PRINCETON, New Jersey, February 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

ZALP, the leading employee referral solutions platform, today announced the results of its Global Employee Referral Index '2013 Survey and also released a report based on the aggregation of the survey results.

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ER-i, a campaign driven by ZALP was the first and largest ever global initiative on employee referrals that saw participation from 1000+ recruiting professionals across diverse industries.

The survey saw Employee Referrals emerge as the most preferred choice of recruitment for employers. It also revealed that Employee Referrals will be the No.1 recruiting source to see a drastic increase in investment in 2014. 92% of the participating organizations reported to have employee referrals as one of their top recruiting sources in their current hiring mix.

The survey results also highlight some key trends in referrals that are rapidly being adopted by employers globally. One such trend that emerged as a clear winner was Automation, with a whopping 75% of the participating organizations reporting to have recently adopted an automated or atleast a semi-automated process to manage their referral program.  

Also, Automation as a trend was seen to be most popular with organizations in the Healthcare sector, with a striking 62% having automated processes. While Travel and Tourism as a sector was seen to be a laggard in this trend with a mere 6% having an automated process.

Another key highlight of the survey was the use of social media to drive referrals.  Organizations leveraging social media for referrals were reported to hire 72% more candidates through this source every year as compared to those who don't. Also, Linkedin emerged as the most (83%) preferred social media platform amongst organizations having a social media integrated employee referral program.

Here are some other key highlights of the Employee Referral Index '2013 survey:

• 38% of the participating organizations attributed their preference towards employee referrals to the low attrition rate amongst referral candidates

• 32% of the participating organizations confirmed to have a specialized employee referral division within their recruitment departments

• Employee referrals reported a 48 % lower time to fill and a 58 % lower cost per hire than other recruiting sources

• Within the United States, organizations in the states of Illinois, Texas and Florida were seen to hire the highest volume of candidates through employee referrals as compared to other states.

• Organizations in the Healthcare and Medical technology domains were seen to have the highest annual percentage hires through referrals. (A striking average of 63%)

To see the complete results, download the Employee Referral Index '2013 Report.

"ER-i was an initiative we undertook to help employers evaluate and assess their current referral program process accurately. It was overwhelming to see such an encouraging participation from recruiting professionals all across the globe. ER-i will only get bigger in the years to come "says Priyanka Prabhu - Marketing Manager at Zalp.

"All the ER-i participants also received a personalized benchmarking report for their organization that compares their referral program performance with that of others specifically in their industry type and organization size band" says Priyanka

About ZALP

ZALP is the No.1 employee referral tool used by leading organizations to build, automate and boost their referral program.

It is a complete SaaS based employee referral solutions platform with advanced social media technology that helps organizations unleash the true potential of their employee referral program.

To know more about ZALP: Mail at info@zalp.com or visit http://www.zalp.com

Contact:
Priyanka Prabhu, Marketing Manager- ZALP
+91-9833149317
priyanka.prabhu@zalp.com

SOURCE ZALP