When It Comes to Referral Bonuses, This Company Proves that Experiences > Cash
Before April of this year, InMobi sourced roughly 20 percent of their tech hires via referral. Since April 2015, 50 percent of InMobi’s hires have been sourced via referral.
What changed?
InMobi stopped giving out cash for referral bonuses.
Instead, they started giving gifts or experiences – all-expense paid trips, motorbikes, etc. – that cost the same as cash bonuses they were paying out earlier. And then they marketed the heck out of the program -- this included parking a motorbike employees could win for successfully referring a friend right in the middle of their India and U.S. offices.
“Experiences motivated our employees more than cash ever did,” Kevin Freitas, InMobi’s director of human resources, told LinkedIn. “No one remembers their fifth pay check, but everyone remembers the trip they made to Hawaii or the bike they won in a raffle.”
The referral program: An idea born out of necessity
In the beginning of 2015, InMobi had six recruiters to support the 900-person company. Knowing it would be nearly impossible for those six to keep up with the hiring demands of the company on their own, the team led by Freitas focused on the referral program.
The problem with InMobi’s referral program at the time was that very few employees were responsible for the vast majority of referrals. This meant that the majority of InMobians were rarely referring anyone, equaling to a missed opportunity for the company.
So, the team did some research on how to scale the program, which included reading a whitepaper based off a 2009 Wichita State University study that said that people found experiential awards more motivating than cash awards. Off that, the team proposed to stop giving out cash bonuses, and start giving out experience based awards in the form of gifts and trips instead.
The program was buoyed by a multi-channel marketing effort
Once InMobi decided to give out these experiences, instead of cash, it was time to market the program. The recruiting team used every free channel at their disposal to keep the program top-of-mind.
That meant:
1. Team huddles
InMobi announced the program via “team huddles,” where they would bring 20-to-30-person groups of InMobians together and share the details of the new referral program- they would now be getting experiences for a referral, instead of cash. The response to these huddles was "overwhelmingly positive, which created a buzz throughout the company," Freitas said.
2. Screensavers and posters advertising the referral program
Like most companies, InMobi’s offices have TV monitors placed all over, for presentations and conferences. Identifying this as unused internal advertising space, InMobi’s recruiting team put screensavers on those monitors listing all the rewards people could win if they successfully referred a candidate.
Additionally, they hung up posters throughout their offices highlighting the details of the referral rewards. Here are some examples of the posters:
Poster from the India office
Poster in the US office
3. They publicly recognized employees for their referrals
InMobi wanted to recognize the employees who successfully referred applicants, beyond just the reward they received. One of the most noteworthy examples was when one employee in the India office successfully referred someone and was rewarded with an iPhone .
Rather than just have a recruiter give the person the iPhone, the company’s founder awarded the employee the phone in front of an audience of other employees. Obviously, the employee appreciated the extra attention, and it served as another great way to market the referral program.
4. They parked a Vespa in their San Francisco office and a Royal Enfield bike on the floor in the Banaglore office
In India motorbikes are very popular as they are a low-fuel, efficient way to get around the country’s streets. To keep the bike – and, through that, the referral program – top-of-mind, InMobi parked it right in the middle of their Indian office. Employees had the chance to win the bike if they referred an employee to a critical role.
In the San Francisco. office, each time an employee refers someone, they are entered in a lottery to win an InMobi-themed Vespa scooter.
They made referring as easy as possible
InMobi also focused on streamlining their referral program, so it was easy for employees to refer and referring employees got quick feedback on their referral. Specifically, that meant:
1. An easy-to-remember email
To make the referral process as simple and easy-to-remember as possible, InMobians were told to email all referrals at referrals@inmobi.com. Obviously, the simpler the email address was to remember, the more likely people would use it, Freitas said.
2. Canned social media messages for new job postings
One of the big ways InMobians began to refer their friends was by posting an open job on social media and asking their network if they were interested. To make this even easier, InMobi recruiters would draft social media updates, along with fun images for advertising new jobs, which employees could cut-and-paste onto their own feed.
Topics: Employee referrals
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