When Larry Altier worked at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, there was a large pool of job-seeking students to choose from. But as system director of food and nutrition services at Lee Memorial Health System in western Florida—an area that’s a major retirement and tourist destination with robust hotel and foodservice businesses—potential employees are in high demand.
To keep up with that demand, Altier channels a great deal of energy into making LMHS’ current staff its main recruiting source. LMHS employs 15,000 people, and those people know people, he says. As a result, Altier focuses more heavily on internal referrals than advertising open positions online.
“It’s our best opportunity to find like-minded individuals like our staff, because they’ll refer people that have the same values as them, which is what we’re looking for,” he says, adding that referred employees tend to maintain good behavior so they reflect positively on the person who referred them. “It’s a successful strategy for us, and I think it’s sometimes overlooked for businesses that are struggling to fill positions.”
Altier has 307 positions on his team, comprised of roles at LMHS’ properties and the private-label manufacturer it manages. About 65 percent of those employees who’ve been working more than a year were internal referrals. Currently, there are 31 open positions in Altier’s system, eight of which have plausible candidates who were referred by current employees, he says.
Open positions are made known to employees through email and postings on job boards and common areas like the cafeteria. “We let staff know we’re looking for people that have a stable work history, a good work ethic and a representation of hard work in prior jobs held,” Altier says.
Still, the primary resource he uses is word of mouth, a method he strives to foster at leadership updates and during staff huddles. He’s also working with the marketing department on a new banner program titled “Let’s Do Lunch,” in which employees would get a free lunch for referring a potential job applicant who then applies.
Due to competition in the area, coupled with the difficulty of identifying individuals with a culinary background or experience, Altier offers incentives to employees for referring qualified candidates. “Employees can earn bonuses for referrals in two categories: $2,500 for critical needs positions and $1,000 for selected hard-to-fill jobs,” he says.
“Critical needs” and “hard to fill” positions are determined by such considerations as the length of time the position has been vacant, the percentage of vacancies in the department, and the extent of the recruiting effort made by human resources. Employees are only eligible for a bonus if the candidate they referred is hired and remains successfully employed during the bonus payout periods. The money is paid out after the hire’s completion of 90-days and 180-days.
While internal referrals have several advantages, there are certain drawbacks as well, Altier says. When a referred employee fails to pass a background check, for example, or isn’t as good on the job as was anticipated, the fallout can be twofold.
“Sometimes the person who referred them is embarrassed because it didn’t work out, or they’re angry for whatever reason you had to let their referral go,” he says. “So you not only deal with the employee you hired, but the outcomes of how that separation affects the person who referred them.”