The Best Employee Referral Program

It seems like you can’t look anywhere these days without seeing a help wanted advertisement. Everyone is hiring and pet care businesses are no exception. Couple that with record low unemployment rates and you have an extremely challenging hiring market for small business owners. We’ve had to get creative in our hiring methods whether it be where we’re advertising, how we’re wording our job postings or what types of people we are looking for.

One area that many people overlook is recommendations from our current employees. Your employees love your business and love what they do. If they didn’t, believe me, they wouldn’t still be sticking around. There are just too many job opportunities out there for anyone to stay in a company or a job they don’t like. In this challenging hiring arena, your current employees can be your best answer to finding great new people. You need an employee referral strategy!

Post pandemic a lot of people are looking for more fulfilling roles. They don’t want just an income; they also want something that they enjoy and can feel good about. They’re branching out into areas that seem interesting but that they no little or nothing about. So how do they learn about these new opportunities? They do research, they read articles, they peruse job postings but most of all they talk to their friends and family.

We trust people we know. If my friend tells me that pet sitting for xyz company is the best job she’s ever done, I’m going to trust that she’s telling me the straight truth. Then, based on that truth, I’m going to consider becoming a pet sitter for xyz company.

So how do you get your current employees to refer you to their friends? You can do a great job as a boss and hope that they tell their friends and family or you can take a more proactive approach. This is where your employee referral program comes in. Here are the five elements of a great program.

#1 Allow the employee to get something out of it

People generally like helping other people. They like feeling knowledgeable and able to provide a friend with a great option for employment. They also like being recognized for doing a good deed (i.e., referring you). This recognition can be as simple as a sincere thank you from you to them of it can be more sophisticated and in the form of a cash reward or gift for referring someone who you subsequently hire. This doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as straightforward as “Refer a new employee, get $100 in your next paycheck.”. If you want to get really fancy with it you can create escalated rewards. For example, the referrer gets $100 for their first referral, $200 for their second referral, etc.  

One watchout with rewards for referral is that you might want to introduce a waiting period. For example, you may pay out the reward after the new hire has been on board for 6 months. This helps ensure that employees give some thought to their referrals verses just throwing anyone your direction and that you’re not paying out referral bonuses for new employees that come on board and then leave after a short time.

#2 Tell your employees what your perfect candidate looks like

Don’t assume your people know what kind of people you like to hire. For example, it’s easy to assume that a potential pet sitter candidate needs to have pet sitting experience. This isn’t always true. When I hire, my ideal candidate may not have any direct pet sitting experience. Instead, I tend to look for career caregivers such as nurses or vet techs. People like this have a passion for helping others and that translates across species (i.e., they love taking care of people and animals). Don’t leave it up to your employees to guess what you need, help them be on the lookout for your perfect next employee.

#3 Make it easy for your employees to refer someone

I’m lazy, you’re lazy, everyone’s lazy. This is nothing against people, it’s just the way it is. Even the most helpful and kindhearted people will do what you want them to do if you make it easy for them. This doesn’t have to be difficult. You can provide all of your employees with a link to a hiring landing page on your website. They can then easily provide their friends with the like to find out more.

#4 Make sure your ROI (return on investment) is in line

Monetary or gift rewards for referrals are a nice way to encourage them but you need to be careful that you’re not giving away the bank. If you know on average how much money you spend sourcing a new employee, you can have an idea of how much you want to spend rewarding employee referrals. As a general rule most business owners underestimate the cost of sourcing, hiring and training new employees. High turnover in a business amplifies these costs. It’s worth it to you to use every resource you can to find the best people to start out with. Understanding the numbers in your business will allow you to feel confident that you’re getting a good return on your investment.

#5 – Promote your program

And finally, once you’ve put together an amazing referral program, shout it out! Let your employees know whenever possible that this is a company benefit. Shout out referrals from employees to the entire team. Make them feel special, because they are special. They’ve given you an invaluable gift.

There you have it, the five elements of a great employee referral program. Your business is great, your employees know your business is great, use that energy to spread the word and bring in new employees!

Another great article you might enjoy

The Best Client Referral Program

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/the-best-client-referral-program/

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have a growing pet family. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.