Fed up with wasting time chasing candidate references?

E- HR expert Henry Chuks argues that a new, web-based technology offers a simple panacea.

Thereís no doubt that over the past decade technology has tranformed the recruitment industry. It has allowed agencies to become more efficient in how they manage candidate data, widen their net of potential hires, and get to the best talent faster. A recent Sunday Times recruitment technology supplement, featuring technology stories from client, candidate and agency perspectives, bears out this progress, and shows just how far we have come.

The recruitment industry to date has been slow, however, to apply new technology to the candidate referencing process. Even contractor recruitment agencies who live and die, in terms of their reputation, by the people they put forward, remain unconvinced. And by their own admisision they spend far too much time chasing references from former employers whose last priority it is to supply them..

According to a survey conducted by the Recruitment Times last year, recruitment consultants are spending an average two days of their working week chasing references. This survey does not go on to add up the cost of this lost time to the agency, but if you employ 12 consultants in your agency, at an hourly rate of 11, thatís an estimated 100,0001 of hidden staff costs you are unwittingly paying

A drain on your bottom line is bad enough, but there are far more serious consequences of using a paper-based reference process without robust processes and quality controls., If a person you put forward for a role subsequently turns out to be unsuitable, the consequences for you and your client can mean at best lost time and money, as both parties retreat to the drawing board with the recruitment process. At worst, if you are hiring for the defence, security, travel or public services sector, a recruitment mistake due to a fraudulent reference could mean another ë7/7í scenario or a ëHolly and Jessica.í

My view is that the apparent reluctance of the industry to digitise the candidate referencing process is driven by three main forces. Firstly referencing is seen by many as a necessary evil, with many other processes higher up the priority list for streamlining. Looking at the opportunities for cost savings with digitised referencing, however, some may already be re-thinking their priority list.

Secondly, some industry commentators believe that that references are not ìthe futureî, and will become extinct going forward. Consider though the number of laws which impact the employee referencing process, and the fact that a company can lay itself open to a discrimination claim by refusing to supply a reference for an individual candidate. Suddenly this argument starts to look less and less attractive.

Finally, whilst individual agencies can make significant cost savings by digitising their own internal management of references, ultimately the whole process will only realise its maximum efficiency through the commitment and collaboration of all parties, in particular the employers who often have supplying references for departing employees as the last thing on their mind.

The good news is that there is now a technology solution for the employee referencing process, one which improves individual efficiency and then, as more companies come on board, provides further opportunity for time and cost savings which amplify proportionally once a critical mass is reached.

The refero secure Reference Data Management System (sRDMS), a central, web-based store for all employee references, was launched in 2006 and is expected to become the de facto standard for employee references in the coming years, becoming to referencing what Experian is to credit checking. It is already being used by a number of recruitment agencies, and employers in the technology, media and financial services sectors. The benefits these organisations are realising include time and cost savings, improved accuracy of references which in turn reduces litigation risk, reduced chance of reference fraud, and a faster track to the best candidates.

With the cost and time savings to be had far outweighing the cost of signing up for an annual sRDMS licence, we at refero, inventors of the sRDMS, believe itís just a matter of time before everyone involved in employee referencing comes on board.

1If your consultant is paid an hourly rate of 11, the annual cost to the organisation for that consultant to spend 40 per cent of their time chasing references is around 8500 (2 x 7.4 hours x 11 x 52 weeks). If you employ 12 consultants in your agency, that activity equates to a hidden cost of more than 100,000.