- Organizations often underestimate what it takes to build a successful program, suffering unintended consequences such as lack of diversity.
- Many employees find current employee referral programs to be cumbersome and unclear, leading to a poor employee experience and lack of participation.
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- Get on-demand project support
- Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
- Go through a Guided Implementation to help you get through your project

Our Advice
Critical Insight
Employee referral programs don't need to be complicated, but they do need to be planful. Design the program to encourage diversity, align to your culture and brand, and provide a great employee and candidate experience.
Impact and Result
- Set program goals aligned to talent acquisition (TA) pain points and strategic talent goals to ensure you achieve the desired impact.
- Align program design to your culture, employer brand, diversity & inclusion, and employee and candidate experience efforts.
- Market, collect feedback, and iterate your program like a product.
Workshop: Build an Employee Referral Program
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Set Goals and Design the Program
The Purpose
- Identify talent acquisition pain points and strategic talent goals the program will address.
- Set program goals, metrics, and design criteria.
- Align the program to culture and employer brand efforts, as well as D&I goals.
- Set program eligibility and other parameters.
- Determine program rewards and recognition.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identified talent acquisition pain points and strategic talent goals the program will address.
- Set program goals, metrics, and design criteria.
- Aligned the program to culture and employer brand efforts, as well as D&I goals.
- Set program eligibility and other parameters.
- Determined program rewards and recognition.
Activities
Outputs
Identify TA pain points that the employee referral program will address.
- TA pain points identified
Identify strategic talent goals the program should drive.
- Strategic talent goals identified
Determine program goals, metrics, and design criteria.
- Program goals, metrics, and design criteria determined
Determine culture, EVP, employer brand, and D&I alignment.
- Culture, EVP, employer brand, and D&I alignment determined
Determine eligibility for the referral program.
- Eligibility for the referral program determined
Determine eligibility for the referral bonus.
- Eligibility for the referral bonus determined
Module 2: Integrate and Market the Program
The Purpose
- Integrate the referral program into the talent acquisition process.
- Create a policy or guidelines for the program.
- Develop a marketing and communications plan.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Integrated the referral program into the talent acquisition process.
- Created a policy or guidelines for the program.
- Developed a marketing and communications plan.
Activities
Outputs
Define program rewards and recognition.
- Program rewards and recognition defined
Integrate the employee referral process into the TA process.
- Employee referral process integrated into TA process
Assign roles and responsibilities.
- Roles and responsibilities assigned
Identify required resources.
- Required resources identified
Develop a program marketing and communication action plan.
- Program marketing and communication action plan developed