By Ringside Talent Partners
November 9, 2022
Employees have always been a part of many companies’ recruiting strategies—typically offering bonuses for new employees they introduce to the company. But in many organizations, HR is underutilizing this valuable asset of knowledgeable, credible recruiters that is enormous in size and impact.
According to new benchmarking data from the Society for Human Resource Management, many employers estimate the total cost to hire a new employee can be three to four times the position’s salary, according to the SHRM Foundation.
Of course, you can significantly reduce that cost when you engage your talent fully and actively in the process. Here’s how:
Make it easy.
First, create a work environment that is worthy of promotion. The net promoter score, which is used to identify how willing consumers are to promote your organization, should be implemented to see if your employees would actively promote your company. If the score isn’t where you’d like it to be, make the changes necessary to create an environment that’s worthy of promotion. We’ve all seen the fervor of people promoting their favorite brand— just look at Apple or Harley Davidson’s groupies. Don’t you want that same enthusiasm for your company as a place of employment?
Have them make their opinions public.
Encourage employees to share their company reviews on Glassdoor. Scary? Not if you’re providing a promotion-worthy experience for your people. You shouldn’t have to worry about the impact of company reviews if you have created a truly inspiring, inclusive workplace with lots of opportunities for career development, growth and learning. We rarely go to a restaurant these days before reading a review. Your employer brand reviews have a similarly huge impact on the potential talent pool for your job openings.
Build a digital brand ambassador program.
When you encourage your people to be a voice of the brand, you create a chorus that’s as large as your entire employee roster singing, chanting and harmonizing your company’s news and successes. We know that when employees share company communications, those messages have more impact and credibility than when shared by your traditional communication channel. This boon for visibility has mostly been used as a marketing activity with employees touting the company’s value to customers. Digital brand stewards can also help spread the message about your workplace to future employees, when you encourage them do so.
Inspire all your people to use social media to share relevant job openings, news about employees doing impressive things, information about your company’s benefits, learning opportunities and commitment to the community and social causes. They have more credibility than your company’s standard communication channels, and together they’ve probably amassed a lot more followers than your company has.
Get them when they join.
Add to your onboarding program a segment about the ways you hire, your desire to have existing talent bring in new talent and ways they can get involved. It’s a nice pat on the back when you say, “We trust you to attract top talent and introduce them to the organization.” Share stats like the percent of the people you brought in this year thanks to introductions by your existing talent. Help your people understand that talent recruitment is part of everyone’s job.
Promote your people externally.
Use your subject matter experts and thought leaders as talent magnets by sharing their expertise, along with their accolades and awards. Many people who eventually end up working for a company were first followers of a thought-leader in that company. Today, your people’s personal brands are powerfully linked with your company brand.
Your people are your greatest asset, and they’ll return valuable dividends when you invest in their role as recruiters.
Source: William Arruda via Forbes.com