Web 2.0 software firm Avature has brought out a customisable referral programme offering

Avature has launched a new employee referral platform which runs with its core candidate relationship management (CRM) product. 

The Employee Referral Program (ERP) portal framework is designed for multinational companies whose referral programmes need to reach upwards of 10,000 employees and address different markets around the world. 

Avature chief executive Dimitri Boylan, who was co-founder and former CEO of HotJobs.com, told Recruiter that employee referral systems are the “missing link” in “real recruiting” and one of the reasons they don’t always succeed is because they aren’t customisable.

“People say ‘I put up a referral programme and it got no response, and then I offered money and I got a lot of bad response’,” he said. “We’re saying that the programme has to be dynamic not static.” 

Boylan said customers wanted the flexibility of a referral programme that worked at different levels and across different countries but rather than just provide a standardised offering, Avature has developed a framework with built-in features that allow employers to create something bespoke. “If you have 25 different referral programmes you can’t do something new every time but you might want to do something for your Singapore office that you didn’t do for London and then have something different again going on in Germany,” he explained, adding that Avature’s challenge was “finding that sweet spot in the middle” that let clients do something different but was also affordable.

Boylan’s mission to offer something more bespoke also addresses wider issues relating to the application of technology in recruitment. He says that organisations shouldn’t be content to merely offer a “canned” internet experience for any part of their business any more, including recruitment. “I can go to a lot of large company career sites and the minute I land I can tell you who the application tracking systems (ATS) vendor is,” he said. “So for a user, the experience on the technology side is exactly the same in company A, B or C. What employers need is a more sophisticated framework that can respond to different content and traffic.”

He also reminded employers that the upcoming generation expects a more tailored web experience. “They aren’t happy just to use the apps that come with their phone. They want to change the calendar, they want to change the email, they want to talk to each other about what apps are better,” said Boylan. “My generation might not be as eager for the bespoke web experience but the new generation of managers coming in are. With technology you have to be a couple of years ahead of the user trend.”  

The referral portal also gathers knowledge about the employee making the referral and tailors the experience for them. For instance, a free text tool allows you to embed smartlinks that will take one individual to one set of jobs and another person to a different set. “So a warehouse worker might not wade through all the jobs posted but if on the first page they see there are warehouse jobs in Nottingham, the area in which they work, they are more likely to respond,” explained Boylan. “If you have 50,000 people in the company and you want to get referrals, you need to know something about the people referring as it affects the way you interpret what they’re telling you.”  

Traditionally, heavily bespoke web experiences can cost because of the developer’s time involved but Avature has attempted to reach a middle ground and hopes the ERP framework portal provides an affordable way for organisations to create a far more meaningful and effective referral programme. “Amazon has what it has because it can afford it while others sit on a little commerce engine because they can’t afford the investment,” he said. “What we’re trying to do with referral programmes is get employers somewhere in the middle of these two points.”