Dive Brief:

• According to a recent survey, while on average only one in every 100 candidates is hired, how they end up being hired varies dramatically. For instance, candidates who are referred to the company by others have the highest success rate (1 in 16), while those submitted by an agency (1 in 22), proactively sourced (1 in 72) or apply via a company’s careers site or job postings (1 in 152) are next in line.
• When it comes to employer size, employers with less than 100 workers have a candidate-to-hire ratio of one in every 94 candidates – showing greater hiring efficiency. Employers with more than 1000 employees typically have to evaluate 129 candidates before they make a hire, the study found.
• The recruiting survey from Lever examines sourcing and hiring data over a 12-month period encompassing more than four million candidate considerations, and explores key recruiting metrics such as candidate to hire ratio, average number of interviews, average time to hire, and candidate archive reasons.

Dive Insight:

Employee referrals seemingly have been around forever, yet they don't always get their just due. This research from Lever points to how effective they can be, if done right. HR and recruiting executives should take heed of this latest research, though it's hardly alone in demonstrating the effectiveness of employee referral programs.

For example, according to earlier research from iCIMS, over 50% of referred employees have been in their current position for more than five years – a clear indication that employee referrals may not deliver the most job candidates, but when they work, they work very well. In fact, the study found that employee referrals also increase quality-of-hire, cultural fit and positive results, and decrease key metrics such as cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, and turnover.