How do you structure an
effective hiring bounty?
Employee
referral programs can be powerful internal
recruitment tools-if done right. Measure and
implement the right referral bonus by
following these three no-nonsense rules:
Don't be
stingy. Figure how much you've spent in
employment advertising and compare it to how
many new hires you attracted. Say you spent
$4,000 in ads and successfully recruited
four people. That's $1,000 each. Try to
match your bounty to your real costs-or at
least split the difference between what
you're currently paying and your actual
costs of hiring. Meager bonuses of $100 or
less won't get the best results.
Put a time
limit on it. Don't leave a job-referral
bounty hanging with no deadline. You want to
induce an active approach by your
employees-you want them to strive for the
reward by going home, looking at their
Christmas card list, bowling league, etc.,
to think about potential job candidates they
know and can network with. Set a 60-day
bounty limit, tops.
Pay it in
cash and cover the tax. Give the bounty
winner the reward in cash-hand it to him
personally in new, crisp $100 bills. It's
visual, personal and impressive to other
employees. Better yet: Pick up the tax on
the bonus for the employee. The reward is
that much more meaningful.
Resource: Stu
Mahlin, a Cincinnati-based staffing
consultant who spent more than a year
traveling across the country interviewing
hundreds of company supervisors and
recruiters on hiring trends. He is writing a
book on his findings, Hiring: Advice
From the Trenches.
Employees who
refer recruits can win a Jeep
Organizations
everywhere are on the lookout for good
employees, and they're enlisting their own
workforce in the hunt. At Deloitte &
Touche, a program called "Refer
Potential Movers and Shakers," or RPMS,
rewards employees with cash bonuses of
$2,000-$15,000 for referrals, depending on
the new person's level. In addition, workers
who make a successful referral are entered
in a drawing to win a Jeep Wrangler (they
can opt for the cash value if they wish).
While these figures may be out of your
range, try adapting the idea of a bonus or a
drawing on a scale that fits your
organization.
-Adapted from
PR Newswire
Be careful
with referral bounties
A bonus for
employees who refer potential recruits to
your organization can be a good way to find
and hire qualified people, but be wary of
possible legal issues. If an employee is
referring people from his or her previous
job, check to make sure there's no legal
agreement prohibiting the person from luring
away colleagues. Otherwise your company
could face a messy lawsuit.
-Adapted
from the Business Journal
Implementing an
Employee Referral Program
- Decide
on scope of the program
- Determine
process and criteria
- Develop
brochures
- Discuss
program regularly
- Give
awards with lots of fanfare
- Track
your costs
- H.R.
must manage the hiring process
- Acquire
firm commitment from senior management
- Set
specific standards for referral
submissions
- Consider
an anniversary award to referring
employee
- Incorporate
referrals into your travel objectives
- Publish
a referral manual
Source:
"Recruit and Retain the Best",
John McCarter and Ray Schreyer (Impact
Publications, 2000)
Statewide
2001 Healthcare Human Resources Conference
Planned
Mark your
calendars! The MHA Service Corporation, in
cooperation with the Healthcare Human
Resources Association (HHRA) and the
Michigan Healthcare Human Resources
Association (MHHRA) is sponsoring the
"First Annual Michigan Statewide
Healthcare H.R. Conference: on March
22-23, 2001. This exciting new
conference will be held in East Lansing
and the program will be highlighted with a
number of nationally recognized speakers and
authors in the Human Resources profession.
This two day training conference is
centrally located and will be packed with
several workshops on timely human resources
topics that effect all healthcare H.R.
professionals. There will be a variety of
topics on the program including information
for senior H.R. executives dealing with
strategic issues and for managers, which
will include relevant topics on H.R.
operations. Both ASHHRA chapters here in
Michigan, with the generous sponsorship of
the MHA Service Corporation, will be working
hard over the next few months to prepare an
exciting statewide conference with training
workshops that will be useful for H.R.
professionals at all levels in the
organization. National speakers, a chance to
network with your peers from around the
state in East Lansing and two days of
substantial training on timely human
resources issues. Don't miss it. Mark your
calendars now and look for additional
information in your mailbox soon.
For more
information contact Steve O'Connor at the
MHA Services Corporation at (517) 485-3240
or email him at soconnor@lans.mha.org.
See you in East Lansing in March!
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