Submitting referrals

How referrals works

In Lever, referred candidates are those that have had opportunities added to your pipeline as a result of a direct or indirect submission from your organization's employees. Opportunities associated with referred candidates are added to the 'New Applicant' stage in the Applicant section of the pipeline. The origin and source(s) attributed to opportunities associated with referred candidates are dictated by the type of referral (see below). Employees can monitor the status of their referrals directly in Lever, as their candidates move through the recruitment process.

Types of referrals

There are two types of referrals in Lever: direct referrals and social referrals.

Direct referrals
These are referrals generated as a result of an employee's submission to your organization's referral form. In the following sections of this article, you will find instructions on how to submit direct referrals. Opportunities generated via direct referral are given an origin of 'Referral' and the source tag 'Referred.'

Social referrals
These referrals are generated as result of a candidate applying to a job posting via a social referral link shared by one of your organization's employees. In a later section of this article, you will find instructions on how to generate social referral links. Opportunities generated via social referral links are given an origin of 'Applied' and the source tag 'Social referral.' 

Submitting direct referrals via Lever

You can submit referrals for Listed job postings on external and internal job sites, as well as unlisted job postings if configured to be visible to referrers. It is not possible to refer candidates for postings that have only been published internally. For more on this topic, refer to our help article on job posting publication.

To submit a direct referral via Lever:

• Navigate to the Referrals page

• Click the + Refer Candidate button

OR

• Navigate to the Jobs tab to view a list of referable job postings
• Click the Refer Candidate button in the list of postings

• At the top of the referral form, select job postings for which you wish to refer the candidate
  • You can refer a candidate for a maximum of three job postings in a single referral. Separate opportunities will be created for each posting.

• If you have the resume of the candidate that you are referring, add the resume to the referral form, either by dragging and dropping the file or by clicking the upload file button
  • Lever will parse the information from the resume and auto-populate the corresponding fields on the referral form.

• Fill out the fields on the referral form. 
  • Many of the fields on your Lever environment's referral form are customizable by your Lever Super Admin or Admin. Some fields may be required while others are optional. In all cases, you must provide an email address for the candidate that you are referring.
• Provide details on your recommendation by filling in the fields of the Your recommendation section. 

• Click the Submit Referral button

The referrer will be listed on the referred candidate's profile. The referrer is automatically attributed to the account of the user who submitted the referral. The referral form will be added to the opportunity profile in the candidate history and in the 'Forms' tab. 

Submitting direct referrals via the Lever Chrome extension

Lever's Chrome extension allows users with any level of access to add candidates from sites such as LinkedIn, GitHub, and AngelList to your Lever pipeline. To submit a direct referral via the Lever Chrome extension:

• Navigate to the profile of a candidate that you wish to refer
  
  • For a list of sites on which the Chrome extension can be used, refer to our Chrome extension help article.
• Open the Chrome extension in your browser window
• Select the 'Referral' checkbox under the name field; the fields from your Lever environment's referral form will appear in the extension
  • Note: This step only applies to users with Super Admin, Admin, Team Member, and Limited Team Member access. Users with Interviewer level access will see the referral form fields when they open the Chrome extension.

• Fill out the referral form fields in the extension
  • Depending on how your Lever environment's referral form has been configured, some fields may be required while others are optional. In all cases, you must provide an email address for the candidate that you are referring.
  • Tip: If you are making a referral using a candidate's LinkedIn profile, you can save their profile as a PDF and drag it into the extension. Lever will parse the information on the profile and auto-populate any applicable fields. For full details, refer to our help article on how to save a LinkedIn profile as PDF.
• At the bottom of the referral form, select a minimum of one job posting for which you to refer the candidate
  • You can refer a candidate for a maximum of three job postings in a single referral. Separate opportunities will be created for each posting.
  • It is not possible to refer candidates for postings that have only been published internally. For more on this topic, refer to our help article on job posting publication.
• Click the Create Referral button

Generating social referral links

To generate a social referral link:

• Navigate to the Referrals page
• Select the 'Share Referral Link' tab and click the Get Referral Link button

• Open the 'Link to' menu and select the posting for which you wish to generate the referral link
  • Only externally published postings will be available for selection. For more on this topic, refer to our help article on job posting publication.
• Click the buttons below the 'Copy link' field to share the link directly to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Note, selecting any of these options will require you to log in to the respective social media site.

When an applicant applies via the social referral link, a candidate profile and opportunity will be created in Lever along with an indication that of the opportunity as 'Via social referral ink created by [the creator of the referral link].' The source will indicate the platform the link was shared to - Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Tracking the status of your referred candidates

To monitor the progress of your referred candidates as they move through the recruitment process:

• Navigate to the Referrals page
• To view the status of candidates that you have directly referred, select the 'Referred Candidates' tab

The referral lists include candidates' names, the stage of their referred opportunity, the associated posting, the date of last interaction, and the opportunity owner.

Blocking repeat referrals

You can prevent candidates from being referred to the same job posting multiple times. If referrers attempt to select a job postings for a candidate who has already been submitted for the same job, they will see an error message.

• Navigate to Settings > Forms > Referral
• Turn on the 'Block repeat referrals' toggle

Referrers will see an error message during the referral process.

Configuring automated updates

You can configure email updates for referral submissions and progressions. Refer to our help article on building referral workflows.