Employee referral programs can be a benefit to hiring managers. Not only do employees identify potential candidates and eliminate the need for extensive searches and/or shuffling through mountains of resumes, but employees are also rewarded for their role in the process, in turn boosting their morale, experts told HR Dive.

But not all referral programs are doing what they’ve set out to do. According to research from HireClix, 71% of companies have formal referral programs, but only 2% are meeting their referral hiring goals.

Fixing employee referral programs can be a big boost for hiring, especially when hiring managers are often inundated with candidates for open positions, said Moe Hutt, director of strategic consulting services at HireClix. It’s a problem made worse by people using AI to throw as many resumes into the world as possible, even if they’re not qualified (not to mention that people applying for these jobs may not be who they say they are).

A healthy employee referral program means “there’s comfort that someone knows this person. It helps them jump to the front of the line without a lot of administrative burden and bureaucracy,” she said.

Here’s how to find pain points in underperforming employee referral programs, and how to fix them, to add another important tool to the employee search process.

Good intentions, gummed up works

When it comes to employee referral programs, three things typically trip them up, said Hutt, which have all been persistent problems, even with the digital transformation of the hiring process. “You could give me the same interview 20 years ago, and I’d start by saying the same thing.”

They all have to do with process, she’s found. First, employees don’t clearly know the job requirements for the positions posted. Second, the steps they need to take to submit a referral are too complex. And third, the employee and the person they’re referring for the job aren’t kept in the loop about where that person is in the hiring process.

Companies don’t want employees to go through the trouble of referring good people and then experiencing radio silence. “It’s a black hole. I never hear back, and my friend never hears back and I’m embarrassed,” Hutt said.

Read the full article here.