Case Study: Castlight Health achieves 70% boost in employee referral participation and saves recruiters’ time with LinkedIn Talent Solutions

How Castlight Health Increased Referral Program Participation by 70% in 7 Months While Saving Recruiters’ Time with LinkedIn Referrals

Castlight Health is a rapidly growing health benefits platform that helps employees make better healthcare decisions and supports employers in managing benefits for millions of people. With more than 400 employees, a small talent-acquisition team relied on manual, email-based referrals that were low in engagement and high in administrative overhead, making the referral process unscalable and time-consuming for recruiters.

Castlight implemented LinkedIn Referrals to proactively suggest network matches for specific roles and to streamline the candidate application flow, with ATS integration that automated tracking and status updates. Within seven months the program drove a 70% increase in participation (from ~20% to 34% of employees), produced 25 quality hires, and eliminated much of the manual work for recruiters—freeing them to focus on candidates who had genuinely opted in for relevant roles.

Castlight Health

John Bush

Head of Talent Acquisition