Referral program roku

About the category

Internal employee referrals should make up a significant percentage of candidate sources. Companies compete to see who can offer the greater reward for referrals. Sometimes, however, the amount of the bonus is not directly proportional to the success of the referral program. In this category, we evaluate companies' referral programs.

Methodology

Employee referral programs are evaluated in this category. Recommended finalists are selected according to the following criteria:

Performance - Employee engagement rate, i.e., the percentage of employees with at least one referral relative to all company employees for the calendar year.
Quality - the ratio of hires through the referral program to all hires in a calendar year
Creativity - how original the referral campaign is, the communication channels used and the overall technical and content development.

Winner of the 2026 Employee Referral Program of the Year Award

STRV

What if an employee referral program rewarded people not only for successful hires, but also for simply helping the company grow? That's exactly how STRV designed its program. In 2025, the company made 49 hires, 22 of them through employee referrals. Employees receive scratch cards with redeemable prizes for making a referral, a coffee voucher and a spot on the internal Wall of Stars when a candidate signs an offer, and a bonus of up to CZK 50,000 when the new colleague joins the company - paid out in the very first month of employment.