Hellora vs. illume (discontinued)

Perfect fit for: Large organizations with over 2,000 employees and a frontline workforce (such as nursing, technicians, waiters, retail associates and drivers). Currently managing referrals on spreadsheets or not truly tapping into the power of employee referrals. As a helpful benchmark to compare to, best-in-class organizations have 40% of their hires come through referrals. Less suitable for: Smaller organizations with less than 2,000 employees, no frontline workforce, and don't face challenges in employee referral management or engagement.

Illume seems best to use for holidays, special occasions, and events, like birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, corporate or leadership development retreats, etc. It's less appropriate for cases where you don't have at least a few people to contribute to a card—it's still possible to create and send a card with only one or two contributors, but the tool's designed for groups and teams and allows unlimited contribution

• Automatically tracks and manages referrals, eliminating the need for spreadsheets.
• Provides a simple referring experience for frontline workers because it's all done via text.
• Targeted text campaigns to keep employees engaged with the referral program.
• Very passionate leadership team that also provides strategy and creative support to their customers as part of the service.

• One point I highlighted with their team was the importance of Eqo – Employee Referral Solution for the Frontline being able to function without ATS/HRIS integrations for smoother rollouts and pilot programs — and they've already successfully achieved this capability.

The user experience is seamless--text-based with no app installation necessary. Employees don't want to download another app, so the text-based approach removes that friction point. I really like the SMS campaign feature in Eqo because it facilitates program socialization and targeted hiring in understaffed areas through team-specific SMS campaigns. My customers have been very impressed with the implementation process and support. They aren't just implementing the tech but advising on strategy and adoption.

• Increased talent attraction via referrals, effectively cutting down recruitment expenses.
• Minimized employee turnover, thereby reducing expenses related to backfilling and training.
• Increased employee referral engagement from frontline teams
• Eliminated any manual administration of tracking employee referrals, reducing double payments and missed payments