Are You Utilizing All Your Referral Channels?

Standard recruiting wisdom tells us referrals ought to make up around 50% of candidate pipeline. It further tells us referred candidates are more likely to accept an offer, be a valuable addition to company culture, and that they’ll stick around longer. It doesn’t offer much on whether it’s good to start a blog post with wildly unsubstantiated workplace personnel claims, but I’m hoping as an experienced recruiter who has seen a pipeline or two, you’re still with me.

Anyway. Where do all these referrals come from? Of course, you’ve got your standard Employee Referral Program that rewards your colleagues with cash, travel vouchers, or conference room re-naming rights. But as Kerry Fischer, Director of People & Talent at TrustToken told me, the ERP isn’t the be-all end-all.

Throughout her career, Kerry has cultivated far-reaching employee alumni networks in the interest of driving referred candidates, and has even pulled off getting referrals from rejected candidates as well. As she explains, you can’t reject a candidate and ask for access to their professional network all in the same breath. Rather, Kerry invokes the Art of the Turn Down to ensure she’s on the same page as her candidates, and only brings up the notion of referrals in the event the candidates are understanding of the decision and still warm on the org.

There’s much more to it than this, of course. To hear how exactly Kerry’s managed these channels, you can stream the full conversation below. But wait, there’s more. Tune in right now and you’ll also get the lowdown on the multi-faceted recruiting role Kerry has fashioned for her growing team, how to assess prevailing attitudes towards recruitment at your company, and the correct pronunciation of “La Croix”.