What Is the True Impact of Employee Referrals?

Here’s what the aggregated data from all Eqo customers reveals

34% Apply-to-Hire Conversion
of employee referrals who apply end up getting hired

This is huge in comparison to the typical 2-5% application-to-hire rates from job boards.

The State of Employee Referral Programs in 2025: Key Insights & Benchmarks

6.9% Turnover Rate
for employee referrals at six months

This is 20% lower than non-referrals.

10 Days Faster
time-to-hire for employee referrals

This accounts for almost 50% faster for most healthcare organizations.

$208,000/yr Saved
for every employee referral that replaces one contract agency staff in healthcare

*Based on $100/hr contract agency fees at 40hrs/week

How Do Employees Engage With Referral Programs?

The data behind hundreds of thousands of employee referrals

47% Become Aware Through SMS
of frontline employees learn about their organization's employee referral program through an SMS text campaign

This illustrates the power of SMS campaigns in engaging frontline employees.

1.5 Referrals / Employee
is the average number of employee referrals submitted per employee

23% of Employees: Repeat Referrers
end up making a second referral

2.1% Make more than 5 Referrals
of employees who engage with the employee referral program make more than 5 referrals

How Does Timing Impact Employee Referral Engagement?

The data behind hundreds of thousands of employee referrals

Tuesday
is the most active day for employee referral submissions

7am & 12pm EST
are the two most active hours of the day for employee referral submissions

11% on Weekends
Employees still engage with their employee referral program on the weekends – with 11% of referrals are made during then

This is helpful as you think about your campaign timings.

43%
of employee referrals are submitted outside of working hours (9-5pm EST)

19%
of employees are interested in getting automatically notified of new referral opportunities every week

With some organizations seeing as high as 25-30%.

44%
of candidates that receive an employee referral invitation end up accepting it

72%
of candidates that accept an employee referral invitation end up applying

This is huge in comparison to the typical 7-10% application conversion rate on career sites.

How Much Do Organizations Pay for Employee Referrals?

Industry and location specific – covering healthcare, assisted living, hospitality, and construction.

Healthcare
Employee Referral Bonus Amounts

Employee Referral Bonus Amounts in Healthcare

$3,200
Average Employee Referral Bonus in Healthcare

Average CRNA Employee Referral Bonus: $3,700 – with the highest being $10,000

Average RN/LPN Employee Referral Bonus: $1,900 – with the highest being $5,000

More Details on RN/LPN Employee Referral Bonuses

Hospice Nurse: $1,000
Night Shift: $1,500 regardless if full-time or part-time

Some organizations are paying New Grad RN Referrals: $5,000

Average Surgical Tech Employee Referral Bonus: $3,000 – with the highest being $5,000

Average Physician Employee Referral Bonus: $5,000 – with hospitalist going up to $10,000

Average Employee Referrals Bonuses for healthcare by state

California: $2,200
Missouri: $1,800
Maryland: $1,300
Minnesota: $1,100

Assisted Living
Employee Referral Bonus Amounts

Employee Referral Bonus Amounts in Assisted Living

$1,600
Average Employee Referral Bonus in Assisted Living

Average Resident Assistant Employee Referral Bonus: $2,000

Average Nutrition Services Aide Employee Referral Bonus: $750

Construction
Employee Referral Bonus Amounts

$1,400
Average Employee Referral Bonus in Construction

With Electrical Foreman, Journeyman Electrician, and Electrical Service Techs going up to $3,000

Splits/
Installments?
How are Employee Referral Bonuses Split?

54%
of employee referral bonuses are paid in 2 installments

42% are paid in 1 installment, and 3% are paid in 3 installments.

Employee referral bonuses under $500 are paid in 1 installment, while bonuses above $2,000 are paid in two installments.

Organizations tend to prefer 2-installment payouts when tracking referrals manually but often switch to 3-installment payouts once they automate tracking through an employee referral solution.

What Metrics Define a Successful Employee Referral Program?

Here’s how organizations assess the health of their employee referral programs

Hires Contribution
The #1 Metric to measure your program's health

28-30% of External Hires
is the percentage of external hires that best-in-class teams attribute to employee referrals

Candidate Pipeline Contribution
Is your program helping with sourcing?

18-22% of Candidates/Apps
is the percentage of external candidates/applications that best-in-class teams attribute to employee referrals

Employee Participation Rate
Is your workforce engaged?

12-16%
of your workforce submitting one referral in a given year

With some organizations seeing as high as 20%

Transform employee referrals ---...- into your frontline hiring superpower with Eqo

Eqo is the employee referral solution that helps organizations increase their frontline employee referrals to attract talent and reduce turnover, while eliminating manual admin tracking.

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