Social Media Is A Key Driver In Employee Referrals

By Author: Savio Vadakkan
Total Articles: 58
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Employee referrals have always been one of the best ways to get the right talent for the job, due to its inherent value proposition. Having an employee playing the role of a brand ambassador adds to the credibility of this process. Social media has opened up new ways to integrate the popular route of employee referrals with the actual hiring process. Companies need to leverage the reach of employees via their virtual networks, professional online forums and all the social media activity they indulge in with their peers and ex-colleagues. Social media recruiting needs to play a leading role in the overall recruitment strategy. HR teams need to closely monitor the possibilities within existing networks of employees. Let’s examine some of the key initiatives which will help hr managers build solid employee referrals using new age technology or the ubiquitous social media.

1-Focused social media recruiting strategy

Employees participate on various social media channels. Companies need to develop a result oriented social media recruiting strategy wherein they can link various social media tools within one dashboard ...
... accessible to the employees. Jobs can be posted easily with employees having the advantage of sharing it within their networks in real time. Linking it across a broad base of social media tools will encourage employees to take quick action with less effort.

2-Invest in an effective employee referral software

It’s important for the recruitment team to aid the employees in this process by investing in a smart and effective employee referral software. This software needs to involve the employee with one click wherein he can fill in details or link the company’s recruiters to the prospective candidate via a social media platform. By having this tool, the employee does not need to be the middleman. They can repost the job opening easily. Socially intelligent employee referral tools such as ZALP makes the process of referring for employees as simple as a click of a mouse.

3-Utilize the BYOD trend

Increasingly employees are bringing their own devices (BYOD) to their workplaces. By informing them on their own devices, you will be giving the freedom and ease of reach to them to connect with their networks without the barriers posed by the company IT policies.

4-Know your employees influence quotient

Are any of your employees’ popular bloggers, or have many followers on Twitters or maybe have their own forums on their networks? Having this knowledge will add to your social media recruiting initiative. An employee having a significant influence quotient can play an important role, by integrating a line or a post for the opening. Once a popular social media figure puts it across, the reach will increase.

5-Move to mobile

Mobiles are omnipresent and with newer mobile tools like Whatsapp, Wechat etc driving communication, this is the way to go. Your employees are connected while on the move, so engaging with them via the mobile will help them pass on the opening to those who may not be so active on social media networks or may not trust them as much as their mobile groups.

6-Educate your employees on leveraging social media for referrals

Identify willing employees who wish to be more active in the area of referrals. Educate them on the new tools implemented by the company and how to use them to initiate the referral program. Do share new developments in this space with all employees via the intranet with demos showing them how to participate in social media recruiting.

Social media recruiting has changed the way talent is recruited and with newer social media tools coming in all the time, employee referrals will get swift, effective and participative. No company can ignore the role played by social media in the hiring process. ZALP is the first recruitment tool that intelligently uses social media with a single point focus of improving an organization’s employee referral program.

You can read more on latest trends and technologies in recruitment on www.zalp.com/theemployeereferralblog/

Author Bio:

Savio Vadakkan is the Marketing Professional at ZALP, a unique employee referrals booster. ZALP enables organizations to automate and streamline every aspect of their employee referral program while at the time same integrates it with the potent potential of social media recruiting using its advanced social media capabilities.