This question is about employee referral statistics.
Yes, companies tend to prefer referrals. Companies prefer referrals for many reasons, but here are the most prominent ones:
Less time to hire. Employers save an average of 13 days when hiring a referral.
Cost less to hire. Employers save $1,000+ in hiring costs when they hire a referral.
Stay Longer. Referrals stay 70% on average. 45% of referral hires stay longer than four years, compared to only 25% of job board hires.
Better fit. 70% of businesses agree that referrals have the best culture fit for their company. Referrals tend to be familiar with the career they're going into, or at least know some of their future co-workers. This makes it easy for them to fit into the company's culture.