7 Employee Referral Reward Ideas You Would Never Have Thought Of

Money? Material prizes? Or maybe a simple handshake? In this post, we present seven companies and seven different ideas for rewarding employees for their involvement in an internal referral recruitment system.

1. AppDynamics – A helicopter ride

In 2013, AppDynamics, a company providing solutions for application developers, was named by Forbes the best employer in the SaaS space. The San Francisco-based business outpaced such renowned brands as Google, Dropbox and SalesForce. How to explain this success? There were certainly many factors, but we want to highlight its exemplary implemented and executed employee referral system. To handle referrals, AppDynamics uses an external platform provided by RolePoint.com. Thanks to this tool, employees can not only influence the staffing of their departments and teams, but also reach for attractive rewards. An example? A helicopter trip to the picturesque Napa County, known as "Wine Valley", where the lucky winner had the opportunity to tour the most famous American wineries. And, of course, to sample the local wines. The company, meanwhile, has plenty to boast about on its intranet.

2. Groupon.com – A gift voucher

The Australian branch of the Groupon brand is a good example of linking a company's business model with its referral program. Their HR department decided to offer employees vouchers worth 10 dollars for every referred person who was invited to a job interview. The voucher, however, could only be spent on Groupon.com. In other words, employees could use the money received this way on their own platform, creating a kind of closed loop. If the recommended candidate was hired, the company added 200 dollars in cash. After the probation period, set at 3 months regardless of the position, a third tranche of the reward was released – 700 dollars.

3. Hubspot – 30,000 dollars

The offer of this software house creating marketing platforms and sales software may not be very innovative, but its appeal is undeniable. Hubspot decided to pay a record-breaking 30,000 dollars for referring a candidate who gets hired and passes a 90-day probation period. That's right – the Californian company is ready to pay nearly 115,000 zlotys for a referral. It is hardly surprising that the company's referral program quickly attracted media attention and also translated into employer branding gains. Compared to the referral rewards, the candidate themselves received rather modest gifts. First, a material prize just for reaching the final stage of recruitment, even if it did not result in a job offer. Second, in case of being hired, a 4,000-dollar welcome bonus.

4. Thumbtack – A trip to the end of the world

The American service for matching clients with freelancers and professionals is famous for paying well not only its developers, but also the people who help find them. For referring a "rockstar" (a top-class developer), the company is ready to pay 15,000 dollars – with no probation period requirement. To maintain referral momentum and engage employees more strongly in the whole program, Thumbtack decided to additionally introduce gamification elements. The company's HR department ran a ranking in which employees competed for the lead in successful referrals. Every week the team received information about who held which place and how far they were from the leader. The fight for first place was not just a matter of prestige. The winner received, as a reward, the opportunity to take a trip, at the company's expense, to any place in the world. Referrers from outside the company were also admitted to the program. The best of them received a 4-day trip to Hawaii.

5. Axial – A kind gesture

Let's leave the IT industry and the astronomical sums paid for referrals for a moment. Axial, a portal helping businesses find reputable investors and investment advisors, chose a much simpler (and cheaper) way of rewarding participants of its referral recruitment programs. The best referrers working at Axial can count on a handshake from the CEO and a company t-shirt (unavailable in stores) during periodic meetings. The t-shirt is a kind of trophy, and the applause from the whole company on the day it is awarded is a reward in itself. "Axialites", as the company's employees call themselves, can later show off with photos published in the company's main social media communication channel – on Tumblr.

6. Informatica – Helping those in need

By getting involved in referrals, company employees can support not only friends looking for a job, but also people in need on the other side of the world. That was the case with the global software provider from California – Informatica. The company's employees were informed that if they created an account on the referral platform and recommended no fewer than 3 people, Informatica would donate a specified amount to those affected by the hurricane in the Philippines. It did not matter whether the referred people were invited to interviews or took up a job. What counted was the engagement. If a candidate was hired, the referrer did not, however, lose the right to the reward.

7. Nestle Waters – A day off

The American Nestle opted for an interesting, mixed model of gratifying its employees. On the one hand, quite conventionally, the company offers a 500-dollar reward for a successful referral. The above amount is paid out on condition that the referred person works for a minimum of 3 months. On the other hand, Nestle made its referral program more enticing by offering all its participants the chance to win a day off work. The rule is simple: everyone who makes a referral takes part in a draw for "8 vacation hours". The lucky winner is announced once a quarter.

Photo credit: mrjoro / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

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