diff --git a/gtestsuite/testinghelpers/src/common/refCBLAS.cpp b/gtestsuite/testinghelpers/src/common/refCBLAS.cpp
index a0ed63ead..51df14ae7 100644
--- a/gtestsuite/testinghelpers/src/common/refCBLAS.cpp
+++ b/gtestsuite/testinghelpers/src/common/refCBLAS.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 #include <iostream>
+#ifdef REF_IS_MKL
+#include <omp.h>
+#endif
 #include "common/refCBLAS.h"
 
 namespace testinghelpers {
@@ -7,6 +10,8 @@ refCBLAS::refCBLAS() {
     if (!refCBLASModule)
     {
 #ifdef REF_IS_MKL
+        // Dummy call to force linker, link OpenMP library if MKL is used.
+        omp_get_num_threads();
         MKLCoreModule = dlopen(MKL_CORE, RTLD_GLOBAL | RTLD_LAZY);
         MKLGNUThreadModule = dlopen(MKL_GNU_THREAD, RTLD_GLOBAL | RTLD_LAZY);
 #endif
diff --git a/gtestsuite/testsuite/CMakeLists.txt b/gtestsuite/testsuite/CMakeLists.txt
index 07023072b..8e6bbf35f 100644
--- a/gtestsuite/testsuite/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gtestsuite/testsuite/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ foreach(dir ${DIRS})
         set_target_properties(${target_name}.${dir}.${subdir} PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME ${target_name}.${dir}.${subdir})
         target_include_directories(${target_name}.${dir}.${subdir} PUBLIC ${BLIS_INCLUDE} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/testinghelpers/inc ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/testsuite/)
         target_link_libraries(${target_name}.${dir}.${subdir} gtest gtest_main testinghelpers ${Blis_LIBRARY} ${COMMON_LIBS})
-        if(ENABLE_THREADING STREQUAL "openmp")
+        # if we test serial BLIS, but MKL is used as a reference we still need to set up OpenMP.
+        if( (ENABLE_THREADING STREQUAL "openmp") OR (REF_CBLAS STREQUAL "MKL"))
             if(LINUX)
                 if(OpenMP_LIBRARY STREQUAL "GNU")
                     target_link_libraries(${target_name}.${dir}.${subdir} -fopenmp)