More and more social (sharing) tools are coming available on the market that promise to boost your Employee Referral Program (ERP). These tools are build to easily share your vacancies via employees on their preferred social network of choice e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. But will such a tool really make a big impact?
Dr. John Sullivan has more than a decade of collecting program performance data, researching program design, and writing a book on ERPs. In his latest article, Advanced Employee Referral Programs — Best Practices You Need to Copy, he shows that exceptional referral programs are extremely sophisticated and require highly coordinated resources. It struck me that when you review the 40 (!) Practices That Distinguish Great from Average there is not a single one for which a social sharing tool provides a solution.
This supports my believe that only a fully integrated approach to referral recruitment can produce more than 30% of external hires via employee referrals. In my experience you can add a few candidates to your pipeline with a social sharing tool. And perhaps you can even make a few hires out of it. But I’m interested in your experience and thoughts on this.
Could you tell me how you approach your referral program? Have you had much success with social referral tools?
