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When employees pitch in to help a company recruit, the results can make a difference, says Symphony Services. Its `Hi-Five' initiative is an instance.

SHISHIR Trivedi, Lead Consultant at Symphony Services, has an impressive record. Out of the 2,250 people at Symphony, 20 have been referred by him.

And now, thanks to a new referral promo campaign in the company, Trivedi is in the reckoning to win a trip to Europe.

For the IT industry, reeling under the pressure of high employee turnover and huge talent requirements, referrals have proved to be a sure-fire way of finding the `right fit' and `long-stay' employees.

At Symphony Services, which is an IT services company involved in providing high-end product development and market analytics services, this time-tested practice has taken on new shape and meaning.

Called Hi-Five, the promotional campaign for an employee referral programme was launched and conducted with the aim of enthusing more employees to participate. And it was launched in much the same manner as an ad campaign is kicked off in the market, minus, of course, the big budget.

The other difference is that the entire campaign has been designed and created by an in-house team.

During the pre-launch period, for almost a week, teaser ads were put up all over the company. Huge Hi-Five posters were plastered on lift doors, lobbies, the cafeteria and the dining hall — high and relentless visibility was the idea.

"We did this to build curiosity among employees," says Mahalingam, Senior Vice-President, HR, Symphony. The campaign threw a challenge to employees: Guess what Hi-Five stands for and take home prizes.

This was just the first bag of goodies the company unveiled. To arouse employee curiosity and motivate staff to participate in the entire referral process, the 18-member HR team sported Hi-Five T-shirts on the last day before announcing the employee referral programme open.

There is a built-in mileage points system for employees who participate in the programmes. "Apart from monetary compensation, employees can notch up points for every successful appointment. Prizes can range from a motorbike, a colour TV to even a trip to Europe," says Mahalingam.

Much to the delight of the harried HR department, the response has been overwhelming. Resumes are pouring in — over 450 of them for job openings in the quality, development and project management functions.

After a quick scan of the CVs, the HR department was convinced this was the right way to recruit because the referrals were more focussed and the chances of hiring these candidates bright.

According to Mahalingam, the initiative has brought in three key ben<147,1,7>efits:

Highly focussed referrals with about 90 per cent culminating in offer letters.

Incredible curiosity among employees, resulting in increase in first-time referral participants. "We got responses from some really passive employees," he says.

Expanding the employer-champion base within the company. In other words, a lot more employees were recommending Symphony as a `good company to work for.'

The compensation for successful referrals at Hi-Five too is nothing to dismiss lightly: : it ranges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 50,000 per hit.

Mahalingam says the company has deliberately bracketed the compensation within a reasonable range because with too high a figure comes the risk of employees getting distracted from work and trying to network. Mahalingam avers that referrals are one of the best ways to recruit because employees can choose who they want to work with, resulting in great bonhomie and high motivational levels.

There are other areas where Symphony's HR department is attempting some innovation and breakthrough. For instance, the company has changed the way Employee Delight Surveys are administered.

Generally, employee surveys help the HR department take a peek into how employees perceive the organisation, the compensation, culture and the management.

At Symphony, the HR team decided to depart from the normal and instead asked employees to suggest action while getting their opinion on an issue. This idea was inspired by the Hawthorne experiment where Prof Elton Mayo studied the effect of lighting on the motivational levels of people at Western Electric, Cicero, Illinois.

The Professor split the assembly line into two groups: the experimental group and the control group.

The experimental group was subjected to different kinds of lighting at the workplace. He observed that when the group was put under better lighting, it performed better. But surprisingly, they showed markedly better performance working under dim candlelight too. On the other hand, the control group, which got no attention at all and therefore continued to get the same amount of light throughout the experiment period, showed the same level of performance throughout. "This only shows that if your people know that you are paying attention to them, their performance too will change. The `I'm being listened to,' has a great impact on performance," says Mahalingam.

Yet another area where Symphony is taking a different stand is in the campus recruitment process. The company's HR team has roped in campus recruits from last year in designing an ad campaign to attract talent from the campuses.

This is to make sure the approach is zestful and appealing to the fresh crop of graduates. All the campaigns that the company's HR team is working on have been created in-house and cost the company next to nothing.

"The aim is to increasingly involve our employees in designing and delivering our HR initiatives," says the HR chief.

anjali@thehindu.co.in

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