Kula supports one referral policy per organization — a single, org-wide statement of your referral program's rules and bonus structure, not a per-job or per-template setting. This article covers what the policy is, how it's configured, and what to know before you rely on it.

What the policy is, and how it's set up

The referral policy can be published in one of three ways:

• As a text description, written directly in the policy field.

• As a PDF upload.

• As a link to an external page — useful if your referral program details already live in an HR handbook or intranet page elsewhere.

• Whichever format you use, it's a single, global policy for the whole organization — there's currently no way to set a different policy, or a different bonus amount, per job, department, or seniority level.

• If your bonus structure genuinely varies by role (for example, a higher bonus for harder-to-fill or more senior positions), the policy field itself can't express that distinction today.

Good to know

• There's no per-job or tiered referral bonus field. This has come up as a real, recurring request — one customer wanted bonus visibility to vary per internal job posting, another wanted multiple distinct "referral templates" (e.g., separate Bonus/No-Bonus tracks) — and neither is currently possible; only a single global policy can be published. If your bonus genuinely differs by role, the workaround support recommends is to state that role's specific bonus directly in the job description, since employees see the full job description when they open a role from the referral portal.

• Uploaded policy documents have a history of not sticking. Support has fielded reports of policy PDFs not persisting or displaying correctly in referral settings after upload, and a related, longer-standing gap: once a document is uploaded, there's no way to preview or download it, and it isn't reliably shown back on the settings screen afterward for confirmation. File-size validation on the upload is also missing. If you've just published a policy document, it's worth confirming it actually displays correctly on the employee-facing Referral policy page rather than assuming the upload succeeded.

• The referral policy is separate from referral submission notifications. Publishing a policy doesn't change who gets notified when a referral comes in — today, only the referring employee is notified; there's no built-in way for admins or HR to get a global notification every time someone submits a referral. If your HR team wants visibility into referral volume, that currently has to be tracked manually rather than through an automatic notification.

• Getting your referral program live may also depend on seat coverage. Because referrals are tied to individual Kula user accounts (see "Setting up a referral" for how referral credit works), rolling out a referral policy to your whole organization can require enough licensed seats for everyone you want eligible to refer — worth checking before a company-wide announcement, not after.

FAQ

• Can we set a different referral bonus for different roles? Not through the policy field itself — it's a single, organization-wide policy. If bonuses vary by role, the recommended workaround is to state the specific amount in each job's description, since employees see that when they open a role to refer for it.

• I uploaded our referral policy as a PDF, but employees say the Referral policy page looks empty — what happened? This is a known, recurring issue with policy document uploads not always persisting or displaying correctly. Re-check the referral settings screen to confirm the upload is still attached, and re-upload if it isn't; contact support if it keeps failing.

• Can I download or preview the policy document after I've uploaded it, to double check it's correct? Not currently — there's no preview or download option once a policy document has been uploaded, which is a known limitation.

• Will HR or admins get notified whenever someone submits a referral? No — referral submission notifications currently go only to the referring employee, not to admins or HR generally.

• Where do employees actually see the policy once it's published? Referrals → Referral policy, in the left navigation.

Need help?

For how employees actually refer a candidate once a job is open to referrals, see "Setting up a referral." For anything else, reach out to us at support@kula.ai or use the in-app chat.