Job Perks You Might Not Know About: Referral Bonuses

Your job might offer you benefits or incentives that you don't know about, even if you've worked at the company for years. Knowing about and utilizing these perks can add up to some serious money, so it pays to be aware.

I work in a field where recruiters or "headhunters" are the norm as far as job placement, even for employees with only a year or two of experience. These recruiters will act as liaison between prospective employers and job-seekers and do things such as set up interview times and even negotiate salary and benefits packages. The downside, of course, is that recruiters' fees are very high; in my industry 25% of the eventual salary is standard. Companies want to avoid paying such a fee.

With that in mind, my company has recently enacted an employee referral bonus program, wherein an employee that refers a prospective hire to HR can get an incentive. Just for recommending someone who comes in for an interview the employee gets $250, and if they are hired by the company the referral bonus is $5,000 which is paid 90 days after the new employee's start date.

Back in October I referred someone to my company's HR department and they were hired in November. The employee is wonderful & the company is very pleased. The 90 days just elapsed and I received my check last week (after the government took it's cut, of course). That was a large windfall which we sent right off to student loan debt that same day. The point is you might have the same offer at your company. Do you know if they offer referral bonuses?

S.B.'s company also has an employee referral bonus; it's not as lucrative (the bonus depends on the position), but since it's a larger company there are way more opportunities to capitalize on it. The company has made it easy to refer people through an online website where you can even upload a resume.

What other incentives and perks might you not know about at your job? Another example is that S.B. found out after she had been working for her company for over a year that they offer a defined-contribution pension that fully vests after three years of service - a HUGE benefit for down the road, especially for an employee that stays at the company long-term.

I encourage you to contact your human resources department & become aware of all of the benefits. You could be missing out on some serious cash.