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Ever wondered when and how employee referrals came into being? Around the 4th century B.C., there were a lot of jobs to be filled in the Roman army, yet there were not enough candidates and many were poorly qualified. Staffing an army where wars were common wasn’t easier. They needed a consistent pool of soldiers and other support staff like carpenters, doctors, and engineers to keep the army going.

We often get this question, should we really run a referral program for roles that require no experience. Employee referral is a very solid channel when it comes to driving productivity, attracting high quality hires. It's a great channel for retention. Given the benefits on offer, it makes absolutely no sense to exclude any kind of positions from the employee referral program. Rather, deploy some best practices like the ones listed below to manage the employee referral program for junior positions.

Poof! Gone! He/She is not picking up my calls any more. Aunt, Uncle, Mother are in the hospital. Or god forbid, in the mortuary.

Employee challenges or escalations tend to be around two major things - payroll and employee referral statuses. An employee holds the referral process fairly close to their heart. They have taken the efforts to find good talent and believe that the candidate would be a good fit for the organisation. Employees tend to get emotionally vested with their friends whom they have referred for a particular role and as a result expect to be kept in the loop around their candidature.

Employee referral is one of the best channels to hire quality talent. And, if done well, it can impact an organisation’s topline in a significant way. So, what’s an employee referral?