An employee referral spreadsheet should answer three questions quickly: who referred the candidate, where the candidate is in the hiring process, and whether a reward is due. I have found that a simple tracker with consistent fields is more useful than a complex workbook that nobody updates. The important work is defining ownership and update rules before the first referral arrives.
Core columns
I use these columns in the main sheet:
- Referral ID and submission date
- Referrer name, email, department, and eligibility status
- Candidate name, email, profile or resume link, and candidate record ID
- Role, department, location, and recruiter owner
- Relationship to the candidate and consent confirmed
- Duplicate check result and referral ownership decision
- Candidate status and last status date
- Next action, action owner, and next action date
- Hire date, milestone date, reward amount, approval status, and payout date
- Notes for exceptions, kept factual and limited to program administration
I avoid putting sensitive interview notes, protected information, or unnecessary personal details in a shared spreadsheet. The candidate record should remain the source for hiring evaluations.
Status workflow
My status list is short enough for every recruiter to use the same way: Submitted, Needs information, Duplicate, Contacted, Screened, Interviewing, Offer, Hired, Not selected, Withdrawn, Eligible for payout, Paid, and Ineligible. I define when a status changes. For example, Submitted means the form is complete, while Contacted means the recruiter has recorded an outreach attempt.
Each update also gets a date and owner. That prevents a row from appearing active when nobody knows the next move. I use a separate "next action" column instead of relying on the status alone.
Tabs that make reconciliation easier
The main referral log is enough for a small program, but I usually add three supporting tabs:
- Role list: eligible roles, hiring manager, recruiter, opening date, and close date.
- Reward rules: role or employee type, reward amount, milestone, approval owner, and exceptions.
- Payout queue: referral ID, candidate, referrer, hire date, milestone date, approval date, payroll date, and payment status.
I use a candidate record ID to connect tabs rather than matching on a name that may be spelled differently. Conditional formatting can flag overdue next actions, missing owners, and milestone dates that have passed without a payout decision.
Weekly and monthly routine
Each week, I review new submissions, duplicates, rows without an owner, and next actions due. Each month, I compare the tracker with the applicant system and payroll records. I look for hires missing from the payout queue, rewards marked paid without a payment date, and referrals that have sat in the same status without a documented reason.
I also lock formula columns and limit editing access. The tracker is an operational aid, not a substitute for permission controls. If the program grows beyond what a spreadsheet can safely manage, I migrate the workflow, but I keep the same field definitions and status rules.