This document summarizes the key aspects of employee referral programs discussed in a focus group. It outlines the benefits of referral programs, common reward structures including typical payment amounts, challenges, best communication practices, ideas to improve programs, and fundamentals for an effective referral program. The high-level goals, benefits, and elements of a successful referral program are presented.

1. Focus Group OutputEmployee Referral Schemes16/07/10

3. Cultural Fit

4. Speed of hire

5. Quicker assimilation for new starters

6. Employee engagement

7. Reduction of absence and attrition

8. Successful cross border recruiting

10. Top 20 ERP rewards (Thanks to Andy Headworth from Sirona Consulting for these! www.sironaconsulting.com ) 1.Time off. This was the surprising winner, with companies giving time off for successful referrals, ranging from an afternoon, to a day, to a week (very generous!). 2. Cold hard cash! As always money talks, and this ranged from £200 up to £3000 per referral. 3. Travel Allowance. With petrol prices and travel in general getting more expensive, no surprise this came in at no.3. Answers included petrol paid for and train fares covered. 4. Special Event. An example being a fully paid trip to Monaco Grand Prix 5. Holiday. A week away at a choice of destination, fully paid. 6. Restaurant. A long lunch at a good restaurant to include the person referred to the company 7. Vouchers. Retail shopping vouchers 8. Health Spa. Weekend away at a health spa to be pampered. 9. Red Letter Days. Choice of certain value from the Red Letter Day website 10. Training Courses. This is different - rewarding referrals with a range of training courses they wouldn't normally go on. 11. Wine. Ranged from case of wine to malt whiskeys. 12. Day trips. This covered theme parks, visits to France via Eurostar (UK obviously!) and golf trips. 13. Prepaid Visa Cards. Prepaid credit cards loaded with a pre-set amount. Similar ro vouchers and cash, but different enough to be included. 14. Piggy Bank. Referrals are converted on a points basis and used at the end of the year to "buy" from a selection including holidays and bonuses. 15. Luxury Gifts. Wide range here from watches to Tom Tom's to Cameras to iPods to sports equipment. 16. Treats. This is a nice one. Gifts that people wouldn't normally buy themselves such as luxury food from deli's and fine food shops like Carluccios. 17. Charity. Making donations to charity for each referral brought into the company. 18. Flights. Vouchers for air travel. 19. Gym Membership. Depending on level of referral, membership to a gym for a set period of time.

12. Perm employees only can refer

13. Referrer cannot be the Hiring Manager or Recruiter

14. All used their ATS to support the Referral process – Taleo highly rated

15. Predominantly one payment only

17. Role specific or generic referrals?

18. Scalability from a Global perspective

19. Ensuring a continuous message

20. Diversity – no more than 50% referrals

22. E-shots

23. Hot jobs emails

24. Email to post-joiners

25. New joiner meetings

26. Posters & leaflets in departmental and public places

27. Plasma screen advertising

28. Screensavers

29. Payslips

30. Commsfrom Managers / Recruitment champions to their teams

31. ERP promotions in team meetings / business updates

33. “Hot jobs paid at double the fee”

34. Payment for referral ‘leads’ not placements

35. Third party referral reward

36. 1st interview payment rewards

37. Referrals remain active for 6 months in the talent pool

38. New Joiners – Who are the best five people that you have worked with? Where are they now?

39. Team targeting – reward for team with highest number of referrals

40. Referral portal on intranet

41. Case studies of success

42. Leader board of employee referrers

43. Company wide voicemail from senior stakeholder

44. Entry into competition after x number of referrals (holiday, car etc)

45. Quarterly refresher campaigns

47. Fit for purpose

48. Simple and clear policy and process

49. Senior Stakeholder support

50. Flexibility and Scalability

51. Continuous marketing and communication strategy

52. Reward should be realistic, competitive and timely

53. Measurement