Hiring Incentive and Employee Referral Program

Hiring Incentive: A lump-sum amount to a prospective candidate as part of an offer of employment.

Employee Referral: A lump-sum amount (paid in two installments) to a current employee of WSU who recruits an external candidate that is hired at WSU.

Non-represented Civil Service (CS) and Administrative Professional (AP) positions hired as a result of a traditional recruitment. Direct appointments are not eligible for incentives.

No. The incentives are intended for hard-to-fill positions after attempt(s) at traditional recruitment have not yielded a successful candidate.

This decision is made at the departmental level by the appointing authority. Since departments are responsible for funding any incentives, this decision, as well as the amount to offer, is made at the departmental level.

These incentives provide another tool for departments struggling to fill positions. Short staffing impacts current employees who often have to take up the slack when positions are vacant. The employee referral incentive is a way for current employees to gain additional compensation for being ambassadors for WSU by recruiting candidates for open positions.

New hires receive their hiring incentive after working for the hiring department for six months. Employee referrals by current employees are paid 50% at time of hire and 50% after six months. Additional information is included in the instructions and eligibility requirements.

No. These programs are intended to recruit new employees to WSU.

For the new hire, their hiring incentive will be cancelled. For the employee referral, the 50% first payment at time hire is paid, the 50% second payment at the six month mark is cancelled. Additional information is included in the instructions and eligibility requirements.

Yes. Both hiring incentives (for a new hire) and employee referral incentives (for current employees) are reported as taxable income. Payroll taxes will be taken and reported on the W-2. Employees may wish to seek advice from a tax professional.

We discussed this thoroughly. Paying the incentive up front at time of hire would require a repayment should a new hire quit before reaching six months of service. Rather than building a process to recapture funds, we decided to pay at the end of the six month period.

Questions about these programs can be sent to hrs@wsu.edu or by calling HRS at 509-335-4521.