The retail industry has always had struggles with attracting and retaining good employees and things haven’t gotten any easier with a 4 percent unemployment rate. Securing employee referrals, reviews and testimonials has always been an important recruitment strategy but social media and the accessibility to information has made it vital. Retailers need to carefully cultivate and promote thoughtful, authentic narratives from existing employees and create incentives to encourage employees to refer friends and family who may be a good fit for the company.

Employee referrals are huge. The Container Store has been doing this for years. And if you can create a great Employee Experience (EX), you’ll have similar results as when you create a great customer experience. You’ll get referrals, great word of mouth and employee goodwill. One idea: Treat employees the way you want your customers treated — maybe even better!

Employee referrals and testimonials are the “product reviews” of a company. These can make or break recruiting efforts and cost a company good faith, positive employee attitudes and money when they become negative. Keeping these positive and rewarding for all current and future employees should be one of the main HR and recruiting goals for any company in today’s retail (and other) environs. How this is accomplished reflects on management and some of the corporate mission goals for any organization. Great companies keep this as a key focus and are often rewarded. Using social media, employee camaraderie, special events, employee recognition and trying to create a fun and desirable work environment all contribute to this.

At my last retail/service job at a microbrewery there was high turnover and an extremely high referral rate. Definitely pros and cons for the employer in this particular example.
Pros:

• Quick fill rate when turnover occurred;
• Lively work atmosphere with employees who genuinely enjoyed each others company which transferred to a high energy level with customers;
• Network of people who were more inclined to cover shifts when in a pinch because it was seen as a favor to a friend more than an opportunity to grab extra hours;
• The company became ingrained in that group’s collective identity and life story, creating powerful brand advocates.

Cons:

• When one person in the group had a gripe with management it often had a halo effect — additional workers as employees were more loyal to their friends than they were to their employer;
• Not enough diversity. When referrals come from “close tie” groups it tends to draw in more similar personalities.

PS: If you are even in St. Louis and a beer fan, check out Urban Chestnut Brewing Company — they do great work. Prost!