Even with a 24-person recruiting team, VistaPrint is always looking for other sources to recruit top talent, so the company views each of its 900 employees—and each job applicant—as a talent scout.
“The recruitment team is not the only team that is responsible for gathering talent here. Every person in this organization is asked to be a talent scout,” says Austin Cooke, vice president of global recruiting at VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com), an online supplier of graphic design services and customized printed products.
Employees and applicants are willing to make referrals because the company treats the referred candidates with respect throughout the recruitment process, Cooke says. (His comments originally appeared in the Best Practices in HR newsletter.)
Refer the Best Person You’ve Ever Worked With
Employees are asked not only to refer their friends but also the best people they’ve ever worked with, Cooke says, adding that the company started offering incentives for employee referrals last year.
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Previously, VistaPrint’s employee referral rate was in the mid-teens, but now an amazing 42 percent of new hires stem from employee referrals. “Employees are the gatekeepers of the culture here. They know what it takes to work here.”
“Every candidate we talk to is also a talent scout for VistaPrint,” he says, noting that a number of current employees were referred by rejected applicants. They are willing to provide referrals because the company treated them fairly and respectfully, he says.
Unique Candidate Experience
The Bermuda-based business, with corporate offices in Lexington, Massachusetts, strives to “create a very unique candidate experience—something that differentiates us from our competitors,” Cooke reports.
VistaPrint educates all applicants about the company from the outset. Recruiters send applicants a packet of information, including articles written about the company. Applicants who don’t have the necessary skills or experience that VistaPrint needs are notified promptly via e-mail or phone, he says.
Recruiters conduct extensive phone interviews with the best applicants and invite some of them in for one or more interviews. When an applicant is doing well, VistaPrint tells them so.
On the other hand, when recruiters know an applicant is not a good match, they address the issue directly, telling applicants that they don’t have the skill sets that the company is looking for, and if applicable, encouraging them to develop certain skills and reapply.
VistaPrint strives to address “the little things” that mean a lot to applicants. For example, the day before interviews, VistaPrint gives the receptionist a list of the expected candidates, so they can be greeted by name and told that the company has been expecting them, Cooke says.
After the final interview, the company sets a target date for getting back to the candidate with an employment decision—usually within 1 to 2 days.
‘We’re in a war for talent’
Cooke says this individualized attention shows applicants that they matter at VistaPrint. “We’re in a war for talent … The best of the best have lots of options. The best of the best usually aren’t looking for a job. You have to treat those people the way you would want to be treated if you were going for an interview.”
91 Percent of Offers Accepted
That philosophy has proved successful for VistaPrint. In fact, 91 percent of applicants who are offered a job accept, according to Cooke.
Although the company is growing at an exponential rate, only about 1 in 10 candidates makes it through the interview process, he says.
VistaPrint hopes that candidates who don’t make the cut will still rave to their friends about how well they were treated by the company, and refer their friends or co-workers. “I think most companies don’t think about recruitment that way,” Cooke says.
One warning from the experts: EEOC will likely frown at a company that relies too heavily on referrals, as that tends to make new hires ‘mirror’ the existing staff. Unless your organization is very diverse, it is best to continue to use a variety of sourcing techniques.
In the next Advisor: Referral policy tips, a sample policy from The HR Red Book®, and an introduction to BLR’s “everything HR in one website.”