Case Study
How Real Links Helped Celonis Increase Referrals from 9% to 33% in Under a Year
Celonis, a process mining technology company with 3,000+ employees worldwide, struggled with referral hiring dropping to just 9%. Real Links helped them rebuild and scale their employee referral program across 23 countries, achieving a 3.7x increase in referral hires and filling 159 global roles in under a year.
01 · The Challenge
A global hiring engine running on empty
Celonis operates thousands of implementations across global customers with headquarters in Munich and New York, plus 20+ offices worldwide. With this scale, talent attraction represents an ongoing challenge. Historically referrals drove substantial hiring — but program neglect caused this to decline to just 9% of hires.
- Relaunch referrals from a record-low 9%
- Build global talent pipelines across 23 countries
- Fill roles consistently across multiple regions
- Create a scalable acquisition engine with referrals as primary source
02 · The Solution
A 10-week global rollout built for momentum
Celonis conducted a global rollout inviting 3,097 employees to Real Links, achieving two-thirds registration — significantly above industry averages. The company prioritised gamification for engagement and crafted incentives aligned with employee values, including tree-planting initiatives.
The 10-week launch encouraged employees to share roles across personal networks. Recruiter enablement came through automated campaign setup. A dedicated Slack channel further boosted engagement.
Communications combined internal announcements, regular TA team updates with leaderboard data, and automated platform-based Slack and email engagement messages. Rewards mapped to budget — top three referrers earned points for platform redemption.
03 · The Results
3.7× more referral hires in under a year
Within one year, the platform generated 15,089 job shares. These actions led to 1,608 interviews and 159 global hires — representing 33% of all hiring, a 3.7× increase.
Roles filled spanned niche positions across London, New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Stockholm — including Senior Software Engineer, Account Executive, Field Marketing Specialist for Oil & Gas, and Senior Services Consultant for Tech & Telco.
In just a couple of months we were able to increase referrals from 9% to 33% — which for me personally was mind-blowing.