Every recruitment company you turn to seems to have a referral scheme, most of them offer a cash incentive if their friends or colleagues get placed. We were looking to start our own referral scheme but offering cash for referrals just didn't seem very Chemistry, to be honest, it seemed like exactly the stereotypical recruitment agency behaviour we avoid at all costs!!
So, we were thinking about how else we can encourage candidates to recommend Chemistry to their friends freely of their own accord and then reward them for doing so. After getting our heads together and thinking about what we recommend to our friends we came up with a frighteningly simple answer; people never truly recommend something unless they have had a great experience using it! Groundbreaking, we know :)
Now, some of you reading this may think I am stating the obvious, but sadly in many cases this is a realisation yet to reach the recruitment industry.
The question then becomes so what can we do to make the experience for candidates as enjoyable as possible?
Well, quite a lot actually, at Chemistry we have introduced a 'welcome' pack for candidates which is crammed full of useful information including an invitation to the process, the Chemistry story, great interview tips, information about the client. We have been piloting this for the last few weeks and everybody is loving it so far.
We have also invested in a LexisNexis login so that our candidates can really research the clients they interview with and their markets. No other recruitment companies in the world are doing this!
Then there is all the great stuff for candidates that we have been doing for years e.g. every candidate gets a full feedback booklet from the profiling we do with them.
In summary, we have been making every effort to ensure that candidates are noticing the difference in service between us and other recruitment agencies.
But then what happens if people do refer their friends and we place someone, they need to be rewarded somehow!!!!
Again, we believe it is all about the experience you give people. Therefore instead of a quick cash prize, we decided to give people something that will last, that they will use over and over again - a great experience they will constantly associate with Chemistry.
We decided one years membership to the Quintessentially concierge and private members club was the perfect reward.
So, there it is, our views on what a referral scheme should be, a reward not a bribe and the recommendation should be deserved not paid for!
Rowan
