Top 10 Employee Referral Program Blunders Made by Employers   by Savio Vadakkan

With competition for talent intensifying by the day, organizations are going all out to attract talent through various means; employee referrals being one of the most frequently employed one. However in their bid to use multiple channels of recruitment to increase the chances of hiring, employers end up making common referral blunders which decrease the overall effectiveness of the employee referral program. Given below are top 10 employee referral blunders by employers to be avoided if you want your referral program to yield a high ROI.

• Late response or no response at all to employee referrals is one of the biggest mistakes employers make as recruiters try to avoid the manual effort involved in responding to every employee referral. No response or even a late response is a potential referral program killer as employees lose faith in the program and not only stop referring themselves but also dissuade others from referring.
• Not having a mobile optimized referral site can significantly bring down the number of referrals as more work gets done through hand held devices rather than through desktops or even laptops.
• Excluding a section of employees like the HR team and senior managers from participating in the program is a very common mistake most employers make in an effort to ensure fair play and transparency. However excluding some employees from referring itself is a big morale killer reducing the efficacy of the program.
• Insufficient, poor or boring communication has a domino effect on the referral program leading to its eventual collapse. Communication has a vital role to play in a referral program and it is important to ensure that there is interesting and informative communication going out to employees on a regular basis.
• Insufficient feedback to employees on the quality of their referral leads to employees continuing to make the same mistakes while referring leading to poor quality of referrals. Employees need to be provided regular feedback on how they can improve the quality of their referral so that both the organization and the employee benefit from the program.
• Providing little or no rewards leads to low referral motivation while providing too much referral rewards can be financially draining for the organization and not serve as a great motivating tool by itself. Ensure that referral rewards are in line with employee expectations so that motivation for participation remains high.
• Dragging referral reward payment is another common blunder employers make in their bid to ensure that referral hires stay the course. However they have an adverse effect on employee morale as they have to wait for a long time to realize the true value of their referral.
• Keeping the same referral rewards for a long time is another big blunder as the same rewards fail to excite employees over a period of time and employees simply lose the motivation to participate.
• Keeping the referral program constant without increasing the scope or features of the program is also an oft repeated mistake by employers as the program loses relevancy and employees lose interest in the referral program.
• Lastly, not including social media capability in your referral program due to restrictions on social media usage in office is also a blunder made by employers. Social media can make the effectiveness of the referral program twice as effective as and many times faster than normal.