Carestaff speeds up nurse recruitment overcoming reference check challenges with Referoo

Carestaff Nursing (Carestaff) has been providing casual and contracted nurses of all designations to major healthcare organisations across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Northern Rivers region since 1999. Over the last 21 years, the organisation has grown from providing to one client, to now servicing all major public and private hospitals on the Gold Coast and Brisbane, as well as over 80 aged care facilities, numerous community organisations and NDIS providers.

Every single shift that we fill is important because we are providing a service caring for vulnerable people in their communities.

Samie Fogarty, Business Improvement
Co-ordinator, Carestaff.

The Challenge

Carestaff prides itself on offering the best nursing staff Australia has to offer. With over 1,000 nurses actively participating in shifts and facilitating over 30,000 nursing placements per year, Carestaff’s recruitment team work with precision to ensure they match the right nurse to the right shift quickly.

“We need to ensure we are recruiting the best nurses, who have recent experience and meet all our compliance requirements”, explained Samie Fogarty, Business Improvement Co-ordinator, Carestaff.

As a healthcare provider, Carestaff operates in an industry that deals with many restrictions and requirements.

“We’re dealing with people’s lives every day, and in our industry, there is absolutely no room for error. That is why we have strict reference requirements for every nurse joining our team. For example, for a Registered Nurse (RN), we require the candidate to provide a referee who is an RN, or higher management level/skill set and they must have directly supervised their work in the last 12 months in a paid capacity.” Having these rigorous requirements in place is important and it highlights one of the biggest challenges faced by Carestaff’s recruitment team: Securing references quickly and efficiently.

Obtaining references has been the most difficult part of the recruitment process. Our referees are nurses or healthcare professionals who work a rotating roster. It is difficult to know when they are at work, and if we do reach them while on a shift, they are busy with a patient, a patient’s family, or completing a handover. This results in delayed and unachievable references.

The Solution

Carestaff looked at a number of reference check providers with integration capabilities to its Application Tracking System, JobAdder. The organisation chose to work with Referoo for its cost-effective, secure and customised solution.

“Cost was an issue with the other providers, but our decision was simplified due to the customer service shown by our Referoo account manager, Chris.”

“Straight away we built rapport, and he understood our key requirements. We recruit a high volume of nurses, and if we are paying exorbitant fees to check their references, the ROI isn’t justified. The cost for return was the edge we were seeking, and Chris was able to identify this necessity.“

“Sometimes it seems off-the-shelf products are the only option but Referoo was able to modify its system for Carestaff, as a healthcare industry provider. Future implementation was a key factor for our decision, thankfully Chris was happy to discuss these changes from a positive point of view and the development team were confident to support exciting inclusions, which was so refreshing.”

The Benefits

Before implementing Referoo, reference checks were costly and not time-efficient. This impacted Carestaff in terms of delaying nurses, start dates, and was a frustration for its recruitment team.

With Referoo on board, the process is faster. The time-consuming chase of emails, calls and further emails has most definitely been eliminated. Referoo now takes care of the entire process from start to finish.

Referoo issues automatic reminders to referees. This task was previously completed manually. “In our experience, the necessity for daily follow-up is imperative to expedite the process for crucial candidate reply times. An automated system is ideal for an ever-increasing workforce and time-measured recruitment team.

“Now, the process is so easy. The team works from JobAdder and simply clicks the drop-down menu, selects Referoo and selects ‘okay’, and that’s it. If they haven’t received a reference within 48 hours, we now request a new contact from our candidate. Before Referoo, this process would be significantly longer.”

Our recruitment team would often spend three or four days calling a referee with no response, only to start the process again when we requested a new referee. The amount of time wasted was staggering. There is no doubt that Referoo has had huge cost-saving benefits for our organisation, simply due to the time-saving efficiencies.

And time-saving was a benefit for Carestaff. Also, Referoo’s ability to identify and flag any suspicious references gives Carestaff’s recruitment team an extra level of comfort and confidence when processing skilled nurses during the recruitment process.

“The healthcare industry requires strict practices; the right nurse is imperative as they are supporting and caring for people. Someone’s loved one, therefore legitimacy of the referee evaluation supplies the confirmation needed for a skilled person on each occasion. One of the features includes securing the referee’s IP address, which substantiates further security and evidence immediately. Additional security features like this truly make a difference.

“It gives our recruiters peace of mind to know they have done their job, and can have confidence in their new hire,” concluded Samie.