Employee Referral Program – What is in store for the employees?

Employee motivation and their commitment towards the company has always remained a challenge for the HR professionals. An employee referral program (ERP) helps the HR to deal with the challenges of employee motivation and commitment along with hiring quality candidates referred by the employee. Hence, it makes sense for the HR to focus on the employee participation in the program.

Convincing the employees to participate in the hiring program is not an easy task and the HR must communicate the various benefits to the employees on a regular basis. Not all the employees get swayed by the lure of monetary benefits. The employee must try to understand the basic structure of the employee referral program to see what is in store for them.

A monetary benefit of the ERP is the prime attraction for the employees to participate in it. But quite often the referral payout attached with the hiring program loses its attraction when they look at its problematic aspects such as tedious process to be followed, regular follow up of the referred resume status and also the candidate and most importantly the time that would be taken up in their involvement. But the employees must look beyond such issues and monetary gains to decide on their involvement in the employee referral program.

Related Link: Pitfalls of Employee Referral Programs – Lessons to be learned 

Actively participating in the employee referral program helps the employee in various ways. They tend to gain importance in the company and will be seen as a very active and committed employee. A very positive image helps in climbing up the corporate ladder. The employee gets to interact with hiring managers to understand the requirement of the opening and it will also help them to interact, bond well and develop good relationship with the heads of the different departments and projects. Keeping oneself abreast with the job openings will provide information on various upcoming projects; the employee can look for suitable opportunity for themselves in various projects. It will also help the employee to understand and decide upon developing other skill sets for different projects and thus paving way for growth and promotion in the company.

Employee referral programs also help the employees to build their network in various companies and connect with people with different skill sets. It will become a learning opportunity for the employee outside the company. The employee will have the most recent updates on the development taking place in the industry. It will help them to decide on various trainings and courses they can opt for growth prospects. Being in touch with employees in different companies also helps in getting information on various good opportunities coming up.

It will also help the employees in building good relationship with their friends, relatives and gain recognition in the social circle. The boundaries of social interaction increases manifold. Helping the friends of friends who are looking for suitable job is a gesture of goodwill. It will give the satisfaction of doing a service to the society. When one is doing so much of good work, it will surely affect the confidence of the employee adding to personality development. When one meets a lot of people, he takes extra care of his appearance and gestures. Thus we can see that the hiring program is helping the employee with personality development indirectly.

Hence, the employees must not take ERP as a burden but an opportunity for personal growth and think of monetary benefits as an added advantage.