Customer Spotlight: River Island

With six decades of high-street pedigree, River Island is a household name in British fashion. Managing a fast-moving retail workforce at scale, across 250 stores, means HR teams deal with relentless volumes of pre-employment reference requests. Their previous process? Entirely manual, email-based, and inefficiency personified.

The Challenge: High‑volume inbound reference overload

Before RefNow Respond:

• Labour‑intensive: HR staff manually retrieved employee data and drafted emails for each request
• Repetitive and draining: Endless digging and chasing made referencing feel like a full‑time job
• Inconsistent delivery: Delays and errors frustrated both requesters and the team

“We were doing everything manually! The sheer number of requests made it feel like we were always chasing our tails.”
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- River Island HR team

The Solution: Automated inbound handling with RefNow Respond

River Island implemented RefNow Respond (formerly Inbound Manager) to take over all incoming reference requests. The platform automates consent, report generation, and secure distribution. HR simply uploads employee data or syncs with ATS - RefNow manages the rest (like magic).

“RefNow manages the entire referencing process for us – from receiving incoming requests to sending completed references. Every step is automated… It’s been a game‑changer.”
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- River Island HR team

The Results: Ready‑made references and relieved HR

• Instant responses: Requests are processed and sent back immediately after ex‑employee consent
• Hours saved weekly: What used to consume HR time now happens seamlessly in the background
• Consistency assured: Every output follows the same secure, professional format
• Stress eliminated: Referencing no longer interrupts the day

“…given us back countless hours each week to apply our time elsewhere.”
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- River Island HR team

Why it matters beyond retail

If your organisation receives regular reference requests - whether you’re in retail, healthcare, hospitality, logistics, social care, or education - RefNow Respond delivers:

• Immediate, consistent responses
• Major time savings
• Secure, GDPR-compliant handling
• ‍HR teams freed for higher-value work

Key Takeaways & Next Step

What River Island achieved:

• ✅ Fully automated inbound referencing
• ✅ Rapid, reliable responses
• ✅ HR time reinvested in strategic initiatives

If your team is still manually handling ex‑employee reference requests, it’s time to switch to RefNow Respond. River Island calls it “a game‑changer” - book a demo to see what it can do for your HR workflow.