Hiring is expensive. On average, companies spend $4,000 filling a single open position. A low unemployment rate combined with an ever-increasing number of open positions leads to a talent drought for companies looking to shore up their ranks with new quality hires. If you want to see a notable increase in both the quality and quantity of your applicant pool, empower and encourage your employees to be an active part of your new employee recruitment efforts through an employee advocacy program.

The Power of Employee Advocacy

Over 45% of recruiters said that their biggest  problem was not having enough candidates applying for open positions. The era of throwing up a single Indeed ad and receiving a hundred resumes is over. Brands need an integrated recruitment strategy that incorporates their greatest talent attractors: current employees.

Chances are good that for every open position you have, there’s someone in your employee’s social media network that would be an ideal candidate.

Why hire someone from your employees’ network? 47% of referral hires say they have greater job satisfaction compared to hires that came through other sources. Referral hires also tend to stay around longer with the company, reducing turnover and cutting back on recruiting and hiring overhead costs.

We wrote this original post back in 2019. Since then, it’s become even harder for businesses to attract top talent in the current hiring market. As such, we’ve updated this post with a few additional statistics, as well as some extra tips for leveraging your employee social networks to support your recruitment efforts.

Before we jump into the benefits of implementing, nurturing, or expanding your employee advocacy program to improve talent acquisition, let’s take a look at some quick stats: 

• 54% of people trust a regular employee over a CEO 
• 68% trust a company technical expert
• 86% of employees involved in an advocacy program through their employer said it had a positive impact on their career

Your brand’s message goes 561% further when shared by your employees compared to when the message is shared via your official channels

How an Employee Advocacy Program can New Employee Recruitment

1) Increase Awareness of Open Positions

Instead of paying to have your position posted to random job boards, let your employees showcase your open positions on their social networks. Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees versus distributed by the brand. Also, being people (and not brands), your employees don’t have their post visibility neutered by algorithms. No more constantly promoting posts!

Make sure the job opening description being posted is social optimized. Include an image, descriptive content, and a trackable link to where potential applicants can learn more about the position in the content piece. Remember, no one is going to apply for a job opening that they aren’t aware of. Lean on your employees to help spread the word!

2) Show Your Company Growth

It’s human nature to want to align oneself with success. Promoting your wins works twofold: it provides an internal morale boost and it showcases your successful company to potential employees.

Remember the adage, “Show don’t tell”? Visual communication carries far more weight with potential applicants than simple statements over a phone call. Make sure your employee advocacy program includes content that showcases your growth by:

• Announcing your awards
• Celebrating new partnerships
• Profiling new hires
• Boasting about record-breaking sales

3) Promote Your Company Culture

If someone is going to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the foreseeable future working for your company, make sure they get a feeling for the culture of the office before they start. Misaligned cultural fit is one of the top reasons new employees quit. Let potential applicants self-select themselves as a cultural fit by giving them an idea of what your office culture is before they interview!

Sharing the fun stuff (holiday parties, employee retreats, the company beer fridge), is a great start, but potential applicants are smart enough to know that not every day is going to be a party – unless you work for some sort of professional partying company. In which case, are you hiring?

Have your employees share content that gives an idea of the entirety of your company culture:

• Shout out your employee diversity
• Illustrate your company benefits
• Show off top performers
• Share your corporate values and how they impact the way you do work

4) Reward Your Employees

Want your employees to go the extra mile in driving quality talent into your new hire pipeline? Consider implementing a referral program to incentivize your employees to assist you in filling open positions. SocialToaster makes it easy to track and reward employees for sharing your content to their social channels. Consider offering extra days off, free lunches or even cold-hard cash to employees that help you fill open slots.

5) Attract Industry Experts and Blossoming Thought, Leaders

Experts and thought leaders aren’t born overnight, they’re made and often these blossoming thought leaders and experts are simply looking for a space that recognizes their excellence. Unfortunately, many employers fail to recognize the real talent they have at their disposal leaving employees feeling lost and under-utilized. A quality employee advocacy program not only attracts new talent, it celebrates both new and current talent. When these employees of excellence are fully recognized they are able to give back to the brand and feel fulfilled rather than used. 

6) Retain Top Talent 

As we mentioned above, a high-quality employee advocacy program can attract top talent but it can also keep them within your organization. Your employee advocacy program is a large part of the pie that is continually improving your business, brand and the cultural impact your business has on the community. Employee advocates support your branding which can have an effect on the initial quality of new candidate hires. Additionally, employee advocacy programs help engage both current and potential employees. You can use your reward system to ensure both you and your employees are in alignment with the brand’s long-term business goals.

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Got an open position list a mile long? Let SocialToaster help you setup your own employee advocacy program today – send us an email, request a free demo, or give us a call at 855.62.TOAST today!