How can hospitals engage their current employees in the recruitment of qualified nurses? A referral bonus and self-determination perspective

Aims To investigate the impact of promising a referral bonus and an autonomous referral request on nurses’ referral likelihood and the quality of their referrals. Design We applied a 2 × 2 between‐participants factorial design with referral bonus and autonomous referral request as experimental variables. Methods In May 2019, 110 nurses working in Belgian hospitals were shown a fictitious e‐mail with a request from their employer to look for potential new‐hires and filled out an online survey measuring referral likelihood and quality. Results Promising a referral bonus did not affect nurses’ referral likelihood and quality. Instead supporting self‐determination theory, nurses exposed to the autonomous request were more likely to refer and assure referral quality than those exposed to the controlling request. Conclusion Hospitals can increase nurses’ referral likelihood and quality by framing their referral request in an autonomy‐supportive way. Impact Recruiting nurses are more important than ever in the current Covid‐19 crisis. Our findings offer practical insights on how hospitals can engage their employees in the recruitment of nurses (i.e. through framing referral requests in an autonomy‐supportive way).