Gamification may be relatively new to the world of recruiting, but it’s taking off in a major way. Now, plenty of companies are using this strategy to keep employees and job candidates engaged in the recruitment process. Gamification is the use of gameplay mechanics — like those you’d see in video games, online games or mobile apps — to add a boost to recruitment efforts. Plenty of major companies are doing it, including tech giant Google. The company recently posted a billboard in Silicon Valley, featuring a math question. The question led users through challenges and eventually brought them to a job application queue, effectively “pre-screening” candidates who could solve the tough equation. What other companies are using gamification for employee referrals? Find out in this presentation by Zao, a social employee referral management platform.

1. How to Use Gamification to Achieve Ongoing
Engagement in Your Employee Referral Program

2. Who We Are
Brought to you by Zao - a platform that helps you
manage and automate your social recruiting and
employee referrals
Presented by:
Tina Carnow, Vice President of
Business Development at Zao
 Tina has more than 20 years of experience in
business development, specializing in referral
recruiting strategy and systems, as well as
digital marketing platforms
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3. Overview
In this webinar, we'll explore:
 Why employee referral programs
have engagement issues and fail
 What is gamification and how it can
boost participation rates
 Specific tips and best practices
on how to use gamification in order
to amp up your referral program
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4. Let's gamify!
kris69
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5. Why Do ERP’s Have Low Engagement Rates?
The required action is too
open-ended and broad:
“Know someone?”
WorldofMonopoly
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6. Most ERP’s Make It Too Hard to Succeed
Kind of like solving a
Rubik’s cube…
 Require the employee to come up with
candidates on their own without any help
 Do not act as a step-by-step guide to
maximize their network’s potential
 Actions are broad and undefined
MeHere
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7. Most ERPs Don’t Give Good Odds for Winning
Since companies typically hire 10%-15%
of their workforce over a year,
even if most of your hires are referral hires,
more than 90%
of your employees
will be left out,
unrecognized and unrewarded
for their efforts, if all you reward is successful hires!
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8. Most ERP’s Take Way Too Long to Achieve Results
Day 1
Referral Received
Day
30-60 Hire Made
Day
120-150 Reward Given
valcineren
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9. What is Gamification?
Got low engagement?
Gamification is the cure
Gamification is the use of game thinking and game
mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users
svilen001
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10. Who Uses Gamification?
If you think the workplace is no place for games…
 70% of large companies (Global 2000 organizations)
will implement some sort of game mechanics into
their workplaces by 2014 (1)
 Spending on gamification projects will grow to as
much as $2.8 billion by 2016 (2)
 Companies who use gamification: (2)
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11. What Gamification Can Do to Your Referral Program
The biggest fear when starting a referral program:
not having people participate over the long-run
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12. How Can Gamification Increase Engagement?
What are the game mechanics we can bring into
our referral programs to increase engagement?
johnnyberg
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13. It's Game Time!
Can anyone name the three F’s of gamification,
according to Gabe Zicherman?
Let's explore!
WorldofMonopoly
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14. The Three F’s of Gamification
The 1st F: FEEDBACK
 Challenge: With typical employee referral programs,
employees don’t get any updates or feedback until
their referred candidate is hired
kazuyakmd
cobrasoft
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15. The Three F’s of Gamification
FEEDBACK
TIP #1 – Keep referrers up to date on their referrals
 Employees won’t feel like their referral goes into a “black hole”
 You don’t need to worry about disclosing too much, just tell
employees if their referral was qualified or not, and then give
them an update if their candidate passed the interview process.
 Every time you give feedback, you encourage further action,
because employees will feel their actions matter
kazuyakmd
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16. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Onboarding
In order for a good gamified
employee referral program to
be successful, it needs to be
presented as a step-by-step
guide for employees
Be clear with what you ask
allfacebook
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17. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Leveling Up
TIP #2 – Give points based on effort
Try to differentiate the reward points you get
for every action:
 Points for sharing
 Recommending qualified candidates
 Candidates who pass interviews
 Candidates who are hired
level up
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18. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Leveling Up
Sample points structure
 Give more points for the actions you
value most
 A structure like this acknowledges
action over inaction, but also
substantially rewards quality over
quantity
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19. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Leveling Up
TIP #3 – Make it easy to master
 Be clear on what you want employees to do
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20. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Leveling Up
 Once employees use the referral program, they will become
familiar and more proficient with the system
 Part of the referral process is helping them
understand how to reach the next level in the
system
 Clearly outline what it takes to get to the next level
by highlighting every step, e.g.:
 Share jobs on social networks
 Give us leads
 Ask friends if they know anyone for the job Fanginhoon
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21. The Three F’s of Gamification
The 2nd F: FRIENDS
 Challenge: With typical employee referral programs, employees
have very little insight into how other people are doing
kazuyakmd
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22. Users Will Be More Engaged if They See Their Friends Are Too
TIP #4 – Create and share a leaderboard
 Once employees begin to see other
people are participating, it
reinforces their decision to take
action
 Increase the number of employees
involved in referrals
 Increase participation of those
already involved
 Share it weekly via email
c64-wiki
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23. Bring In Your Extended Network of Friends
TIP #5 – Engage non employees
 Consider bringing non employees you
trust into the game
 Examples are former employees,
business partners and vendors
 Allow your employees to share referral
rewards with their friends in order to
dive deep into their business network
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24. The Three F’s of Gamification
The 3rd F: FUN
 People engage with games because they’re fun!
 Is your employee referral program fun?
OregonTrail
kazuyakmd
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25. Making it FUN
TIP #6 – Recognize employee
efforts
 Publicly thank and acknowledge
employees that make a good effort
 Consider achievements and badges,
such as referring 5 friends that are
qualified, or whenever a friend you
referred is interviewed
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26. Making it FUN
TIP #7 – Allow more winners
 If you only reward hires, less than 10% of your
employees can win during a year – which doesn’t
help engagement.
 Consider making points redeemable for prizes.
 Consider making actions redeemable for prizes,
based on your goals. For example, a company may
offer 20 points or a small reward upon signing up
quickly, or for referring a candidate
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27. Making it FUN
TIP #8 – Create Friendly Competition
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28. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Missions and Challenges
 After a few months, you could
offer fixed rewards (non-raffled)
to anyone that has reached a
particular status in the
leaderboard
 Example: Dinner for two offered
to the top five people on the
leaderboard
Sims-social
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29. How Gamification Increases Engagement - Missions and Challenges
After 6-9 months, you'll notice your leaderboard has a
few dominant "players" while many lag behind
 You need to do a few things to combat this:
 Present the leaderboard in certain date ranges
 Showcase the leaderboard in the context of a
particular position
 Offer redeemable points for gifts
alexsl
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30. Making it FUN
TIP #9 – Encourage Teamwork
Examples:
 Share points per department and office location
 Make a competition between departments and
locations
 Give a collective reward to the department or office
that contributes the most qualified candidates
Give people the feeling that they are accomplishing
something important and helping the company
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31. Making it FUN
TIP #10 – Surprise your employees
 Surprises can help you with hiring goals that
change over time
 In the beginning, consider a raffle between
employees that joined, just to get them to sign
up and participate.
 In the next month, you want to up the ante:
offer a raffle only between employees that
referred one or more qualified candidates.
 Got a particularly hard to fill position? Consider
a month where a prize is raffled only between
cbf.typepad qualified referrals for that position
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32. Making it FUN
TIP #11 – Give back to the community
 Consider a month or quarter, where instead of
rewarding employees, the entire company
works towards social goals.
 For example, donate toys for tots, or a meal for
those in need, for every qualified applicant.
 Let your employees choose the social goals
they want to work towards
cbf.typepad
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33. It's Game Time!
Review
Once again, what are the three F’s of gamification?
eBid
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34. The Three F’s of Gamification
And the answer is…
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35. The Three F’s of Gamification
1. Feedback
2. Friends
3. Fun
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36. Additional Tips
FINAL TIP – an ERP isn’t something you
launch, it’s something you DO.
 Don’t overthink the launch – just start!
 Set monthly leadership goals
 Review the leaderboard often
 Acknowledge the people on top
 Give feedback on how others should improve
 Share learnings with team members
 Zao can help you automate everything so you
can spend more time hiring and less time
managing your referral program…
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37. Questions?
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38. Thanks For Attending!
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Send us your comments at support@zao.com
Start hiring with Zao and hire well, fast! It's free!
tcarnow@zao.com