7

Employee
Referral
Programs
that Source Outstanding Hires
 Referrals are, in many ways, the Holy Grail In this lookbook, we hope to answer
of hiring. They are generally the cheapest that exact question by profiling seven
way to hire. They are generally the fastest companies who run top-of-the-line
way to hire. And, most important of all, referral programs. Well share not only
the people who are hired via referral tend the philosophy these companies have
to perform better and stay around longer regarding their referral programs, but also
than people hired via any other source. some actionable techniques they use that

Referrals matter. Knowing all that, the obvious goal of most

you can implement tomorrow.

recruiting teams should be to get more Our hope is that by learning from
referrals. The big question is how, without organizations who do it best, youll be able
increasing headcount or dramatically to drastically improve your own referral
re-arranging your recruiting team. program, which effectively turns your
entire workforce into recruiters helping
you bring in the absolute best talent.

2
 Contents

Introduction 2
Booking.com 4
Google 7
GoDaddy.com 10
InMobi 14
PURE 17
Zumba 21
Enterprise Rent-A-Car 25
So now what? 29
3
Booking.com

Employee referrals are

the single most important
thing we do in recruiting.
It is the number one single
source of what a good hire
looks like.

Steve Klingensmith
Recruiting Manager
at Booking.com
 Bilingual speakers needed
Booking.com, the leading international site for reserving
accommodations online, needed hundreds of bilingual R e s u lt s
customer service representatives who not only speak
English the companys official language but also the

41%
language of the 221 countries and territories they serve.

Sourcing in this highly-skilled talent pool was tough, of US-based customer service reps

especially through traditional means; i.e., job boards, in 2015 were sourced via referral

career fairs, etc. However, the company discovered that

12%
new hires often knew someone whos also bilingual.

Referred employees stay 12%

Armed with this knowledge, Booking.com kicked their longer and are 9% more engaged
employee referral program into hyper drive. Today, its
their number one source of hire for customer service
representatives. The referrals have fueled the companies
growth and expansions into new markets like South
America and Eastern Europe.

5 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Change bonus payouts Ask for referrals during the interview
Hit The more in-demand the customer service
position, the larger the referral bonus. If
Why wait for the first day? If someone looks
like a strong candidate in the interview, the
Ta c t i c s Booking.com needs dozens of Russian
speakers fast, theyll double the referral
recruiter will ask them if they have a friend.
If they do, the recruiter will interview that
An insider look at their
bonus for Russian customer service reps. person as well.
referral program

Welcome referrals in every way Get creative

1 in 4
Booking.coms technology allows One time, the company needed more
employees to share jobs via social media Portuguese-speaking customer service
and get credit if someone clicks through. reps. One intrepid recruiting team bought
talent acquisition leaders consider Employees can also give referrals via email Portuguese food for lunch one day and left
employee referral programs to be or in-person. their cards lying around and viola! more
an essential, long-lasting trend*. Portuguese-speaking referrals came in.

* Global Recruiting Trends 2016

6 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
Google

We increased the volume

of referrals by more than
one-third by jogging
peoples memories, just as
marketers do.

Laszlo Bock
SVP of People Operations
at Google
 Nudging employees to refer talent
In its early years, Googles biggest source of hire was
referrals. At one point, referrals made up than half R e s u lt s
of Googles hires. By 2009, the number of referrals
dropped precipitously a problem their recruiting team

0 33%
sought to fix.

First, the company tried raising the referral bonus from

$
$2,000 to $4,000. It didnt help. And while streamlining
the referral program made Googlers happier, it didnt extra spent on referral increase in referred
actually increase the number of referrals. bonuses hires

Ultimately, Google found the most effective method

was nudging Googlers more to refer, by asking
specific questions which compelled them into action.

8 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Ask specific questions A more streamlined,
Hit Rather than simply asking employees if they knew
someone good for a role, Google recruiters asked specific
transparent process
Google, formerly known for
Ta c t i c s questions such as, Whos the best finance person youve
ever worked for? or Do you know a great salesperson in
its notoriously slow hiring
process, sped it up for referred
An insider look at their
New York? The forced recall led to many more referrals. candidates. All referred
referral program
candidates hear from a Google
recruiter within 48 hours and
are subject to fewer interviews
Sourcing jams than non-referred
Googles recruiters host sourcing jams where theyd meet candidates. Additionally, the
with roughly 30 Googlers and go through their LinkedIn referring Googler receives
connections one by one, asking which connection make a weekly updates from a recruiter
good hire. on the status of their referral.

Key
Why didnt larger referral bonuses work for Google?
Ta k e a w ay Unlike Booking.com who increases referral bonuses to strategically highlight hard-to-get positions,
Google raised referral bonuses for all positions. Awareness might have spiked briefly, but cooled
over time. When its a well thought out marketing technique, it works.

9 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
GoDaddy.com

What Ive learned in

my career is that the
secret to any referral
program is just to
keep reminding your
employees about it, keep
it top-of-mind for them.

Andrew Carges
VP of Talent Acquisition
at GoDaddy
 Remind, remind, remind
When Andrew Carges started at GoDaddy in June 2014, he R e s u lt s
saw a growth opportunity in the referral program, particularly

4060%
for corporate positions. Only about 17 percent of corporate
positions were sourced via referral. Cargess goal was to raise
the rate to 33 percent.

Interesting enough, his first move was to cut the referral of customer service employees
bonus by two-thirds. He used the savings to buy software that sourced via referral
would broadcast employer branding content and jobs to all

33%
of GoDaddys employees, and encouraged them to share on
social media.

As an incentive, any GoDaddy employee who shared

frequently could earned a free T-shirt. His efforts of marketing of corporate employees
the referral program worked. The rate of successful corporate sourced via referral
referrals nearly doubled, reaching the goal of 33 percent of
all hires.

11 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Lowering the referral bonus Winners got a T-shirt
Hit Counter-intuitively, the first thing Carges
did to increase referrals was lowering the
When employees frequently shared
company content and jobs, GoDaddy
Ta c t i c s referral bonus from $3,000 for corporate
employees to $1,000. Instead, he used
rewarded their pride more than their
wallets. Power referrers won
An insider look at their
the money to invest in technology for #socialrecruiter t-shirts.
referral program
marketing the referral program instead.

Change was easy

I wish I could tell you some dramatic
Turning referring into a game story where I had to persuade people to
Carges encouraged GoDaddy employees
buy into this program, Carges said. But,
to share employer branding content
truthfully, it was unbelievable how much
and job postings, and tracked
our employees wanted to help and be a
employee sharing.
part of it.

12 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 GoDaddy tries creative ways to keep referrals
top-of-mind within their workforce. To get
more developers, they printed this code on a
poster.

Just in case you dont know code, it says If

you know of a coder in your network who
kicks ass, refer to GoDaddy Recruiting.

13 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
InMobi

We, in short, enabled all

our 900 employees to
become talent scouts for
our organization.

Kevin Freitas
Director of Human
Resources at InMobi
 R e s u lt s
For referral bonuses, experiences trump cash

20% 50%
For InMobi Director of Human Resources Kevin Freitas, scarcity
is the mother of innovation. Never was that more true than
when his recruiting team composed of just four people had
to meet the hiring needs of the 900-person company.
tech employees tech employees
sourced via referral sourced via referral
To keep up with the demand, Freitas focused on improving the before April 2015 after the change
companys referral program effectively turning all 900 InMobi
employees into talent scouts.

In April 2015, he came across a study that suggested

experiential bonuses motivate employees more than cash.
He converted cash referral bonuses to experiences like paid
90% of referred hires stayed at the
company longer than average

80%
vacations and gifts, and focused on marketing the program.
It worked, number of successful referrals more than doubled
and more importantly, his small team met the hiring needs of outperformed non-referred
the business. InMobi employees

15 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Experiences, not cash Make it easy to refer
Hit The biggest change InMobi made to their
referral program. In April 2015, InMobi
InMobi employees can simply email
resumes to [email protected]. Viable
Ta c t i c s stopped giving cash for referral bonuses,
and started awarding prizes like iPhones
referrals are forwarded to the
hiring manager.
An insider look at their
and all-expense-paid vacations.
referral program

A major effort to market the program

InMobis recruiters put a lot of thought into
marketing the referral program without
spending any money. They held team
huddles for departments to explain the
program and promoted referral bonus
rewards as screensavers on large screens To keep the referral program top-of-mind, InMobi
everywhere. parked this motorcycle at headquarters as a prize for
successfully referring an engineering manager.
Read more on the blog.

16 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
PURE

Our employees want

to preserve our unique
culture so they really
think twice before
referring a candidate.

Swati Goel-Patel
Director of Human
Resources at PURE
 A growing business means many referrals
Its hard enough to recruit amazing talent in a niche market, but its even harder when youre R e s u lt s
competing with giant companies like Allstate, State Farm, and AIG.

4060%

In 2006, Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) set out to change the high net worth
insurance landscape with a member-centric focus. As the small business quickly grew, PURE needed
exceptional talent to manage expansion. The individuals they hired quickly knew that they were
going to be part of something innovative. In turn, they began referring and promoting PURE to their of new hires are from
professional networks. Today, employee referrals continue to be the main source of quality hires. employee referrals

91%
As the employee base grew, referrals grew, and the Human Resources team realized they needed
to put a process in place to both manage and reward employee referrals. The team implemented
a referral bonus, ensured immediate outreach for referred candidates, and crafted an exceptional
candidate experience. Swati and her team are brainstorming new ways to reward employee referrals
including recognition events and company-wide shout-outs. of referred hires since 2013
are still at the company
Referrals have evolved from a necessity to a natural inclination the PURE workforce feels truly
excited to refer candidates. Results show that company culture is thriving, new hire performance has
strengthened, and retention rates are high.

18 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Strike while the irons hot Thank you bonus
Hit During the new hire honeymoon
period (roughly the first 30
Swati found that PURE employees dont refer to get monetary
incentives. Employees put their reputation on the line to
Ta c t i c s days), the recruiting team asks
each new hire about their
refer candidates; because they truly love the company. PURE
structures their referral bonus as a way to recognize and
An insider look at their
experience so far, and if they reward those who have successfully referred great hires. New
referral program
knew anyone who might also be hire bonus is paid out 6 months post-hire.
a good fit at PURE.

Recruiting is everyones job Aid candidate recall

PUREs CEO makes it clear that A referral program can only be successful if employees stay
recruiting is a part of everyones engaged. When employees arent thinking of candidates to
job, not just the HR Team. refer or specific position, they can draw a blank. PURE will use
LinkedIn Referrals to suggest candidates to each employee
based on his or her LinkedIn network. Swati believes this
simple prompt will helps jog the employees memory and
results in referrals of qualified candidates.

19 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 I really do think
LinkedIn Referrals is
going to be a game
changer. So, far
feedback from our
talent team has been
extremely positive.

20 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
Zumba

Employees feel a great

responsibility when they
refer someone to the
Zumba family. They want
to make sure that the
candidate they referred
performs for Zumba, and
also has a great time at
work - a win-win.

Audrey Betancourt
VP People & Culture
at Zumba
 A contagious culture worth talking about
Want to uncover the secret to Zumbas referral program? Come to their office after hours.

Instead of the normal stampede of workers heading out of the door, employees are enjoying
drinks over live music, laughing it up with colleagues, and dancing with a Zumba lead
choreographer at the companys regular happy hours. Youll also find employees breakin it R e s u lt s
down in onsite Zumba classes.

The culture among the 210 Home Office employees is strong. People truly enjoy their jobs
and working alongside their friends. Thanks to this strong culture, referrals happen organically.
Employees rave about their jobs and Zumbas company culture, encouraging their friends to
apply to work with Zumba.
8%
of all Zumbas home office hires
are from employee referrals
So when Audrey Betancourt arrived at Zumba as the VP of People & Culture three and a half
years ago, she knew she didnt have to sell anyone on the idea of making referrals. Instead,
she focused on fine-tuning and streamlining operational aspects of the referral process, and
expanding activities and events for employees.

So far, the results have been impressive, with eight percent of the companys home office
employees coming in via referrals.

22 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick The Department of Announce open jobs
Hit Cultural Affairs, AKA
The Department
Zumba shares all new job openings with employees so they can share and refer
candidates. If employees know individuals whod be a great culture fit but arent

Ta c t i c s Since culture is at the core of

Zumba, theres a dedicated
a skill fit for open roles, the company keeps the potential candidates in mind for
future opportunities.
An insider look at their employee experience team
referral program who organizes those famous
happy hours, host amazingly
fun (and highly competitive!)
field days think Zumba Technology meet-ups
Olympics with dancing, Strong technology talent is hard to find in South Florida where Zumbas
food and drink, celebrate headquartered. So the company hosts regular tech meetups a few times a year
employee milestones, give where employees invite local tech talent to meet Zumbas tech leaders, discuss
back to the local community, current projects, and learn what its like to work at the company.
and plan holiday parties.
Engaging activities keep
employees happy; and
happy employees will
encourage candidates who Bonus based on quality of hire
fit the Zumba culture to come To ensure employees are referring quality candidates, Zumba staggers their
join the party. referral bonus. The first bonus payment occurs upon hiring. The second is issued
after the candidates been with the company for six months.

23 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Employee referrals are the

#1 way people first hear about

a new job opportunity*.

* Global Job Seeker Trends 2015

24 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Referrals are culturally

engrained within the
business. Our directors
send me many referrals
every month.

Ashley Hever
Talent Acquisition
Manager UK & Ireland
at Enterprise Rent-A-Car
 Starting from the bottom
Imagine you were asked to forgo your comfortable job and impressive title, to start from the
bottom at a new organization as a management trainee. Scary, right? Think again.
R e s u lt s
With a historically strong promote from within culture, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has nearly all of its
full-time employees start in the management training program, regardless of university degree
or professional experience. By creating a successful employee referral program, the company Over

30%
overcame the stigma of typical trainee program, the career path for over 30 percent of all
employees.

Whats the secret? Ashley Hever, Talent Acquisition Manager for the UK and Ireland, says its all
of all hires are from
about good communication, driving referrals from the top-down, and meticulous measurement.
employees referrals
The CEO initiates more employee referrals than anyone else. The company tracks everything from
start to finish from referral email, to application, all the way to recruiter.

As a result, theyre able to keep recruiters and employees engaged in the program, and hire
amazing talent.

26 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 Quick Let the games begin Recognition
Hit Enterprises talent acquisition team not only
tracks which regions are referring the most
To keep employees engaged, Enterprise
recognizes them for their referrals and resulting
Ta c t i c s candidates, they also rank the top regions. For
hard to fill roles, referrals become a fun
successful hires. When a referred candidate
enters the interview stages, the employee
An insider look at their
competition based on how the regions rank, gets recognized via emails from their general
referral program
how they compare to the company average, manager. When the referral gest hired, the
and referral bonuses won. Theres a leaderboard company congratulates them on Twitter.
showing the top ranking regions by percentage Employees also get prizes and financial rewards.
of referrals received and hired.

Talent tales
Encourage the entrepreneurial spirit Enterprise employees all have an interesting
Based on the companys decentralized model, story. From the intern turned branch manager at
Ashleys team coaches regional talent acquisition Heathrow, to the trainee turned sales director,
teams on referral program guidelines. Regional employee stories paint a picture of what
teams are empowered to have the flexibility to success looks like at the company, one
customize competitions or increase bonuses. employee at a time.

27 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
 95%
of talent acquisition leaders
describe referrals as an
important part of their
recruitment process*.
Referrals arent a money
grabbing exercise its a
* LinkedIn 2015 survey of 979 talent
gain for the business. acquisition leaders

28 Introduction Booking.com Google GoDaddy.com InMobi PURE Zumba Enterprise Rent-A-Car So now what?
So now what?

So now what?
From gamification to new tools, your head is probably
exploding with possibilities to enhance your employee
referral program. You just need to take the first step in
the right direction. Here are three ways to get started.

Make the business case.

Scroll through this insights-filled infographic
to build your argument for more resources.

Research new tools.

Learn how LinkedIn Referrals can help
you source employee referrals faster and
seamlessly measure success.

Learn from others.

Read up on other companys best practices,
failures and protips on the Talent Blog.

29
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30
A u t h o rs C o n t r i b u t o rs

Stephanie Bevegni Audrey Betancourt Andrew Carges

Content Marketing Manager VP People & Culture VP of Talent Acquisition
Linkedin Talent Solutions Zumba GoDaddy

Paul Petrone Kevin Freitas Swati Goel-Patel

Content and Blog Writer Director of Human Resources Director of Human Resources
Linkedin Talent Solutions InMobi PURE Group of Insurance
Companies

Ashley Hever Steve Klingensmith

Talent Acquisition Manager Recruiting Manager
UK & Ireland Booking.com
Enterprise Rent-A-Car