Lifestyle Services Group’s Best Employee Referral Strategy not only delivered 132 referrals on its first day, between October 2010 and October 2011 it was responsible for around 50% of the group’s volume recruitment. According to LSG’s head of HR Michael Carter, the snappily named Bucks for Buddies saved the company £500,000 over two years and helped reduce staff turnover by 5%. And all this was achieved on a budget of just £10 per employee.
To achieve this success, Carter said it was vital that the scheme was correctly “positioned internally” within the company to drive employee engagement. This was gained by the full internal communications capacity of the company. Working with Blackbridge Communications, this included banners on the company’s contact centre TVs, leaflets and branded mugs. Getting line managers on board by running workshops, as well as a reward of £500 or £700 for a successful referral, were also huge factors in the campaign.
Carter emphasised the importance of keeping the scheme fresh, most notably, with the launch of a specially designed smartphone app.
Carter outlined the key components for any successful referral scheme: “You have to make it simple, and make sure your employees understand the scheme. If you get that tick in the box, then your employees are going to be engaged and will use it. The other aspect is keep innovating, and don’t let it become static.”
