RefNow has helped us make more profit, improved our processes and made us a more professional outfit.

Tell us about hiring at Halcyon Health and Social Care

We are a specialist recruitment agency providing Support workers into a variety of Social care services across the UK, so the nature of what we do means that we need to be on top of our compliance when it comes to safer recruitment checks. 

Being in the healthcare industry, why are reference checks so important to you?

Reference checks are incredibly important for us to be in line with our Safer recruitment policy, to safeguard ourselves and clients. We also need to be sure of the quality of staff that we are employing as our reputation is built on providing the highest quality staff possible. 

How long would it take you to collect references before?

Typically references have been the single biggest issue in getting our staff out working, which is the only way we make money. So to say it is of the utmost importance is an understatement. Typically it would take 2-3 weeks to gain our references back, which also took considerable time chasing and admin work sending them out. 

What was the catalyst for change? 

We needed to address the issue of how long references were taking to get back, as well as the additional workload it was causing. This was in turn costing us money and meant the candidate experience was affected negatively because of delays in clearing them to work. 

Why did you choose RefNow?

We were impressed with RefNow in terms of how user friendly it was, as well as how well it managed to get clients to return references. We were also impressed with the anti-fraud measures the system has in place. 

How have you benefited from using RefNow?

The reduction in admin time and time spent chasing the references has meant we are getting people out to work much quicker which is directly improving our bottom line. 

It used to take 2-3 weeks to get a reference back, but with RefNow, it takes less than 36 hours

How have you found the process of requesting references and tracking their progress?

We have found this process really easy and beneficial for us to see the progress of gaining the references back and understanding the timeline. 

Are there any future plans for how Halcyon uses RefNow?

After a successful two years we are now expanding the business by franchising across the UK, RefNow will form an essential part of the process for all of our branches. Which will be around 40 in the next 12 months. 

If you could summarise RefNow in one sentence for any other organisations in the Healthcare industry, what would you say?

RefNow has helped us make more profit, improved our processes and made us a more professional outfit.