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One of the biggest challenges for rapidly growing companies is to consistently recruit and retain the best talent. When you're a recruiter in a smaller organization like VistaPrint once was, you need help from the entire company to hire great talent. The question was, how could we get everyone involved and thinking on a higher level? We knew that we had succeeded in recruiting talented employees, but we needed more of them to succeed and meet the growth needs of our company.

In Good Company

Through past experiences in recruiting, I knew that talented people are in the habit of associating themselves with others of similar ambitions and career goals. These relationships could be with past co-workers and clients, or professional organizations and social clubs. One of the things my team wanted to accomplish was to tap into our employees' network of professional connections. But people aren't always willing to just open up their Outlook or LinkedIn contact lists, so we needed to create a system that would encourage them to refer the top people to VistaPrint, while making it worthwhile.

After discussing a variety of options and possible plans, we came up with the "Everyone Here Is a Recruiter" program. The initial premise followed a notion that our employees were already connected to great people, and could help our recruiting team bring them to VistaPrint. To get our employees to embrace and buy into the program, we took a unique approach to make it fun and beneficial. We wanted our people to realize we are all responsible for building this company together. Many companies put this responsibility solely on HR.

When the program initially launched, we turned the referral process into a competition. Every employee who referred a candidate who was hired got entered into a drawing. Employees who referred multiple candidates earned multiple entries. In addition to the possibility of winning a prize, anyone who secured an employee hire received a bonus after the referral had been employed for three months.

The Winning Pitch

VistaPrint operates in six locations around the world. To make the program work universally, the company ran concurrent programs for all locations during each quarter. The prizes were localized to each office. For instance, the Lexington, Mass. office held a contest that offered the winner tickets to the Boston Red Sox on opening day—including a limousine ride to and from the game, as well as pocket money. The European marketing office in Barcelona, Spain had a prize of a Vespa scooter for the winner of their contest.

A common question is why has the program been so successful? One of the things we stress as an organization is to put a lot of effort and care into each candidate that we bring in. Whether it's as simple as having their favorite soda on hand, or sending them background materials to better understand the company, we make each candidate feel at home. A poll of our new hires often shows that personal touch is a factor in their decision to choose VistaPrint.

Finally, keeping the message fresh in our employees' minds is also important. Prior to each quarterly contest, the recruiting team gets employees excited again for the program. We place display boards with the program's name on it as well as images of past employees who have successfully referred someone.

Since its inception, the program has been a success story: The company has created a culture where employees want to bring their friends and former colleagues to work with them. More than 40 percent of recent new hires have come through the "Everyone Here is a Recruiter" program, which means almost one out of every two hires is an employee referral.