Hi everyone! My name is Alla Romanukha, and I’ve been a Talent Acquisition Specialist at Universe Group for almost a year. Overall, I’ve been working in recruitment for 7 years. During this time, I’ve seen many different types of employee referrals. There were cases where a person joined the team so naturally that it felt like “they were always meant to be here.” But there were also situations where expectations and reality didn’t match at all. This experience has gradually shaped a clear sense for me of who is better to recommend and who isn’t. So in this article, I want to share my approach and the criteria I rely on.
For me, referrals are not just another hiring channel, but one of the strongest ways to influence what the team becomes. Strong people bring in strong people. These candidates also tend to adapt faster and better understand the company culture. So every recommendation is not just “one more candidate,” but a small yet very real contribution to the quality of the team and the growth of the business.
Who can recommend candidates?
Anyone can recommend candidates. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been working at Universe Group for 2 months, 2 years, or are not part of the company at all. If you have a sense of what kind of people match our culture — that’s enough to start making referrals.
How do you know if you should recommend someone?
For me, a recommendation is about responsibility, so I always approach it thoughtfully. The most important thing is that I almost never start with experience. Because, as practice shows, experience can be gained, while mindset and approach to work are much harder to change. So the first question in my head is: is this person aligned with our values?
Proactivity — do they wait for tasks, or do they look for ways to improve things themselves?
Result orientation — do they care about impact, not just “closing a task”?
Openness — can they openly talk about failures and accept feedback?
Flexibility — can they adapt when things don’t go as planned?
Teamwork — can they collaborate and strengthen others?
If there’s a match on these values, that’s an important signal for me — because there’s a high chance we’ll hire this person. Then I look broader — at behavior and attitude to work, specifically whether the candidate:
is not indifferent to what they do
can take responsibility
is not afraid of change and uncertainty
has intrinsic motivation for their work
An important point: don’t evaluate the candidate on your own
There’s one thing I always emphasize: don’t try to “close” the candidate evaluation by yourself. If there’s a value match but you have doubts about hard skills — you don’t need to decide whether they are a 100% fit.
It’s very easy for subjectivity to kick in here, and we might lose a strong potential player who could quickly grow and deliver results. It’s better to pass this on to the recruiting team and the potential manager, who can objectively assess the experience, understand the level, and find the best fit.
And probably the best part of this process is the final result. That feeling of pride when the person you recommended passes the interviews, gets an offer, and becomes that “strong player” people say about: “it’s great they’re on the team.”
And you realize: this is also your contribution. Because you were the one who saw the potential and brought this person in.
By the way, when you recommend people, do you rely on company values?
