Employee Referral Program Statistics

Sometimes the hardest things to prove, are the ones that we already 'know' to be true. In talent acquisition, there's no better example of this than the value of employee and community referrals. While it's universally understood that referrals are valuable, it can be quite challenging to quantify the value of them. You need some employee referral program statistics to back up your hiring plan.

Show me the employee referral statistics

You're a talent acquisition leader who wants to build or bolster an employee referral program at your company. This requires team buy-in and a budget for rewards and a referral management software. While your executive team is on board with the concept of referrals, they won't green light your plan to increase employee referrals.

Your CEO says something like, "We already get lots of referrals. We don't have a referral problem. Why would we need more?"

Employee Referral Value - Without a formal business plan in place, it can be easy to simply concede and go back to manually asking employees for referrals when you need to hire. But, think about it: Would sales leaders ever get asked the same question? "We already have a lot of customers. Why would we need more?" Logic like this hinders a talent leader's ability to build their best team possible, but you can't blame your CEO or executives for not fully embracing your plan if you don't have the data to support it. Most executives don't know the quantifiable value of building or expanding an employee referral recruiting program.

The SlideShare (see below) breaks down the most impactful employee referral statistics. It's also (hint hint) easy to share with executives interested in seeing the data-driven side of referrals.

Or get all of the email templates and the customizable presentation and build your own deck to get executive buy-in on referrals.

Shareable employee referral hiring statistics

Employee referrals get placed fastest

• The average referral candidate takes 29 days to place. Job board candidates take 10 additional days, and career site candidates take 16 additional days.

Referrals stay at their job at more than twice the rate of job board candidates

• While 45% of referrals stay at least two years at a job, over 80% of employees sourced through job boards leave.

Referrals make up 40% of your workforce

• Only 7% of candidates are employee referred, but 40% of hires are employee referred.

Referrals come from inside and outside of your company

• While 59% of referrals are sourced through employees, 41% of referrals come from outside of your company.

Why employees make referrals

• 35% to help friends
• 32% to help their company
• 26% to be seen as valuable
• 6% to make money

Employee referrals are:

• A great culture fit, according to 70% of employers.
• 25% more profitable than peers.
• The best hires, according to 88% of employers.

Top companies hire through employee referrals:

• Facebook - 60%
• Deloitte - 49%
• Ernst & Young - 45%

It's understood that employee referrals are valuable, but challenging to quantify their value. Arm yourself with data-driven employee referral program statistics to make your case. Want more data on employee referrals program statistics? Check out the 2020 employee referral benchmark report.