Do you know what employees think of referral programs?

I don’t ever get paid any money.

The recruiters never share what happens to my friends. I emailed a recruiter but received no response to the resume.

Referrals are a waste of time.

Have you heard something similar? We talked to over 100 employees across industries and sectors. The themes mentioned above resonated through the responses. The top pain points listed by employees are

1. Loss of Trust in the recruitment culture

Lack of information on their referral progress was sighted as the top reason for most people not referring again. Employees expect responses from the recruitment team given that they have contributed profiles. Often times, given the ratio of recruiters to employees, this becomes difficult to respond to every one. This lack of information on their referrals results in loss of trust towards the recruiting process.

2. Lack of job awareness

Most employees are unaware of the positions that are being recruited for. Despite many companies implementing weekly newsletters, employees either ignore the newsletter for its static content or set auto filters to avoid the same. This means that they are unaware of the positions that the company is hiring for.

3. Tedious referral processes

Employees clearly feel that having to fill out most details about a candidate is not worth their time. It involves talking to the candidate, getting his details and most times, they end up forgetting to follow through on the conversation.

If you have read - 8 Reasons why Employee referrals are the best way to hire, you can see why we are big fans of Employee Referrals. We also believe that the above problems are just symptoms. The real disease is in the current game design. We will cover why Employee Referral Game Design is messed up in a subsequent post. 

What challenges have you faced with an employee referral program? Did you anticipate any of the reasons above? Were you as surprised, as I was, when you saw that money was not even a significant factor?