employee referral vs job board

does it seem to make a difference if you are referred by an existing employee to a position vs seeing it listed on the job board? The apps ask for the person that referred you.
One would think that a referral might give one a leg up on the process, but that is not necessarily the case. It could actually work the other way around. How do you know that the referring person is not secretly on the bad side of the person doing the hiring? The question on the application shows the employer which of their outreach programs have the most effectiveness, so they know where to concentrate their recruiting dollars.
There are two primary reasons that this information is collected as part of the employment process. Many organizations have a 'referral bonus' for staff members who refer anyone that is subsequently hired. In addition, HR needs to evaluate the effectiveness of various recruitment methods - the referral information is used for this analysis.
Sometimes a referral can help, especially if the referral is in the unit/department for which you are applying, so they can really talk you up to their manager. That's how I got a couple of nursing jobs.Or your referral may say, "go ahead and put my name down" but in reality doesn't want to be involved and doesn't have the heart to tell you so, and in this case, they won't say anything about you to anyone. And unfortunately, that can be taken in more than one way by the employer: does the referrer really not want to be involved in the hiring, or do they have reservations about this person and it's a case of "if you can't say something nice..."Or worse, your referral may say unkind things about you.Or your referral's performance at the organization is poor and/or they're not happy with this person, so they aren't going to consider whoever this person wants to refer.Or it may not matter one single bit. Overall...a referral could probably help, but don't bank on it. Also, don't stress if you don't have one as it not necessarily a deal-breaker.Best of luck.