Collar Group is a recruitment and executive search firm with a proven track record of sourcing top-tier talent in competitive markets across Australia and our region. It was founded by serial entrepreneur and recruitment expert Ephram Stephenson to provide blue-chip organisations with a better way to recruit at the top.
And the journey so far has been a successful one. This year, Collar Group was recognised by the Australian Business Journal as one of the Top Talent Management Agencies to watch in 2022 and Nominated and Accredited as a Great Place to Work.
With several successful start-ups under his belt, Ephram is well aware of the need for the right technology.
I am a big believer in utilising the best technology that money can buy to streamline processes, from a mobilisation, compliance and speed-to-market point of view,” he says. “When I launched Collar Group, I focused on implementing systems and procedures to get the foundations right, automating as much as possible.
Collar Group launched with ambitious growth targets; targets it’s reaching. The firm grew to 26 employees in just eight months, and now employs 35 consultants across four offices in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide.
“To be able to scale at that rate while maintaining a client-centric approach, we needed platforms that could help us streamline processes, and deliver more for clients while maintaining compliance,” he says.
Ephram had experience with Referoo in previous businesses and says he knew it was the only option for Collar Group.
“Referoo is arguably one of the industry’s go-to platforms for background and reference checks and the whole compliance piece,” he says. “We’ve used Referoo in multiple businesses, and it has always been a success.”
Ephram explains that he first met Referoo at another high-growth recruitment start-up. “We brought Referoo into that business because we need to increase the number of placements in our system fast to scale at speed and reach our growth targets. But we were manually checking every reference, and it was frustrating for everyone. It simply took too much time.
Our goal was to automate the reference and background-checking process and make the system easy for candidates, referees and our team. And Referoo enabled that on every level, he says.
“We saw immediate wins – reduced time and labour costs, increased speed to market and a better candidate experience,” he adds. From the outset, Ephram and his team loved the customisation and the integration with their other platforms.
“I don’t think there are too many other products out there as versatile as Referoo,” he says.
“The way you can customise everything to suit your business or your client and then there’s the range of API integrations that work so well with other tools, like our ATS – it all makes the product and the process seamless.”
He said he also loves how Referoo enables him to reach referees wherever they are, pointing to a recent example in remote Australia.
“Just recently we had a referee that was out at a mine site in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception. With the help of Referoo, we were able to track him down and get him to complete the reference straight away so the candidate could start ASAP.”
Today, Referoo is an important partner for Ephram and Collar Group.
In such a competitive market, Ephram says that Referoo enables him to move quickly, getting references and background checks done ahead of the interview so he can move fast for his clients when he finds the right candidate.
Having Referoo in our corner helps us at every stage of the process. It removes bottlenecks and ensures we have the resources and tools available to continue our strong growth trajectory,” Ephram explains.
“As an entrepreneur, my focus is on achieving speed to market and results for our clients while never losing sight of the fact that we are here to help people further their careers. So the candidate experience must remain at the heart of what we do. Referoo has allowed us to effectively achieve all of it,” Ephram concludes.
At the end of the day, Jo says Referoo has provided the ideal solution to increase speed, improve productivity and maintain compliance.
“We’re very happy with Referoo. We like how automated it is, but also how simple, too. It’s not all singing and dancing with all these complicated features. It just works how it should and does what we need it to do,” she concludes.