Real Links, Author at Real Links

The top rated hospitality employers globally

11th August 202111th August 2021 by Real Links

When it comes to employee referrals and internal mobility, strong employer brand and high levels of employee satisfaction are critical to the success of those programs, and in turn the attraction and retention of the best talent.

At Real Links, we like to keep an eye on the top employers across different sectors as they will tend to benefit most from employee referral and internal mobility programs. Those businesses with high ‘recommend to a friend’ scores have a particularly brilliant opportunity when it comes to employee referrals.

This month we’re focusing on the hospitality industry which has globally suffered due to the pandemic, but as the world begins to open up again, hiring needs in these businesses will start to accelerate so now would be a great time for hospitality businesses to consider how to support their longer term recruitment strategy. Those with a strong employer brand will be best placed to take advantage of a increasingly buoyant talent marketplace.

To support this, we’ve pulled together a list of the top hotel and resort employers globally. According to Glassdoor.com data, there are 95 hotel and resort employers globally with a score of 4 out of 5 or above which means employees of those companies have rated themselves ‘very satisfied’ with their employer and most of those have a ‘recommend to a friend’ score of 80% and above. Brands that embrace this information and use it to hire and retain the best talent will come out on top.

So without further ado here’s a rundown of the top 95 hospitality employers globally.

List of top 95 hospitality employers globally based on Glassdoor.com rating and recommend a friend score. Click the link to visit each site for more details.

Employers with strong brands and high levels of employee engagement have a great opportunity to make employee referrals and internal mobility a critical part of their recruitment strategy. Real Links is a technology provider dedicated to helping talent professionals get referrals and internal mobility right so if talent is top of your agenda, don’t forget to talk to us – just book a demo below.

Tailoring your employer brand for tech…how to get the best talent to want to work for you

29th April 202111th May 2020 by Real Links

Tech talent – often seen as Unicorns of the recruitment game.

61% of CEOs say a shortage of great dev talent is more of a threat to their business than investment; talent acquisition teams anecdotally tell us that they struggle to compete with ‘cooler’ tech businesses on either brand reputation or perks and pay and often, there’s discord between the consumer brand and employer brand.

For example, a slot machine gaming platform that caters for 50+ females with a talent requirement of bright University graduates who demonstrate high levels of skill. It’s highly likely those graduates haven’t even heard of the brand as they’re not the right target audience and amongst their peer group there will be ‘cooler’ better known brands to aspire to work for.

So as a talent acquisition leader under pressure to hire great tech talent for a brand that’s not necessarily got talent throwing themselves at you, what do you do? You start with marketing.

For some businesses, their consumer brand feeds their employer brand, for others, you’re targeting two completely different audiences with different messages.

To add another layer of complication, employer brand can’t be one size fits all. You need to tailor your messaging according to who you’re trying to attract. For example, what interests a management accountant in working for your business will probably be different to the motivations of a tech professional.

In this case we’re focused on hiring tech, so what does your employer brand need to demonstrate to attract the right tech candidates?

Research from the Stack Overflow Insights Report, 2019 highlights:

51% of developers are self-learners, learning to code by themselves through accessible online resources.
Developers working in small companies are more professionally fulfilled than those in large groups
80% of developers work on code outside of work as a hobby
68% of developers consider that the ability to learn new things is more important than salary when considering a new role

What we can deduce from that, as well as anecdotal evidence we’ve gathered is that there are a handful of areas in your employer brand that can be easily tailored to attract a tech audience.

For them it’s all about the projects, what they’ll learn, how much autonomy they have to be creative. If you’ve provided that kind of non linear development with an environment that motivates them, your consumer brand suddenly becomes less of an issue:

Attraction messaging
Communication channels
The candidate experience during assessment and on-boarding
Working conditions
Gamification of projects
Learning and development
Benefits

Based on this research, we’ve developed a check list of ideas that have the potential to change, or promote your employer brand perception in the mind of the tech candidates you’d most love to work with.

Case Studies
Do you have case studies written for tech talent, by tech talent, showcasing your most interesting recent projects?

Dedicated developer blog
Do you have a blog written by tech professionals for tech professionals? Check out this example from Monzo. They talk in detail about specific projects and problems they’ve solved, providing candidates with detailed insight into what a day in the life might look like in your company.

Tailored job adverts
Do you tailor your job adverts in a way that inspires tech talent to take action? A simple ‘about us’ won’t cut it for this audience. Lead with the most unique and attractive aspects of the project or tech stack they’ll be working on. In many cases, incorporating a logo of programming language or software will have far more impact than a text-based explanation. checklist how does your employer brand measure up when it comes to tech talent?

Social proof
Are you leveraging social proof? Using employee testimonials and leveraging employee advocacy from your current tech team will exponentially increase your success. In tech in particular, there’s nothing more powerful than positive insights from their peers. This is one of the reasons employee referral and advocacy platforms work so well in the tech community – because they’re very well networked; share a common passion and spend a lot of time online they’ve got fantastic access to diverse talent pools.

Competitor analysis
Do you conduct regular competitor benchmarking against salaries and benefits to ensure what you’re offering to candidates matches up?

Bespoke benefits
Have you considered redefining your benefits package to attract specific talent? A benefits package for a tech employee may differ from customer service for example – but advertising a bespoke benefits package can really enhance your employer brand.

Promoting your tech stack
Your brand may not be the coolest or most sought after in the tech talent market. But by promoting the virtues of your tech stack, you may just spark the interest of some great talent.

Nonlinear career paths
Tech talent have an appetite for fast moving personal development. They’re often self-taught and motivated by constant learning and development. If this is something you can offer, make it a part of your employer value proposition.

Real time communication
Tech talent are used to using technology to communicate instantly through platforms like Slack. Is your HR or Talent Acquisition team readily available for real time communication with both new talent and existing employees? It’s a real bonus if you are, as it positions the brand as forward thinking and tech savvy in the mind of the people you want to engage with.

There’s a multitude of actions you can take to make your brand more attractive to a tech audience, improving the volume and quality of applications and hires.

For more support on hiring tech talent download our whitepaper or book a demo to find out how employee referral could revolutionise hiring for tech.

Learn more about how you can source tech talent today.

Download the Secret to Hiring Tech Talent White Paper

When it comes to hard to fill developer roles – have you thought about this?

29th April 20212nd April 2020 by Real Links

The problems companies face when trying to attract great tech talent

If you’re a tech business or hiring manager you’ll know how hard it is to attract great tech talent for developer and engineering roles. Developers who fit your tech stack and who have the skills and commercial understanding to grow the company and develop the product for the future are Unicorns, very rare and tricky to pin down if you’re lucky enough to find one.

In a report from Digital Ocean, hiring managers ranked the following as the most challenging aspects of hiring for these roles:

Lack of formal software engineering education (39%)
Limited pool of candidates with relevant job/technical skills (18%)
Lack of soft skills/workplace competencies (15%)
Losing top candidates to competing offers (15%)
Salary demands too high (13%)

For a tech business, not being able to hire developers and engineers has a huge impact on revenue. Not having the right talent in place means missed deadlines, projects being left incomplete and a total inability to scale up.

For hiring managers, developer roles bring an onslaught of frustrations from achieving stretching D&I targets as the talent pool is largely male to huge amounts of wasted time on candidates who are unable to fill even baseline requirements.

Traditional hiring methods aren’t providing the quality or volume of developer candidates required to make a great hire. Niche job boards, sector focused recruitment agencies and social media go some way to filling the talent pipeline, but there’s a huge database of talent that is currently untapped.

Your employee’s personal networks.

untapped networks at your fingertips

On average, individuals on LinkedIn have 930 connections. Facebook 338. Twitter 707. Let’s take the example of a 20 person organisation. Potentially you’ve got an untapped audience of 39,500 people. And that doesn’t take into account the fact that your current tech team are probably active on sites like GitHub, which has a user base of over 40 million tech professionals.

accessing employees networks

It’s no secret that referrals make great hires. Cost per hire is significantly reduced and retention rates for organisations operating an effective referral scheme average a 46% retention rate in comparison to industry averages of 33%.

Historically employee referral schemes have a high failure rate for one or more of the following reasons:

A lack of ownership internally
Leadership buy in
Manual rather than automated through tech
Lack of employee buy-in
Weak employee advocacy
The wrong incentives

The primary foundation for a great referral scheme is building employee advocacy.

Employee advocacy goes deeper than employees promoting an organisation’s brand. It’s a culture of believing in the content a firm produces and actively seeking opportunities to share that content and the job roles available.

According to Hinge Research, 80% of businesses do not have a formal employee advocacy program in place. That’s a huge competitive advantage to those that do.

so what should you consider when using referral to attract great tech talent?

If you’re going to introduce an employee referral scheme where the goal is building a tech talent pipeline, it’s critical you consider the personality traits and motivators of that specific audience.

Your ideal employee referer for development or engineer roles is likely to be your own tech team so you need to carefully consider the following:

They know tech, it’s their passion, so using the best quality employee referral technology is critical to generate engagement.
If you decide to roll out a piece of referral technology, be mindful that the language you use to roll it out to the wider business may be very different to the language you need to use for the tech team. Stick to the facts and the merits of the tech. They’ll be interested in benefits, features and the back end development.
Review your content strategy. Building employee advocacy requires employees to be engaged with your brand, believe in its value and be inspired to share the content you’re posting. It’s not just about being rewarded for sharing job ads. Consider the subject matter and the language. Keep content for a tech audience short, factual and to the point. Don’t over explain.
Gamification is a great way to create and maintain engagement with your referral scheme. Putting tech teams in competition against each other to share the most, or increase referrals is likely to appeal to their nature.
When offering rewards for sharing content or referring someone for a role, make sure you get feedback from the tech team on what motivates them. There’s a tendency to assume monetary rewards work best, but it’s often not the case. You also can’t assume that what motivates someone in the finance team for example will be the same for someone in tech.

Developers and engineers will continue to be a challenging area to recruit for. There is a war for talent, but if you can become part of the 20% using employee advocacy and referrals effectively, this will position you head and shoulders above the competition, filling your talent pipeline, reducing time and cost to hire and supporting you to scale.

Learn more about how you can source tech talent today.

8 steps to running focus groups that ensure high returns on your employee referral schemes

29th April 202119th March 2020 by Real Links

A critical first step to increase employee participation with your referral scheme is running a focus group. This allows you to get a thorough understanding of what motivates your employees not only to refer, but to engage with the scheme in the first place so you can formulate a referral strategy that will yield high returns.

why your referral scheme needs to be unique

Too many organisations create and implement some form of referral scheme, without ever engaging with the primary users, their employees. However, we know from extensive experience that in order for it to work effectively, a business’ referral scheme needs to be as unique as their workforce is. The referral process and the type of rewards must be tailored to the people you’re trying to engage, your employees.

For example, according to our findings, 88% of companies only offer money as a referral bonus. This isn’t incorrect per se, but money won’t be the right motivator for everyone. Do you really know what makes your employees tick?

using focus groups to get the information you need from your workforce

So how can you uncover what does motivate people? Or, if you have a referral scheme in place, how can you really get under the skin of why people don’t engage with it so you can improve the process based on that feedback?

A simple survey might suffice (if you can get people to take the time to fill it out), but we have found that by far the best way to really understand your employees is to run one, or a series of focus groups with a cross section of your workforce.

There are two main purposes of a focus group. To confirm ideas you already believe to be true and to uncover information and views you weren’t already aware of.

An effective focus group will lay strong foundations for a successful referral scheme. Based on our experience, we’ve outlined the key elements for running a mutually beneficial employee focus group.

8 steps to running successful focus groups

Choose your discussion topic carefully
Plan your questions/discussion prompts in advance
Prepare a focus group questionnaire
Appoint a notetaker
Select participants
Kick off the discussion
Get equal input from the group
Analyse the results and feedback to the group

1. choose your discussion topic carefully

It’s important not to try to fit too many topics into the allotted time, as you’ll struggle to get the detail you need. Select two key topics and keep those in mind throughout. This will make it easier to refocus if you find the conversation is drifting. These topics could be as simple as ‘what would motivate you and why’ and ‘challenges with the current referral scheme’

Quick tip – the optimal time for a focus group to remain productive is between 45-90 minutes.

2. plan your questions/discussion prompts in advance

In advance of the focus group run a briefing meeting with other colleagues organising the group and get a list of questions you’d like to get answers to. Although the focus group discussion needs to be organic to uncover information you may not even have considered important, you need to be clear beforehand which questions are most important to create actionable information.

3. plan a questionnaire for your focus groups

Once you’ve planned your questions and discussion prompts, organise them into a questionnaire with plenty of space for notes. Put the most important questions first, and keep in mind it’s more important to have an interesting and fruitful discussion than it is to get through all your questions. You can always follow up later.

Quick tip – have a box at the end of each question specifically to highlight remarkable insights so they don’t get lost.

4. appoint a notetaker

It might sound obvious, but identifying the best person in the organisation to take high quality notes will be critical to ensuring the findings are clear. Bear in mind the best person for that role may not be from within your department.

Quick tip – as well as having a notetaker in the session, audio or video record the session so you can refer back to it afterwards, just in case anything gets missed.

5. select your participants

It’s critical to gain the views of a wide cross-section of your organisation. What motivates individuals in the tech department may not be the same as what motivates the finance department. Gathering feedback from multiple pay grades is also important, as it could be the case that those on a higher wage are less motivated by money and more by time off for example.

Quick tip – in terms of the make-up of the group, in a larger organisation you might choose to run sessions with departments individually. This is for two reasons. One it may encourage quieter individuals to speak up as they’re amongst people they know and two you can have a more productive discussion as their views are likely to have more similarities – allowing you to use the time to drill down in a lot more detail. In smaller organisations a cross functional group is probably more realistic.

6. kick off the discussion

To warm the group up, start off by asking a simple, open question. As the conversation starts to flow, you can then begin to cover off more specific questions.

7. get equal input from the group

Be mindful that everyone’s opinion is important. If you feel the discussion is being led by one or two more outspoken individuals, ensure you prompt quieter members of the group to answer and give them the time and space to do so.

8. analyse the results and feedback to the group

Hopefully your focus group has provided you with plenty of interesting angles, and actionable ideas to shape your employee referral strategy. After all of your focus groups have taken place compile and analyse the common themes and resulting actions. Be sure to remember to feedback to the group (s) a high level version of the findings and the key actions you’re going to take. This is important to ensure employees don’t feel their time was wasted and that their opinions were valuable to you.

At Real Links, one of the first steps we take with every organisation we work with is to hold focus groups with their employees. We’ve run literally hundreds of these sessions, so if you think you might need support get in touch.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can transform referrals into a key source of hires download our whitepaper now.

The employee referral process

29th April 202120th February 2020 by Real Links

We recently released our findings based on a survey with 100 employees, which investigates the current landscape and shortcomings of employee referrals: “Rewarding Referrals: Strategies & Insights to Increase Employee Participation & Longevity”. One of our key findings was the necessity to include reward systems into your referral strategy in order to successfully increase referred hires from an industry average of under 10% to over 30%.

the referral process

Previously, we wrote about the types of rewards that can be used when providing bonuses for employee referrals. We found that while money is effective, there are many other forms that increase participation, such as time-off, personal development and experiential rewards. However, choosing the right type of reward isn’t the only factor that needs to be considered. When and how to reward referrals is equally important. Therefore, a clear, well-defined employee referral process that includes game mechanics, is what takes referrals from a passive benefit for recruitment teams to an active source of hard-to-reach candidates. In this blog, we will explore some of the dos and don’ts of the referral process.

when to reward referrals

Through our survey, we found that 34% of companies only offer rewards for referrals upon a hire being made with a further 65% once a referred candidate has passed their probation period. Only 1% of those surveyed said that their company rewards earlier in the application process. To put this into context, when considering hiring timelines (as seen below), it could take up to one year before employees are recognised for making a referral. In addition, since a majority of candidates will not pass the interview stage, most employees who have referred someone from their network will see no recognition for their efforts.

a lack of transparency

Worse yet, due to the inability to easily track the status of their referred candidates in the hiring process, employees are left in the dark on the progress of their referrals. This is even more damaging, when considering that a number of employees will refer someone and never receive a reward, creating mistrust in not only referrals but also the company they work for. In fact, our survey shows that 83% of employees are unable to track the progress of referred candidates. This means that for most employees, their experience with referrals will be a negative one.

gamification & reward systems

Looking at game mechanics as an indication for how likely employees are to participate, it’s clear that instantaneous rewarding is a key factor to success. If the employee performs a positive action, in this case an introduction to a candidate, or the very first step of a referral, they need to be immediately rewarded. Here, microrewards are powerful, and when correctly used, result in employees continuously referring. It’s important to break down the application process and to incorporate gamification into the various stages of referrals.

For example, successful forms of rewards for when a referral is made could be raffle tickets, which result in a prize at the end of the month. The more referrals an employee makes, the more raffle tickets they earn, increasing their chances of winning. When a referred candidate moves onto the interviewing stage, another micro-prize could be offered. Even something as simple as a free lunch can be highly motivational. This lets you use gamification to experience much higher returns on your referrals.

a tailored referral process

But do your employees prefer raffle tickets or a points-based system? Are they fans of leaderboards or do they dislike competition? Much like what type of reward to choose, the only way to know how to formulate your process is to ask your employees. At Real Links, the first step to creating our clients’ referral strategies is to hold focus groups with their employees. We rely on their feedback to create a referral process that increases participation and longevity. We then setup the gamification elements of our platform based on these results, ensuring that referrals are a key recruitment component in our clients’ organisations.

Interested in learning more about how you can transform referrals into a key source of hires? Download our whitepaper now.

what are the best employee referral bonuses?

29th April 202130th January 2020 by Real Links

We recently surveyed 100 employees to better understand the current landscape and shortcomings of referrals. Our survey base spanned multiple industries, geographic locations and job roles, with varying levels of seniority. We have now released the findings in a free whitepaper, “Rewarding Referrals: Strategies & Insights to Increase Employee Participation & Longevity”. One of the key focus areas of the whitepaper was to understand what the best employee referral bonuses are to increase participation in referrals over the long term.

the best employee referral bonuses

We’ve found that the biggest obstacle to successful referrals is participation and longevity through our past experiences working with clients. For this reason, it’s vital that a well-thought-out strategy is in place that includes reward systems. While most companies today, 88% according to our survey, opt to only offer cash bonuses upon hire or passing probation, our findings show that there are multiple other forms of recognition that are motivating, and often at a lower cost. These can range from raffles to beer and pizza parties to charity donations. However, according to those surveyed, the three best employee referral bonuses for increasing employee participation are time-off, personal development and experiences.

In this blog, we will be exploring these three types of rewards that can transform referrals into a key source of hires by increasing employee engagement:

time-off

While it’s true that even in our study money was the greatest motivator, time-off came second at 50%. Studies show that people who value time over money are happier. People today have heavy workloads and busy personal lives. More and more people are reporting that time has now become a scarce commodity.

This speaks volumes for the potential in rewarding time-off for referrals. It’s not only a way to recognise employees for their efforts in sourcing candidates for your company, but it could also increase overall satisfaction rates, creating engaged employees. While employees will greatly appreciate a day-off for making referrals, it will also give them the rest they desperately need. The effects of employee engagement on productivity are well documented, with reports that highly engaged employees increase profitability by 21%.

Additionally, in the majority of cases it’s more cost-effective than a cash bonus, when considering that typical monetary referral bonuses tend to sit around the $500 – $1000 range, more than a day of annual leave for most employees.

personal development

Career development has become a key focus for people today. This is supported by our findings, which show that personal development ranks as the third most motivational award. However, employees today are less and less focused on a career within a certain company. People are job hopping more than ever before and this trend is expected to continue. Therefore, acquiring the skills they need to successfully make lateral moves, internal and external, make personal development one of the best employee referral bonuses.

Similarly, thanks to continual developments in technology, core skills constantly need to change. People today feel that their skills are going to date very easily, and in the majority of cases, they’re not wrong. This makes rewarding personal development, be that budget or courses, an extremely desirable, and therefore motivating, form of rewarding.

rewarding experiences

Trips, helicopter rides, scuba diving lessons, the list is endless when it comes to experiential rewards. The reason they can be one of the best employee referral bonuses is because experiences are far more memorable than money. People rarely remember what they spent their referral bonuses on. While employees appreciate money, the appreciation is fleeting. They also expect it, as most companies today provide referral cash bonuses. Experiences, on the other hand, are something people may remember and appreciate for the rest of their lives.

What’s even more powerful with these types of rewards, is that the positive memories gained from these experiences are associated with your company. This is not only extremely motivational, but also helps in retaining employees. Additionally, with a proper advocacy plan in place, experiential rewards can help your employer branding efforts. Everyone today is an influencer. A simple Instagram post from one of your employees with your company tagged in it about an experience you provided them is an endorsement like none other. This is one of the many ways that referrals can play a vital role in your employee advocacy strategy.

so what should I use to reward referrals?

The options may seem endless. The truth is there’s a lot of different rewards that are effective, and unfortunately most companies’ rewards strategies are based on assumptions. This is one of the key reasons that referral schemes fail. For example, we recently hosted a focus group at a major recruitment consultancy we work with. Our assumption was that the competitive aspects of our platform’s gamification features would be well received. After all, recruiters thrive in and are used to a competitive environment. However, the opposite turned out to be true. They responded negatively to implementing yet another leaderboard. They had enough competition in the workplace. On the other hand, when we held a similar focus group for nurses, we were surprised by how excited they were at the prospect of competition. It was culturally unusual for them and therefore enticing.

The reality is that until you speak to your employees, everything around what, how and when to reward referrals is an assumption and a risk you can’t afford to take. The best policy here is to tailor your rewarding strategy to what your employees find desirable. The only way to truly understand what would motivate your employees to participate in referrals is to ask them directly. In our experience focus groups are an excellent method to understand how to tailor your referral strategy to fit your employees. That’s why they’re one of the first steps we take when working with clients. The findings from these focus groups then go on to dictate how we setup our platform, gamification and process.

While understanding what the best employee referral bonuses are is important, the entire rewarding process is equally paramount to success. When should you reward your employees for referrals (when a candidate starts inteviewing, upon hire, upon passing probation, etc.)? How do you use referrals to increase your recruitment pipeline? You can find the answers to all these questions and more in our free whitepaper, which will help you establish a referral strategy that increases participation and longevity. Read it today.

We’ve moved offices!

21st April 202128th January 2020 by Real Links

As Real Links continues to expand, our need for space grows too. That’s why we’ve recently relocated offices in London from a co-working space to our own dedicated office. We’re now in buzzing Bethnal Green, a well-connected hub of interesting restaurants and hip bars such as Mother Kelly’s and Fugitive Motel. A stone’s throw away from Victoria Park lets one enjoy nature when looking to take a break from city life and the ever-popular Brick Lane is right around the corner, filled with great food and culture.

Our new office is an open plan concept, allowing for a great atmosphere focused on teamwork and easy communication. However, this comes with its own set of challenges when looking for privacy. As a result, we’ve installed soundproof booths from Meavo. Featuring premium interiors, power sockets, an active ventilation system and even a wireless charger, they’re ideal for making a call or focusing in a quiet, comfortable environment.

Additionally, the building we’re in, The Pill Box, a part of Workspace, allows for a change of scenery in its stylish reception/café. With a ping pong table for tense office tournaments, plenty of seating space ideal for team meetings, a gym to uphold New Years’ resolutions and even a roof terrace to enjoy sunny days, the Real Links team have an excellent space to grow and reach the goal of becoming world leading providers of employee referral strategy and technology.

Want to Improve Employee Retention? Here Are 5 Steps You Need to Take Now.

29th April 202111th December 2019 by Real Links

We’re in the age of the job-hopper, when workers would rather flit from one company to another than stay with the same company long-term.

In fact, a study by Deloitte found that nearly half of millennials plan to leave their current job within two years, and that less than a third plan to stay longer than five years.

That’s bad news for companies and HR execs. But don’t give up just yet – there are things you can do to keep your top talent with you longer.

If you want to know how to improve employee retention, have a read of our five tips.

1. Create an employee referral program.

We hate to state the obvious, but one of the best employee retention strategies is to make the right hire in the first place.

Instead of wasting your time and resources on candidates who are the wrong fit (and who’ll leave your company faster than you can say “notice period”), increase your likelihood of finding the right fit by creating and hiring through employee referrals.

An employee referral is a recruitment method that relies on your existing employees connecting candidates from their networks to a company. The great thing about this method is that you gain access to large talent pools of hard to reach candidates through recommendations as well as introductions to passive and pre-qualified talent.

Often, the people they recommend have similar values and goals to them, which means if they’re a valued employee, their referral probably will be too. On the other hand, when the person is just an introduction rather than a recommendation, companies are able to reach out and speak to highly sought after talent who are often unreceptive to traditional recruitment methods.

Not only are referred candidates 55% faster to hire, they reduce recruitment costs by up to $3000 per hire, and statistics show they stay with their companies longer.

Want to know more about how you can boost your employee referrals? Get in touch with us now.

2. Offer flexible working.

The strict 9 to 5 working day is out, and flexible working is in. Access to remote working, sabbaticals and flexible hours is the new normal.

If you can show employees you trust them enough to manage their own work and working hours, you’ll most likely experience a spike in productivity levels and engagement.

According to a recent YouGov survey, 89% of British workers believe that flexible working will boost their productivity.

It’s worth knowing, however, that a third of flexible UK workers feel less important in their company because of their flexible working hours. So if you can offer this and still make employees feel like valued team members, you’re more likely to keep your top talent.

3. Hire effective leaders.

Let’s be honest: one of the biggest reasons people leave their job is because of bad management. Workers quit when they feel their direct supervisors either aren’t doing a good job or that they’re difficult to work with.

Stats show when an employee rates their manager’s performance poorly, they’re four times more likely to look for another job.

So if you want your best employees to stick around, you need to make the right hiring decisions when it comes to filling management roles.

4. Encourage employee progression.

The truth is, nobody’s going to stay in a job that bores them. Your best employees want to be challenged. They want to feel like they’re moving forward and that they’re growing professionally and personally.

If you’re not actively nurturing employee progression, expect your best workers to up and leave.

You should know their individual skills and talents, and you should give them the opportunity to explore them – even when it’s outside their usual work remit.

Other ways to encourage progression is by conducting regular pay reviews, offering positive and constructive feedback, and giving them opportunities for professional development and continued education.

5. Show employees they’re valued

The fastest way to lose talent is to make them feel like they’re not valued.

Interestingly, this appreciation doesn’t have to mean more money (though salary does matter). You can show employees you value them by listening to what they have to say, implementing their feedback, being transparent in your decision-making as a company, and offering benefits they actually want and need.

One report revealed that 59% of UK workers say a personalised benefits package – including things like gym memberships and free meals – would “influence their decision to stay at a company”.

When you know your employees well enough, you can tailor their rewards and make them feel so valued they choose to stay with you longer.

Honestly? There’s no way to stop employees from eventually moving on, but if you show them you’re committed to them, you’ll have loyal workers that love your company and will stay as long as possible.

Real Links is a platform that helps you leverage the power of employee referrals. As well as matching you with the best candidates, we make your hiring process faster and reduce your recruitment costs dramatically.

Want to know more? Get in touch with our expert team now.

IHL London ’19 Shows How Technology is Advancing the HR & Recruitment Scene

29th April 202117th September 2019 by Real Links

Last week, on the 10th of September, we had the pleasure of exhibiting at IHL London ’19. The industry defining event saw over 1,000 attendees come together to explore the many developments taking place in recruitment. This year’s conference was filled with speakers and exhibitors who are providing new approaches to hiring solutions coupled with representatives from some of the biggest enterprises worldwide. Must attend events like IHL London ’19 prove that the HR scene is on the brink of major advancements fuelled through remarkable technology and innovation.

We had a great time meeting and exchanging insights with people from companies spanning multiple industries such as BT, adidas, Deloitte, The LEGO Group, Gumtree and more. Our team also had the opportunity to attend a number of interesting presentations. Two topics repeatedly featured this year were:

Success Through Technology & Data

The first was how using technology and data is helping companies achieve talent acquisition and retention goals at a higher rate than ever before. Companies investing in new, powerful platforms are finding increases in employee engagement, retention rates, satisfaction and other key performance indicators. The importance of data was also brought up this year at IHL London ’19. It’s vital that companies today track success in recruitment and HR. However, it’s also key to use data to improve upon existing processes by identifying trends such as channels and activities performing better than others and how this information can be used to help improve HR and recruitment processes.

The Power of Social

The second prominent theme was how companies investing in social were experiencing massive benefits in recruitment. Today 79% of firms are experiencing more online visibility once implementing a social advocacy channel. Thanks to this, companies are able to hit their often-challenging recruitment goals. Additionally, content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than brand channels. Therefore, speakers pointed out the importance of engaging your employees when investing in these lucrative channels. Finally, forward thinking companies are finding immense success in promoting open vacancies through their employees’ social networks.

Thinking of adopting technology and social to achieve your recruitment goals? Get in touch with us now.

The Benefits of Employee Referrals

29th April 202111th September 2019 by Real Links

Employee referrals are a recruitment channel with a number of benefits such as boasting an extremely high conversion rate, where only 7% of applications come in through referrals yet they’re responsible for 40% of all hires. For employees, referral programs often feature appealing bonuses such as time off, cash, physical prizes and much more. Similarly, the secret to success when it comes to candidates finding their ideal, next position often lies within their professional networks. Employee referral programs, when handled correctly, create a best-case scenario for all stakeholders: employers, employees and applicants.

Benefits for Employers

A referral program is a great way to source pre-qualified applicants, passive talent and even poach candidates from your competitors. It’s simple really, the people who you trust to produce results in your company have a vast network of likeminded individuals, who are more likely to be a cultural fit and get the job done. They also on average carry a 39% higher employee retention rate than candidates sourced through agencies and other recruitment tactics.

A solid employee referral program is also more cost and time efficient than other forms of recruitment. From a financial perspective, recruitment agencies are known to be extremely expensive. Thanks to aggressive commission schemes, they often care less about matching the ideal candidate with the role than they do about fulfilling their quotas and generating revenue. On the other hand, internal recruiters spend a significant amount of time searching for candidates, qualifying them and setting up conversations. For hard to fill roles, these considerations can be extremely difficult challenges to overcome.

Finally, assuming your employees are appropriately incentivised to refer candidates, the success of your employee referral program can speak volumes for the rate of satisfaction your employees experience in the workplace. After all, an employee that cherishes their position and company is much more likely to recommend their friends and the people they trust, if they’re happy with where they work. They’re also more motivated to recommend people they believe will truly make a change at your organisation and satisfy your growth targets as they truly care about what’s best for your company.

Benefits for Employees

While most employers have financial incentives in place when it comes to referrals, they also opt for other bonuses ranging from free travel to prizes such as bikes, gadgets and much more. On top of this, recognition in company communication channels as well as from supervisors are great motivators that push employees to become active in an employee referral program. However, there’s also the recognition within their personal networks, such as their social media channels, and the satisfaction of knowing that they helped someone close to them progress in their career.

Successful and happy employees have your company’s goals in mind and are looking for solutions to hit their personal and professional goals. For example, a software engineer may have a daunting roadmap in front of them, which an additional, productive team member would help them achieve. Finally, the prospect of having an active hand at choosing their colleagues, and working alongside people they like and respect, is very motivational.

Benefits for Candidates

Being referred for a position by someone who already works at a company often grants job seekers the coveted status of a fast track candidate by getting their CV in front of the right people at the right time. Rather than submitting their CV to hundreds of companies and filling out tedious, often painstakingly long application forms, their own networks can be a great first step to finding their next position. Or, better yet, perhaps one of your employees will reach out to them, whether they’re actively looking for the next step in their career or not, with a recommendation for the position of their dreams.

Employee referral programs are one of the strongest forms of sourcing talent that focuses on quality. They feature multiple benefits for all stakeholders and have an active hand in creating a tangible, positive company culture. If you’re interested in learning more about employee referrals, Real Links’ platform automates the entire employee referral program through an intuitive matching system that promises to reduce the time spent and costs of recruitment.

Get in touch with us now.