Gaining new employees can be one of the most expensive and stressful parts of running a business.  If you don’t make the right choices, you could find yourself wasting time and money investing in someone who just quits after the first couple of months.

Employee referrals are one of the best hiring practices any company can make.  Not only do you get to find qualified workers, but you’re also more likely to retain both them and your original workers this way.

Employees Will Feel Pressured to Bring the Best

With their name on the line, an employee is more likely to bring in someone qualified that they feel will work the best for the company.  This means that they’ll work to ensure the referrals they make are people who will work hard and try to succeed at the company instead of just showing up for a paycheck.  Although there will be the occasional person who won’t work, you’re more likely to have high-qualified applicants this way. 

You Can Save the Time and Money of Seeking Employees

There’s a lot of time and money that goes into hiring.  From the multiple ads you have to put out to the constant interviews only to find out someone isn’t the right fit or doesn’t have the behaviors you need in an employee.  By going through referrals, they’ve already passed one line of inspection before they even make it to the office.

Referrals Tend to Stay Longer

Employee referrals are awesome because referrals will feel unspoken pressure from the person who brought them in to stay longer.  This could be because of the referral bonus you offer, or it could simply be because they know that their behavior reflects on the person who got them hired.  Referrals will stay longer and work harder in the office.  This is a win-win for everyone.

Creates a Friendly Work Culture In the Office

When coworkers know each other and are already on friendly terms, this allows the workplace to become a friendlier and more open space.  Instead of having to worry if your employees will get along, you’ll be able to rest assured that they’ll be friendly and have good attitudes because they already know each other.  Of course, this can be complicated if they’re in relationships and there’s turmoil or breakups, but every office has different rules for in-office dating that you’ll have to reflect on.

Your Employees Have the Incentive to Stay Longer

When your employees know that their opinions are valued and they’ve made a large difference in the office: they’ll be more likely to stay and work harder for longer.  This means you can count on the good employees to stay as long as they have a job there.  In the long run, this means less turnover, and better results with the employees that make the company look awesome.

Employee Referrals Are the Way to Go 

Although hiring is messy regardless of what office you’re in, by working directly with your employees and asking for their referrals, you can take a lot of stress out of it.  Create a happier office by offering rewards for great employee referrals!

By Eddy Z

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].