Referral bonus - to be or not to be
I think that each of you at least once met with such a concept as Referral bonus, and maybe became his happy owner. If suddenly I haven’t received such a bonus, just in case, I remind you: by Referral I (HR) and my colleagues we understand the bonus that is paid to a person (both an employee of the company and any person who is not part of the company’s staff) who has passed to the mercy HR-s recommended friend or acquaintance, who eventually became an employee of the company.
Today, companies practice several options for the payment of such bonuses, the most common of which are:
The use of bonuses for recommendations, as a rule, is aimed at achieving one of the goals:
With all the attractiveness of such bonuses, there are certain risks associated with their use.
Let's start with the fact that for good $$$$ employees of the company and all the others who received information about an urgent job, willingly become freelance HRs and become more active in search of a “body”, incl. actively distracting from the main work. And so, in the end, you no longer have 2 HRs, as usual, but a whole team playing the lottery “Whose Steeper” lottery.
')
Some companies are bred directly network marketing: get a percentage of your recommended recommendations in the future.
Now, if I were lured to another company, and I would have known that the inviter would receive a box of cookies and a jar of jam for my head, I would have doubted the sincerity of good intentions both from his side and from the inviting company that he would not adds them a plus in karma. And you think to yourself: “even if they areinvited to the interview with red trusel bonuses, then the people simply don’t go there in a different way, well ... it looks like they have a bad karma ... I’ll go to my neighbors.”
It is also naive to think that when in front of a scalping hunter, a tasty carrot looms in the form of a bonus for each head brought, the latter-day assistants will be too picky about the selection of candidates. The temptation to recommend everyone is too great (“what if they take it?”), Which reduces the likelihood that the candidate will be right. A lot of time is spent on conversations with such “candidates”.
In addition to this, peoplerun the risk of going to the dark side of the force and start to cheat in various ways and invent various “black schemes”:
On my own behalf, I’ll say: bonuses, as a tool for receiving recommendations directly from company employees, are most effective when they are used sparsely, and precisely in the case when the vacancy needs to be closed "yesterday."
If this approach is not practiced every day, the news about the next urgent job with bonuses for recommendations will be read and perceived by employees with an awareness of the importance and urgency of the issue and encourage them to action. In this case, the employees understand that the company really urgently needs help in closing the position and this is not just another attempt by the personnel department to shift its own work to someone. In such a situation, HR-freelancers and all those to whom the news became available are usually connected to the search, which significantly expands both the search area itself and its speed (instead of two HRs, even for 2 hours, they become several times more).
Connecting external sources usually results in lower quality candidates not because they are “bad”, but because they are less likely to “grow together” with the company.
It is clear that there can be completely different situations. Somewhere bonuses for recommendations of employees or external specialists are simply vital at certain stages of the company's development, as they allow to increase recruitment rates without hiring recruiters for the staff (which in itself takes time and costs).
I know, for example, that there are companies in which, according to paid recommendations, they close about 50% of vacancies, or even more.
Regarding the company in which I myself work, I note that there were years of work with bonuses for recommendations and years of work without them in her glorious history. At the same time, the number of positions closed according to the recommendations of the employees was approximately the same in both cases (about 35%). So it turns out, as in advertising: “if you don’t see a difference - why pay more?” It’s better to actually spend this money on modernizing the office, gifts to employees, corporate parties and other amenities. After all, the more pleasant it is to work in the company, the higher the likelihood of attracting real mega-bison to the management, development and testing team.
It is pleasant for me, as an HR manager, to realize that when inviting a friend to a company, my colleagues often do this because they like the company and they want to share a warm place with a friend. They are happy to recommend their friends for free. But the bonuses, used only in exceptional cases, help to reach the 2nd, 3rd and further circles of friends of my colleagues, which increases the number of recommendations.
Summing up, I will say a few words about the pros and cons that are characteristic of bonuses for helping to hire employees.
Pros:
PS Above, I cite, among other things, the thoughts of colleagues expressed on this topic and passed through the prism of my own perception of an HR IT company with 2 years of experience.
Today, companies practice several options for the payment of such bonuses, the most common of which are:
- 100% bonus payment immediately or after passing the test. term new employee (usually 3 months);
- payment of part of the bonus in 50% after returning to work and 50% after passing. term;
- a variety of bonus payments for all who just come to the interview (usually small amounts);
- Payments to the “recommended” self, usually a joining bonus or transition bonus.
Goals
The use of bonuses for recommendations, as a rule, is aimed at achieving one of the goals:
- close vacancy with a deadline of "yesterday";
- find a rare specialist listed in the Red Book;
- find a competent specialist who fits perfectly into the corporate culture;
- just find the specialist you need.
Risks
With all the attractiveness of such bonuses, there are certain risks associated with their use.
Let's start with the fact that for good $$$$ employees of the company and all the others who received information about an urgent job, willingly become freelance HRs and become more active in search of a “body”, incl. actively distracting from the main work. And so, in the end, you no longer have 2 HRs, as usual, but a whole team playing the lottery “Whose Steeper” lottery.
')
Some companies are bred directly network marketing: get a percentage of your recommended recommendations in the future.
Now, if I were lured to another company, and I would have known that the inviter would receive a box of cookies and a jar of jam for my head, I would have doubted the sincerity of good intentions both from his side and from the inviting company that he would not adds them a plus in karma. And you think to yourself: “even if they are
It is also naive to think that when in front of a scalping hunter, a tasty carrot looms in the form of a bonus for each head brought, the latter-day assistants will be too picky about the selection of candidates. The temptation to recommend everyone is too great (“what if they take it?”), Which reduces the likelihood that the candidate will be right. A lot of time is spent on conversations with such “candidates”.
In addition to this, people
- offer a “share” to the candidate himself;
- the candidate himself, intending to send a resume to the company, is looking for acquaintances there and ... see the diagram above, etc.
Personal opinion
On my own behalf, I’ll say: bonuses, as a tool for receiving recommendations directly from company employees, are most effective when they are used sparsely, and precisely in the case when the vacancy needs to be closed "yesterday."
If this approach is not practiced every day, the news about the next urgent job with bonuses for recommendations will be read and perceived by employees with an awareness of the importance and urgency of the issue and encourage them to action. In this case, the employees understand that the company really urgently needs help in closing the position and this is not just another attempt by the personnel department to shift its own work to someone. In such a situation, HR-freelancers and all those to whom the news became available are usually connected to the search, which significantly expands both the search area itself and its speed (instead of two HRs, even for 2 hours, they become several times more).
Connecting external sources usually results in lower quality candidates not because they are “bad”, but because they are less likely to “grow together” with the company.
It is clear that there can be completely different situations. Somewhere bonuses for recommendations of employees or external specialists are simply vital at certain stages of the company's development, as they allow to increase recruitment rates without hiring recruiters for the staff (which in itself takes time and costs).
I know, for example, that there are companies in which, according to paid recommendations, they close about 50% of vacancies, or even more.
Regarding the company in which I myself work, I note that there were years of work with bonuses for recommendations and years of work without them in her glorious history. At the same time, the number of positions closed according to the recommendations of the employees was approximately the same in both cases (about 35%). So it turns out, as in advertising: “if you don’t see a difference - why pay more?” It’s better to actually spend this money on modernizing the office, gifts to employees, corporate parties and other amenities. After all, the more pleasant it is to work in the company, the higher the likelihood of attracting real mega-bison to the management, development and testing team.
It is pleasant for me, as an HR manager, to realize that when inviting a friend to a company, my colleagues often do this because they like the company and they want to share a warm place with a friend. They are happy to recommend their friends for free. But the bonuses, used only in exceptional cases, help to reach the 2nd, 3rd and further circles of friends of my colleagues, which increases the number of recommendations.
Summary
Summing up, I will say a few words about the pros and cons that are characteristic of bonuses for helping to hire employees.
Pros:
- quick search for the necessary specialist;
- access to specialists who do not conduct active job searches and are not “listed on social networks”;
- high probability of “proximity” of the candidate with the corporate policy of the company (in the case of recommendation of an employee of the company, and not of an outside “well-wisher”)
- for sure there is something else.
- considerable financial investments are required;
- the quality of candidates is deteriorating;
- incandescence of an already overheated IT market;
- and this is certainly not all.
PS Above, I cite, among other things, the thoughts of colleagues expressed on this topic and passed through the prism of my own perception of an HR IT company with 2 years of experience.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/285046/
All Articles