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Why Employee Referral Programs
are an Effective Tool for Sourcing Diverse and Top Talent
Cathlene Johnson
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I have been to several conferences this year
where over and over I have heard that the best sourcing strategy
is an Employee Referral Program. So I was not surprised to see Wet Feet's
sourcing findings in the 2001 Diversity Recruiting
Report that said:
"Referrals
are the most effective sourcing method for companies and the top
source of jobs for diverse candidates."
Most employers have Employee Referral
Programs, still many continue to fall short in their efforts to recruit diverse and top
talent. What is it about an Employee Referral Program that
makes it an effective tool for sourcing diverse and top talent?
Let's take a look at two key assumptions about Employee Referral
Programs.
Together these assumptions indicated that beyond the employee
referral program your sourcing strategy does not engage the
network or community that connects your employees and their referrals.
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There are two key assumptions that we need to
look closer at when we hear this recommendation. The first
assumption about an employee referral is that there is a
relationship between your employee and the candidate that was
referred, otherwise contact with this referral would not have
been possible. The second assumption about an employee referral
is that hires filled through an Employee Referral Program were not
sourced by any other sourcing methods used by your organization.
Together these assumptions indicated that beyond the Employee
Referral Program your sourcing strategy does not engage the
network or community that connects your employees and their referrals.
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Applicant
vs Source Generating Employee Referral Programs
Many company
Employee Referral Programs focus and measure the success of the
program only on the number of qualified applicants that the
program can generate. Sourcing is limited to
sourcing the job listing to its employees or with more extensive referral programs, to
vendors. Analysis of the Employee Referral Program is
generally limited to identifying the
Employee Referral Program as the source of hire. However, an
Employee Referral Program that is source-generating, focuses on generating
applicants but more importantly, the program focuses on
analyzing the connection between the referring employee and referred
applicant and uses that information to define and refine your
organization's
sourcing strategy.
The
Employee Connection and Your Sourcing Strategy
The key to an Employee Referral Program that
produces top and diverse talent is to incorporate the sources
from which employees are referred into the organization's
overall sourcing strategy. Employee and referral connections are based on
some type of similar community or network that they share. When
I say community I am referring to those things that as
individuals give us a sense of belonging to each other. These
networks are professional or social and formal or informal. As a
recruiter, it is your job to establish from the referring
employee what is the connection and how you can implement that
connection into your sourcing strategy.
One quick way to tap into your employee's
connection is to have them take a quick sourcing survey that ask
referring/current employees about their connections. What
organizations, associations, communities, affinities and
networks do they belong to? What opportunities are available for
you as an employer to connect with this network? You may find
that as opposed to one referral you are now in direct contact
with a stream of diverse talent. A simple sourcing strategy that we have used in our
organization is included in the resource section of this
article.
Barriers
to Diversity Sourcing
Since this recommendation has come up so often
I wonder about the obviousness of the connection and why
recruiter's don't develop stronger sourcing strategies within these
networks. My speculations from my own experience as a recruiter
leads me to believe that there may be an underlying uncertainty
of associating ourselves with affiliations that don't have a
clear recruiting context. Many diversity sources whether
professional, social, formal or informal may not have defined
recruiting products or formats. Additionally, there may be some
uncertainty about how we begin to integrate our organizations
within a cultural context or format that we may not understand.
Finally, as recruiters we may diminish the value of these communities.
At DiversityStream.com we have put a lot of
thought and work around the channels in which diversity
candidates network and form communities and how the community we
serve can tap into these channels. Visit our Channel
Highlights to see resources on developing a diverse talent
stream in your organization.
