Value of an inside referral

Find someone to refer you. You are missing out on job opportunities by not identifying someone inside the company to refer you for a job. While job boards are the primary source of hiring, 71 percent of HR professionals surveyed rated employee referrals as the best source for finding candidates, yet only 7 percent of job seekers surveyed viewed referrals as their top source for finding a job.

• The average employee will have 150 contacts on social media networks – 100 employees means around 15,000 contacts (and possible candidates).
• Employee referrals have the highest applicant to hire conversion rate – only 7% apply but this accounts for 40% of all hires.
• Applicants hired from a referral begin their position quicker than applicants found via job boards and career sites (after 29 days compared with 39 days via job boards and 55 via career sites).
• Referral hires have greater job satisfaction and stay longer at companies – 46% stay over 1 year, 45% over 2 years and 47% over 3 years.
• Sales persons are the most hired position from employee referrals.
• 67% of employers and recruiters said the recruiting process was shorter, and 51% said it was less to expensive to recruit via referrals.