Employees in the UK are enjoying a combined cash bonus to the tune of £16 billion, as employers continue to offer financial rewards for referring family and friends for vacancies.
Figures from TheCareerMole.com suggest that somewhere in the region of 4.5 million workers in the UK owe their jobs to referrals from family and friends, indicative of a strong culture of networking in UK employment.
Bosses keen to skip the middle man and avoid recruitment agencies seem to be prepared to pay out to their staff for this service, offering an average cash bonus of almost £3,500.
In addition it is thought that bosses tend to pay more for senior positions.
Research has found that it is not only the referrer who benefits, with 73 per cent of workers recruited via referrals stating that their job was in line with their expectations. Kristian Hall, chief executive of TheCareerMole.com, is optimistic that these trends will continue.
"Companies know that they're onto a good thing with employee referral schemes, and we believe that the number of referrals will rise substantially over the next ten years," she told HR Zone.
Earlier this year it was reported that average bonus pay for workers in the City had reached 30 per cent of total salary, according to research from Joslin Rowe.
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