With Referoo, Freedom now has an efficient end-to-end reference-checking process that keeps candidates on track and hiring managers happy.
Recruitment across Freedom’s operations is run by a small, but highly experienced internal talent acquisition team. Talent Acquisition Specialist, Nancy Chaouka is responsible for hiring across a diverse range of roles in challenging recruitment markets, such as retail.
“With just two people, we recruit some 300 roles a year. On average, each month we have 25-35 active roles at any one time across Australia and New Zealand,” she explains. With such a high volume of varied recruitment needs, Freedom is always looking for ways to increase efficiencies while still delivering a high level of service to hiring managers and candidates.
Manual reference checking was becoming a real roadblock for the team, taking significant time and resources away from ourcing and securing the right candidates.
Freedom Furniture is an iconic household name across Australia and New Zealand, known for its premium furniture and contemporary range of home décor and accessories.
With over 40 years in furniture retail, the brand operates a nationwide network of stores, busy distribution centres and a highly responsive customer support centre.
“With such a high volume of roles, picking up the phone and calling multiple references for each candidate takes up time that could be allocated to more strategic talent acquisition,” Nancy explains.
Freedom began using Referoo in March 2021. When Nancy started at Freedom, she says that as an experienced talent acquisition specialist, she was immediately impressed by Referoo.
“I could see from the outset how efficient the process is with Referoo. It’s all so smooth. And it’s great knowing that the references are being done in the back end while we focus on finding talent. It’s amazing. I love it,” she says.
When a hiring manager gives the go-ahead to progress a candidate, Nancy says the team can move fast. With Referoo, at least 50% of Freedom’s references are back within 24 hours
When you’re multitasking across so many roles, you want to keep everything moving while making sure it is up to standard and compliant. It’s great that we have a system we 100% trust to help us do that. We don’t have to worry about losing candidates because we fall behind at peak periods, Referoo helps us keep it all moving.
“In addition, I love that I can see where a candidate is at in the process at a glance and it takes seconds to send a reminder if things haven’t moved on their end. I particularly love the SMS functionality for this. Not everyone is on email all day, especially in retail or logistics roles, so being able to reach them via SMS is great.
“For example, if a candidate hasn’t filled in their referee’s details, I just flick them a text reminder. And nine times out of ten, it then gets done immediately. In a manual process, there would be a lot of back and forth to follow up on just that one thing, so it makes a massive difference.”
Nancy also highlights that Referoo is incredibly easy to use.
“Referoo is one of my favourite systems to use. The first day I started with Freedom, I got the hang of it and was off and away using it. It was that easy.”
She adds that Referoo’s support has been amazing, although they rarely need to call on it.
“In the 11 months I’ve been in the role, I have contacted Referoo once, because it all just works how it should. But that one time I had a query, I called (Referoo Account Manager) Georgie, and had an answer straight away.”
Nancy is also impressed with Referoo’s built-in fraud detection.
“I really like that Referoo flags any potential issues and notifies us right away so we can follow up with the candidate. In most cases, there is a valid reason for the flag, but we know if there isn’t, it won’t go undetected.”
“With Referoo, it only takes 5-10 minutes for referees to complete the questionnaire and it’s all straightforward. There is no finding a time to chat and no having to answer awkward questions on the phone while on the shop floor or in the warehouse. The referee has time to review the questions and provide quality insights,” says Nancy.
“So, from talent acquisition to the hiring manager to the candidate and the referee – all stakeholders are happy with the process. It’s not often you can say that,” she enthuses.
Referoo is truly one of the best systems I have ever used. I love using it and it’s so efficient, particularly in a high-volume recruitment environment.
“I hadn’t used Referoo before I came to Freedom Furniture, but now I’ll take it with me throughout my career. Referoo is amazing, and I really can’t stress that enough.”