Your cash referral program to find new employees isn’t working?

There are many reasons…

One reason might be that your people don’t understand the program. A communication problem. They heard about it once a few years ago, but have forgotten about it. Fortunately, this isn’t THE problem.

Another reason may be that you aren’t paying enough. This is possible. If it’s a $1,000 program, make it $10,000. Come on, you know getting referrals right now is gold. Likely this isn’t THE problem either.

BTW on the above. Think about splitting it 50/50 with the new person and the referrer and make it public. That way you don’t unintentionally throw a “secret money weirdness thing” into their existing relationship.

There’s another reason it may not be working. And this other reason is likely THE reason. Their experience in the firm may not be something they can comfortably recommend to their close friends.

I know… Ouch!

The silver lining? Think of it as communication instead of condemnation. If the referral program hasn’t worked, then that is a message being communicated. A message buried in its failure. A message to discover, articulate, and address.

Why bother? Because once you do, the referrals will start to flow.

Right now we need to be spending as much time thinking about winning new people as we spend thinking about winning new work.