Recruiting Through Employee Referrals: An Examination of Employees’ Motives

Abstract

As previous research focused on the outcomes of employee referrals, not much is known about its determinants. This study examined employees’ intrinsic, prosocial, and extrinsic motives for encouraging versus discouraging others to apply with their employer. In a sample of 232 employees from two organizations, job satisfaction, the desire to help job seekers find good fitting jobs, the desire to help the organization find good fitting employees, and rewards predicted positive referrals. Negative referrals were motivated by job dissatisfaction and the desire to help job seekers avoid bad fitting jobs. Moreover, in the organization rewarding employees for making referrals, more positive and less negative referrals were made than in the organization without referral program.