Research: Black Employees Are More Likely to Be Promoted When They Were Referred by Another Employee

In a recent study, we investigated the relationship between network-based hiring and subsequent employee promotions, comparing results across different demographic groups. Specifically, we examined the personnel records of nearly 16,000 employees hired from 2003 to 2013 in a large U.S.-based sales organization. The privately owned firm has offices worldwide, though our study focused on offices in the U.S. Over one-third of the company’s hiring happens through referrals; the rest is done through formal hiring practices, such as on-campus interviews or internship programs. We compared outcomes for women (38.6% of our sample) and men (61.4%), and between white (55.5%) and black (18.2%) employees. (We did not look at female racial minorities specifically, because we were concerned about having a small sample size.) The average age at hire was 25 years old.