Do bosses prefer hiring through employee referrals?

Assuming all other factors utilised to judge a candidate were the same, would you prefer hiring a candidate sourced through an employee referral or one through a social network?

According to a study by Glassdoor, the highest chance of a successful job match actually comes from employee referrals.

This result came from an analysis of more than 44,000 job interview reviews drawn from those posted on Glassdoor since 2009.

The report found candidates which were referred by employees had a 2.6% to 6.6% higher chance of receiving and accepting a job offer.

"Employee referrals are effective because they provide useful context both to job seekers and companies: job seekers gain insights about prospective employers from the employee, and companies learn about the reputation of candidates from the recommender," the report stated.

Other interview sources with a positive effect on the chance of a job match included staffing agency referrals and in-person connections with the employers.

Staffing agencies gave a -0.5% to 5.3% higher chance of an accepted job offer while in-person connections with the employers gave a -0.1% to 3.9% higher chance.

The remaining interview sources examined all resulted in lower odds of a successful job match.

College or university referrals had a -17.9% to -13.5% lower chance of a job match.

Online applications (without any employee referral or other in-person connection with the employer) were associated with a -15.0% to -11.4% lower probability of a successful hire, while recruiter referrals were linked to a -11.4% to -7.4% lower chances of success.

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However, the study also found that employee referrals, while resulting in the highest chance of a successful job match, only accounted for 10% of reported job interviews while 42% of job interviews came from online applications.

Despite that, 57% of job interviews were found to result in a job match.

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