One of the most successful employee recruitment techniques is employee referrals: Current employees spread the word about job openings and refer their friends and acquaintances to your company. Here's how to go about it.

 A Working Employee Referral Program 

Promote it.   In order for employees to remain excited about your program and to keep recruiting people for you, you must keep the program in their thoughts. Hype the program with payroll stuffers, pep talks before you send them out on jobs, etc.

Target new employees.   New employee orientation is a great time to talk up your employee referral program. This is the best time to get referrals, when the new employees are most eager to please. Take advantage of this honeymoon period and get these new employees out recruiting for you.

Make rewards immediate.   It's well worth a small reward (and goes a long way in aiding morale) for help in finding good employees. Giving immediate rewards (two tickets to a local movie theater) gift certificates to a popular fast-food restaurant, etc.) reinforces the behavior. If you wait until the end of the month or the end of the quarter to give people their rewards, the program won't work as well.

Keep it inexpensive.   You don't need to spend a fortune on the incentives and you can generally buy items like coupons to local restaurants, movie theatres, and shopping malls at a discount. Check with your accountant to determine how to deduct the expense.

Use the program only when necessary.   Employee referral programs are a good investment but like any business investment, you should only spend money on it when you need to. Use your program only in emergencies or during your peak hiring periods. This not only saves money but it helps you to hype the program and keep it on people's minds when it is in operation.

Avoid misunderstandings and hard-feelings.   Make sure your employees know when your referral program isn't in operation.

Make sure your employees like your rewards.   A younger crew of workers might like movie tickets married employees might like something more practical like coupons at a local shopping mall or Walmart. Always ask your employees. In fact it's best to let them vote on rewards. Give them each a flyer in their pay envelope asking for suggestions or give them a list of possibilities and let them choose their favorite reward.

Things change.   Don't assume your people will always want the same reward. Times change, circumstances change, and your employees change too. Find out what they would like each time you run your referral program.