problems tend to be around the following:-

1.FROM THE OFF. The companies who detail out the recruitment process from the start are often seen as being the most honest.
2.TREAT PEOPLE LIKE ADULTS. Often the candidates feel frustrated when they are not told where both they and the process are at?.
3.KNOWLEDGE OF ROLE. I appreciate sometimes this isn?t always possible but when you have information on the role please pass this on to the candidate. I?ve known times when companies don?t pass the information on and when in an interview the expectation is the candidate knows this can cause problems.
4.ORGANISATION. When things appear to be disorganised this crates the wrong impression.

These are just a few of the things I?ve heard over the past but hope it helps.

Lincoln

Just to add an example to this:
We just hired someone with a retail background. We knew she understood sales when she said her goal with each customer was to make sure they either left with a stack of their high-end product, or had such a good experience that even though they left empty-handed they returned and/ or sent friends in to shop there. More of us should apply this philosophy to our recruiting efforts.

Our team strives to follow up with each and every one of our employ referral with a phone call (even if they are assesed to not be a fit at the outset). The same follow up is given to every candidate that is phone screened (or progresses beyond). We continue to receive kudos from candidate for the ‘extra step’ in follow up, even though they hoped for a different outcome. It is not uncommon for these candidates to refer even more candidates.