Is Hiring Right Talent Eating Into Your Profits?
Is hiring good talent a problem? Is cultural fit an issue? Do people not show up after accepting the offer? Are you losing people in the first 90 days?
I was working with a leading organization in India. We used to receive a lot of applications for every position. However, we faced the problem of finding good talent and ensuring culture fit.As a result, retention and performance of new hires were challenges we were faced with.
Hence, our two main objectives were:
Building talent internally
Attracting good talent
The organizations can build talent internally by identifying high performers with great potential to become future leaders, providing training, and preparing them for future middle management, senior positions, and top leadership positions. But this depended on the talent we had hired and takes time as well. In a high-growth environment talent is needed “yesterday”.
External hiring is an option. Large organizations hire in large numbers. People being hired, at junior and middle management levels, are often interviewed by line managers who may not be well-trained for interviewing. Therefore, the effectiveness of interviews in identifying the right candidates was suspect.
As we wanted to attract suitable candidates, our focus remained on two components:
Employee value proposition (EVP)
Channels for identifying appropriate candidates
We will discuss EVP in a separate blog.
We realized the power of an employee referral program as a highly effective sourcing strategy. When employees ensure that they are referring an appropriate candidate who is likely to succeed in the present organization, has the right talent, will fit the culture, and enjoy the work. They also ensure that the candidate has the correct and appropriate information about the company and the job. For the candidates, recommendations from current employees hold more weight than online job portals or review platforms like AmbitionBox or Glassdoor. We were able to tap into their vast network cumulatively.
An engaged employee who believes in the hashtag#company and its values is more likely to refer high-performing candidates who align with the organization’s culture.
As we focused on engaging our people, we increased our share of recruitment through referrals from 12% to 35%. The success rate of those hired through referrals was 90% vis-a-vis 60% for those hired through other sources.
In this process, our employees became our brand ambassadors.
And your hashtag#employees only become your brand ambassadors when they are highly engaged.
Therefore, in our P5 model, the promoter is one of the important parameters.
Please let me know your experience with referral hiring in the hashtag#comments below.
NB: If you find it useful, please hashtag#repost it.