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Employee referrals are generally considered one of the best ways to find candidates, but running effective referral programs can be challenging with limited resources. Promoting open positions, tracking submissions, following up with candidates, keeping referring team members informed, and measuring results can become overwhelming without the right tools in place.
This is where applicant tracking systems can make a transformative difference. A modern ATS doesn’t just store resumes — it provides powerful tools to streamline and enhance every aspect of your referral program.
Promote your employee referral program internally
Running a successful employee referral program starts with effective internal promotion. Your team members can’t refer candidates to positions they don’t know exist or understand.
An applicant tracking system provides powerful tools to keep your entire team informed and engaged with your hiring needs.
Centralized job information
An ATS creates a single source of truth for all your open positions. Every job posting includes the essential details team members need to identify potential candidates, such as responsibilities, requirements, location, and department. This centralized approach ensures your entire team has accurate, up-to-date information about current job openings.
Streamlined referral emails
Keeping your referral program top-of-mind requires regular communication, but manually crafting and sending updates can be time-consuming. An ATS can streamline this process with employee referral program email templates that can be quickly customized and sent to your team members to encourage their participation.
Make it easy for your team members to refer candidates
The easier you make the referral process, the more your team members will participate.
An effective ATS can enable seamless job sharing and referral submission, reducing friction in your referral program.
Quick job sharing
Most team members want to help with referrals, but they have busy schedules and limited bandwidth. Participation can suffer if sharing job opportunities requires multiple steps or copying and pasting information across platforms. Modern applicant tracking systems solve this problem with integrated sharing tools.
For example, JobScore enables your team members to share open positions directly to their social networks or via email with just a few clicks. Your team members can also craft appealing posts by using pictures and videos from a media library you’ve curated for them.
Simple referral submission process
An applicant tracking system provides a centralized place for your team members to submit referrals. This reduces the administrative burden so your team members don’t have to identify the right person on your hiring team in order to refer people. It also helps ensure you get the information you need to make an informed decision without taking up too much of your team members’ time.
For example, JobScore referral forms can be customized to gather the information you need, such as name, email address, and LinkedIn profile. You can even include a questionnaire to ask your team members how they know the candidate, how well they know them, and why they might be a good fit for the role.
Alert hiring teams when employee referrals are submitted
Referral candidates deserve prompt attention. They’ve been personally recommended by someone within your organization and may have higher expectations for communication than candidates from other sources.
An ATS can help ensure these valuable candidates receive timely follow-up. For example, JobScore can send instant notifications to relevant team members when a new referral is submitted. Administrators can customize who receives these alerts based on roles and responsibilities. These timely alerts ensure that no referral goes unnoticed.
JobScore also visually distinguishes employee referrals within the candidate pipeline, making them instantly recognizable among candidates from other sources. This visual cue reminds hiring managers and recruiters to prioritize these candidates.
Provide a positive candidate experience
Referred candidates have a unique relationship with your company through their connection to a current team member. This relationship creates both higher expectations and greater potential for engagement.
Your ATS can help deliver an exceptional experience that engages candidates and improves your offer acceptance rate.
Employer branding
Skilled talent is always in demand and in-demand referred candidates may need to decide whether your recruitment process is worth their time.
A modern applicant tracking system can help you showcase your employer brand to demonstrate why referred candidates should consider your opportunity.
For example, JobScore’s enhanced job descriptions include elements like:
Timely communications
All candidates appreciate regular updates, but this is especially true for referrals who were brought into your hiring process by one of your team members. An ATS can facilitate consistent, transparent, and personalized communication throughout the hiring process.
For example, automate status updates at key milestones in the hiring journey so candidates know their current status and next steps. JobScore allows you to create email templates specifically for referred candidates that acknowledges and leverages their connection to your organization.
Provide transparency to referring team members
Team members who take the time to refer candidates deserve to know what happens with their recommendations. Keeping referrers informed not only respects their contribution but also encourages future participation in your referral program.
Applicant tracking systems can provide visibility into each referred candidate’s status, with role-based permissions that ensure sensitive candidate and decision information is protected.
Track employee referral program results
Data enables you to improve your referral program and justify your referral budget. An effective ATS provides comprehensive analytics that help you measure performance, identify trends, and make evidence-based refinements.
Referral campaign metrics
Understanding which promotional efforts generate the most engagement helps you optimize your internal communications. Your ATS should track how team members interact with referral program campaigns.
JobScore provides a detailed referral campaign report showing how many employees were emailed, how many clicked, how many shared the job with their friends, and how many of those friends applied. It also shows how many employees added referrals directly into JobScore.
These metrics help you identify which messaging approaches, job descriptions, or incentives generate the strongest response.
Referral quality assessment
The ultimate measure of referral success isn’t just quantity but quality. Your ATS should help you evaluate whether referrals are meeting your hiring standards and progressing through your pipeline.
Jobscore helps you track how many candidates each team member refers and how far they’re moving through the hiring process. These conversion metrics help identify which team members consistently refer high-quality candidates and which might benefit from additional guidance.
Successful hires
Recognition and rewards go a long way in encouraging your team members to refer candidates. An applicant tracking system can help you track which referred candidates were successfully hired so you can thank your team members and distribute any promised incentives.
Final thoughts on streamlining employee referrals with an ATS
A modern applicant tracking system can help you streamline your employee referral program, but it’s not a substitute for a good strategy. The best referral programs combine powerful technology capabilities with thoughtful incentives, clear communication, and genuine appreciation for team members’ participation. Your ATS provides the infrastructure, but your company culture and values determine how effectively people engage with it.
By combining the relationship-based power of employee referrals with the efficiency-enhancing capabilities of an applicant tracking system, you create a recruiting advantage that can positively impact your organization’s growth and success.
