How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for ... - GIT home page

and then had forgotten all about it. That check made him start paying
attention! Companies pay recruiters 20 to 30 percent of firstyear
starting salaries to fill one position. Any referral fee you pay
for a quality employee is going to be a terrific bargain compared to
this. The next sections present a few key points to make these kinds
of programs flourish.
Referrals Wanted—Always
The best way to get employees to refer high-quality people to your
company is to interview constantly. (Is this starting to sound familiar?)
Going to your employees twice per year and asking for referralstofillanopenpositionisalow-percentage
play. You’ll know
you’re doing it right when, unprompted, you hear your employees
tell their contacts, ‘‘You should talk to our company. We’re interviewing
all the time.’’ Your employees are just like you: busy. If you
want them to focus on discovering great potential employees, you
have to keep them aware of your program at all times and consistently
remind them how much the company values their referrals.
By and large, people love to play and win games. A referral bonus
is a smart investment because it turns the employee referral process
into a game that employees can win. These programs are not first
and foremost about the money but rather about employees who
take pride in their company and want to help make it better. So by
all means, do include this kind of bonus program in your company.
But when you talk about it, don’t just discuss it in terms of the reward.Focusonthefactthatitenhancesyourcurrentemployees’
opportunity to keep the company growing by continually adding
A-players to the team.
Develop an Internal Farm Team
Three Steps to Creating an A-Player Team 51
As your company grows, you will have the opportunity to develop
an internal farm team by incubating your own talent. Take, for
example, RSI Kitchen & Bath, a full-service kitchen and bath design
and remodeling company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri,
with offices across the state. RSI has found that one of the best ways