All customers
Light industrialGeneral staffingBullhorn

Partners Personnel made referrals their edge, and stopped paying for blind ads.

The 12th-largest industrial staffing firm in the U.S. replaced sticky-note referral tracking with a system that measures what was always happening anyway, and rewards the people making it happen.

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18%

reduction in advertising spend, rewarding associates who source quality candidates instead of paying for another blind ad.

18%
reduction in advertising spend
12th
largest industrial staffing firm in the U.S.
100+
branches nationwide
Higher
fill rates & retention from referred talent vs. cold ads
Results at a glance

The short version.

18%. "We'd rather reward associates who source quality candidates than pay for another blind ad."
"Our fill ratio from individuals who have come from Staffing Referrals is significantly higher than from a cold advertisement. That warm lead is truly impactful."
"Ramp time is faster in new markets. We lead with our referral program when entering a new community and get more traction than we do on a blind ad."
"It was probably the easiest integration we've ever done. Analytics were available from day one. I could pull accurate reports immediately after launch."
01
The challenge

Referrals were their best candidates, and completely invisible.

For an associate-first firm, a referral program that doesn't follow through is a trust problem. Referrals produced some of their best candidates, but tracking was inconsistent, follow-up was unreliable, and there was no way to verify the word-of-mouth everyone kept hearing about.

Just like most staffing agencies, when somebody would refer a friend, we would put a sticky note on our computer. Quite honestly, oftentimes our team would forget to follow up.
Erin Foschetti, EVP & Managing Partner · Partners Personnel
02
Why they adopted

Measure what was already working, then reward it.

01

Hard data on a program they couldn't measure

Referrals were happening but invisible. Staffing Referrals made the program trackable in real time and inside Bullhorn.

02

Integrity at scale

Consistent follow-through on referral promises is a company value, not just an operational nice-to-have. Automated outreach keeps that promise even when a recruiter is overwhelmed.

03

A new-market advantage

As a firm that constantly opens branches, leading with a referral program beats pouring money into unknown-market advertising.

03
How it works for them

Eyes on referrals, for the first time.

AssociatesRefer their networkThe people who already perform well point to people like them.
→
Staffing ReferralsAutomated outreach + trackingPersonalized messages keep the promise. Every referral is measured in real time.
→
BullhornVisibility + reportingRecruiters see which candidates came through referrals the moment they search.
Real-time metrics

"Not only do we have metrics we can log in and see in real time, but we also now have tracking in Bullhorn. We actually have eyes on referrals now." When recruiters search in Bullhorn, the system flags which candidates came through Staffing Referrals, so they know they're looking at a warm lead.

Retention is the North Star

Referred associates perform, and stay.

Referred candidates come from within the existing network of successful associates. They arrive with an implicit endorsement, ramp faster, and have a stronger incentive to perform, which is what makes them stick.

“
In this industry, retention is everything. Every time we lose an associate, we start from scratch: new training, new onboarding, new relationship building.
Erin Foschetti, EVP & Managing Partner · Partners Personnel
“
We've been able to reduce our ad spend by 18% with Staffing Referrals. We'd rather reward associates who source quality candidates than pay for another blind ad.
Erin Foschetti, EVP & Managing Partner · Partners Personnel
Your firm, your numbers

See what your network
can place.

We run the model on your own data, not a generic pitch. 30 minutes, and you leave with a number you can take to your CFO.

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