How Targeted Referrals Help
Now that we have explored the value of referrals, why some recruiters are reluctant to make requests for referrals and how Referable AI helps drive referrals, let’s explore where proactively targeted referral generation can be applied to the business.
1. Net New Hires
First up, referrals are part of the overall talent acquisition tool box, so we don’t need to get fancy here. Tactically speaking, referrals are well known to be one of the best sources of high quality candidates and should be looked at for every new hire. Bear in mind that not every referred or recommended candidate will be ready to make a move immediately, which leads to the next use case.
2. Pipelining Future Hires
Quite often if the referral candidate will be a “passive” candidate (i.e. they are not actively seeking a new job), which means they may take time to enter the application process. At a more strategic level, these people can be lined up as pipeline for future open requisitions, and the beauty of this approach is that recruiters and hiring managers have a long runway with which to pitch and attract the candidate.
Targeting helps with diversity hiring as much as with targeting specific values the company culture holds dear.
3. Targeted Hiring
Targeted referral generation puts control in the hands of the recruiter who leads the search, and by proxy the stakeholders they serve. By shortlisting prospects with specific skills or experience, recruiters can build pipelines to solve any need of the business. Targeting helps with diversity hiring as much as with targeting specific values the company culture holds dear.
Recruiters and hiring managers can enlist the help of others on the team who not only verify the skills and experience of a target candidate, but can also provide influence by giving the candidate an unofficial information channel to supplement “official” communications. In this manner the probability of successful outcomes is enhanced.
4. Succession Planning
Targeted proactive referral generation is also the perfect model to drive succession planning. Where internal candidates are not yet in place, recruiters can identify external leaders to approach. These conversations may be exploratory to start and as with any pipelining, the process may take time – so get started immediately!
5. Restructures
It is a well cited fact that much of our workforce is disengaged; the term “quiet quitters” is in vogue. Usually this leads to a restructuring of low performing members so that more productive (and motivated) people can contribute effectively. As the candidates are largely prequalified, referrals targeting high performing candidates are the perfect remedy in this situation.
In Summary
These are just some of the ways in which targeted referrals provide value to the business. Whether used by agency recruiters consulting for their client, or by in-house recruiters tasked with any of the above quests, targeted referral generation just makes sense. The ability to leverage a team to reach the high value candidates with a strong cultural fit, and avoid getting lost in the weeds of direct sourcing and screening, gives recruiters a whole new world of freedoms and productivity – up to 4X better in fact. Referable AI has been designed to make referrals easy so that recruiters can deliver on these opportunities.
Referable has been developed by a team experienced in executive search, RPO, in-house recruiting and HR tech to help both corporate and agency recruiters to solicit more referrals faster than ever. If you would like to learn more, drop us a line at hello(at)referable.ai
