Gormless Systems: Referral Integrity Review Protocol — Internal Memo

TO

All Employees

FROM

Tess McScrutiny, VP of Referral Integrity, Gormless Systems

RE

Referral Integrity Review Protocol — Immediate Implementation

MEMORANDUM

DATE: 22 July 2026

Effective immediately, Gormless Systems is formalising our response to the incident of 19 July, in which an employee's referred candidate failed to solve a basic programming problem during a technical screen.

This failure has raised serious concerns — not about the candidate, who is no longer in consideration — but about the referring employee's judgement, technical competence, and general life choices.

NEW POLICY:

1. EMPLOYEE RE-VETTING. Any employee who refers a candidate that fails any stage of the interview process shall be scheduled for a fresh technical interview within five business days. This applies regardless of the employee's tenure, title, or the fact that they have already been doing the job competently for seven years.

2. REFERRAL SCORING. All employees now carry a Referral Integrity Score (RIS), visible in the company dashboard. A successful referral that results in a hire adds 10 points. A failed referral deducts 25. An RIS below 50 triggers a mandatory Performance Improvement Plan. Current RIS for all existing employees: 100.

3. MANDATORY REFERRAL TRAINING. A compulsory four-hour e-learning module titled "Referring Responsibly: Your Network Is Our Liability" has been assigned to all staff. Completion is tracked. Non-completion counts as a failed referral.

4. RETROACTIVE REVIEW. HR is currently auditing all referrals made in the past 24 months. Employees whose past referrals are no longer with the company will be contacted shortly to explain themselves.

We understand this may affect morale and, statistically, the entire workforce within two quarters. The executive team views this as an acceptable trade-off for eliminating the non-zero probability that someone once vouched for someone who couldn't reverse a linked list.

Please direct questions to the Referral Integrity hotline — extension 403.

Signed,

Tess McScrutiny

VP, Referral Integrity

Gormless Systems

Your judgement. Our liability.

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