3 min read

How to Vet Employee Referrals

It’s easy to see why recruiters love employee referrals. Referral candidates take less time hire, cost less to recruit, and tend to stay with an organization longer than traditional candidates.

However, these advantages can cause some recruiters to ignore the standard candidate vetting process. As a result, referrals may be hired on the strength of their employee recommendation, rather than on their merit. This is how bad hires can happen despite best intentions.

Recruiters wishing to avoid potential bad referral hires should follow these steps to vet an employee referral. Here’s how to make sure the candidate is the best hire for the job.

Ask candidates to perform a skills test

One way to ensure your referral has what it takes to do the job? Customize a skills test with real-world tasks suited to the open position. This gives you a quick way to make sure the candidate has what it takes to do the job requirements. From Talent Trials to personality quizzes, job simulations and work samples, there are plenty of ways to evaluate whether the referral candidate is right for you. Asking every candidate to perform the same tasks allows you to identify the right fit for your position. Skills tests make hiring about merit, not about background.

Add their resume to the larger pile

An AI tool can help you remove any biases from the hiring process, ensuring the best candidates rise to the top. Instead of screening people out, and abandoning traditional candidates in favor of a referral, add the referral candidate into your hiring funnel.

Asking every candidate to perform a skills test should be the first step in any hiring process. Then, use a machine learning algorithm to analyze the results of the test. An AI tool that ranks candidates automatically on how they performed on the test will give you an unbiased result of who should continue on to the next phase. Your referral candidate will be evaluated fairly along with the rest of the traditional candidates based on what they can do, not who they know.

Include a group interview step

A group interview is a great way to see how your referral candidate performs in a larger team context. Invite a number of candidates to solve a business case. This gives you the opportunity to see each candidate’s teamwork, leadership, and performance under pressure. It also gives you and the hiring team a way to validate the results of your skills test while seeing how your candidates work with others.

Open referrals to non-employees

Referrals don’t have to come just from your existing employees. If you’re seeking to expand your diversity, looking outside your current roster can help bring in fresh ideas and new talent. Broaden your referral program so that spouses/partners, former employees, friends, and even the general public can contribute to your referral candidate pool. Even your rejected candidates can be good sources for recommending talent. Connect your referral program with your candidate sourcing and recruitment marketing efforts to start seeing some benefits of looking outside your current team.

Check their references

It may be old-fashioned, but reference checking is the most straightforward way to get a 360-degree evaluation of a reference. Follow up to get a second or third opinion from the candidate’s references. Here are some questions you might want to ask a candidate’s references:

  • How did you and the candidate work together collaboratively?
  • How was their working relationship with the larger team?
  • How did the candidate deal with conflicting opinions with another team member?
  • What are some key motivators that keep the candidate engaged?

The bottom line is, candidate referrals are great. But they aren’t infallible. Do your due diligence on every candidate to make sure they are set up to succeed at your company.

Picture of Emily Heaslip

Emily Heaslip

Emily Heaslip is a wordsmith extraordinaire, weaving narratives that captivate and compel audiences across digital realms. With over eight years of experience in the art of storytelling, Emily has mastered the craft of freelance copywriting, infusing SEO strategies and content marketing tactics to craft captivating tales for brands such as HelloFresh, ADAY, and BlackRock. As the founder of Emily Heaslip Copywriting, Emily channels her creative energy into delivering unparalleled copywriting services that resonate with clients and audiences alike. Her journey from journalism to global relief efforts has imbued her writing with depth and authenticity, setting her apart as a versatile writer with a unique perspective. When she's not crafting captivating content, Emily can be found mentoring budding writers, sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience to empower the next generation of storytellers. With a passion for words and a talent for communication, Emily continues to inspire and connect through the power of storytelling.

Recent articles

Featured articles

Similar articles you may be interested in​

With the increased demand for top talent, attracting a skilled candidate is one of the top challenges recruiters face. However,

June 30, 2025

Hiring is the foundation of every great business. But let’s be honest—traditional hiring processes can feel outdated, time-consuming, and impersonal.

June 30, 2025

Internships bridge the gap between academic learning and real-life work experience, allowing companies to nurture future talent. While interns bring

June 4, 2025

Popular assessments

The skills tested in this skills assessment for an Administrative Clerk determine whether the candidate can communicate well, both written and verbally, and if they have the ability to engage with multiple personality types. We test to see if the candidate is capable of using their initiative and think pragmatically in an ever changing role

The skills tested in this Assessment for an Administration Officer determine whether the candidate can communicate and articulate themselves verbally and face to face, we tested whether the candidate can organise their day effectively in order to insure the completion of many different tasks, and f they have the knowledge to assist with Technology set up and issues if they arise.

The skills tested in this assessment for a Virtual Assistant is to determine whether the candidate has experience and proficiency in Microsoft and systems to enable them to complete administrative tasks with ease. We tested whether the candidate can communicate well with others from an remote environment and whether they have the discipline and self motivation to work productively in a solo environment.

The skills tested in this assessment for a Secretary include determining how the candidate can cope with dealing with uncomfortable situations while remaining professional and calm. this assessment tested to gauge the level of communication the candidate has and their attention to detail.

The skills tested in this assessment for an Executive Assistant include determining whether the candidate can be discrete with tasks and people holding a level of professionalism. We tested to determine if the candidate has both written and verbal communication skills and if they are able to handle a busy workload with the ability to multitask exceptionally.

A Data Analyst should be proficient in maths but, most importantly, demonstrate a strong business sense. Through this combination, they can drive change to the business based on pieces of information they derive from data. Specifically, in the Vervoe skill assessment, the following skills are looked at in detail, critical thinking, use of data models in different situations, and data classification for the different problem sets.

The skills that are tested in this assessment for a Copywriter include how skilled the candidate is in SEO, copywriting, creative thinking, and research. It tests their ability to plan, design, and create advertising campaigns, the process they would follow before writing content for SEO, their process for creating a landing page, the research, and resources they would utilize when working with a new client, as well as the research they would conduct once being assigned to a project they had little knowledge about.