1. Make Philips Grow
How referral enables the growth of Philips
Nicole Bueters
Talent Acquisition Benelux
May 19, 2011

2. Content
• Definition
• Why referral?
• Concept
• Creation
• Implementation
• Evaluation
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3. Employee Referral
Definition
Recruitment method in which the current employees are
encouraged and rewarded for introducing suitable
recruits from among the people they know
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4. Why referral?
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5. Why referral?
Summary various external articles/research
• Costs are lower
• Quality of inflow is higher
• Turn-around time is quicker
• Staff turn-over of referred employees is lower
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6. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Quality
• External agencies produced the lowest quality of hire
• Targeted sourcing, referral and internal labor market yield the best quality of hire
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7. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Labor market
• About 15% of the (Dutch) labor market potential are active job seekers
and approx 50% are latent job seekers
• With the standard recruitment methods we are not able to reach an
important part of our labor market potential
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8. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Speed
The network of our employees is large and we have easy and quick
access to that network
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9. Why referral is an important source for Philips
Costs
The costs per hire will decrease. For Philips the priority is:
• Quality
• Reach
• Speed
Who believes referral is an important source for recruitment?
Who has an effective referral program in place?
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10. Concept
What did we have in mind?
• One structured program for Philips in the Netherlands
– Coming from scattered small initiatives in departments & sectors
– Limited use of networks
• Ability to Introduce candidates for
– Current vacancies
– Pre-defined profiles for inflow referral pool
• Use as a tool for the roll out of our Employee Value Proposition
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11. Creation
The road to a successful referral program in a multinational
• Clear guidelines and policies
– Terms & Conditions
– Privacy Aspects
• Approval and support from all stakeholders
– HR Community & Sectors
– Works Council (Centrale Ondernemingsraad)
– Privacy Committee
• Backend for administrative processes to facilitate candidate handling
and bonus payouts
– Automation of communication
• Clearly defined process steps with roles and responsibilities
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12. Creation - What does the program look like?
Easy, simple & clear
• Candidate introductions
– One Referral Portal
– Vacancy or pre-defined pipeline profiles
• Eligibility
– All Philips staff except recruitment
• Bonus
– Amount depends on the job grade
– If hired within 6 months after intro
– Paid in month of start date by vacancy owner
• Communication:
– Philips employee and candidate are kept updated throughout the
process (via automated e-mails)
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13. Implementation
Introduction & Communication Plan
HR teams: Employees Banners
Presentations,
Mailing career
communication
materials hard copy pages (int.)
Posters Banners
Recruiters: on all HR
Presentation, websites
locations
training,
comm. tools Referral
Banners Philips
sector
Portal magazine
Corp Comm:
Toolkit with sites Hard copy
communication
materials
Articles Philips e-
sector newsletter
HR community:
Article about
magazines
referral
program
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14. Implementation - Material
Poster Banners
Brochure
Magnet
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15. Evaluation
Continuous Improvement
• What went well?
– High candidate quality
– High inflow
– Many hires - 9% of total hires so far
– Administrative backend worked well for bonus payouts
– Up-front agreed guidelines help to settle disagreements
• What did we learn?
– A Referral candidate is no “regular” candidate
– Philips colleagues have high expectations
– Backend process was not optimized for recruiters
– Be ready for large volumes
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16. Implementation
Follow-up 2011
• Targeted boost of referral program
• Encourage line managers to activate their network
• Enable Philips employees to be an ambassador…
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