IOR avoids agency recruitment fees with Xref’s Talent Pool

IOR is a leading, 100% Australian-owned and operated, independent energy supplier to regional Australia. IOR is the only company with the capability and infrastructure at all points along the Australian fuel supply chain including importing and refining, distribution through a privately owned fleet and unmanned 24/7 fuel networks, reliable fuel storage equipment and innovative fuel management technology.

IOR uses Xref’s reference-checking software. We spoke to Elle Huneau, IOR’s Manager of Talent, and Pree Prasad, IOR's Talent Acquisition Advisor. They shared IOR’s story about recruitment challenges and hiring successes since bringing Xref into their toolkit.

Read on to find out more details.

Who IOR hires

Elle and Pree explain that IOR is unique in the way it operates. With a full-service energy solution ranging from secure on-site fuel storage to seamless refuelling, IOR recruit for a variety of roles, including; 

• Logistics Specialists and Truck Drivers, 
• Trades, maintenance and fabrication personnel who design and build solutions, and
• Engineers who support the growth and back-of-house operations as IOR expands its national footprint across multiple sectors.

What are your biggest recruitment challenges?

The biggest challenge IOR faces is continuing to grow and recruit in operational roles. Elle and Pre report seeing an ever-increasing need for roles such as Heavy Vehicle Mechanics, Fitters/Fabricators, and Professional Drivers. 

Industries such as mining offer high salaries and entice talent away despite their difficult working conditions and rosters.

“Xref has enabled us to build efficiencies within our talent function and streamline reference checking.”

IOR now offers candidates a timely and professional experience when completing due diligence. This boosts IOR’s brand reputation, as candidates and referees alike have a positive experience during the hiring process. 

“Most of our referees complete these checks outside of hours and they are returned completed in under 13 hours of sending the reference survey. This fast turnaround reduces the time it takes to fill open positions, thus decreasing the downtime that emerges when a role is empty in our business.”

IOR has also turned on Xref’s talent pooling functionality and ID checking capability to further assist in building and bolstering talent pipelines.

IOR using Xref reference checks

IOR has been using Xref since August 2024. Elle speaks about her experience using the platform. 

“Xref is an easy-to-use platform. The quick and easy setup meant we could hit the ground running with professional checks that met the security standards we needed. The platform is personalised and branded to ensure we don’t lose our IOR feel.”

The main benefit IOR experiences when using Xref is the quick input of information to request references and then sending the reference survey directly to the candidate, quickly, and with ease. This enhances the candidate experience because it is the candidate who determines when referees are contacted. 

The quick turnarounds mean IOR tends to send out offers the next day, securing the highest-calibre talent for a high-performance business. 

IOR uses Xref for more than basic reference checking. When recruiting, the team at IOR now completes qualification checks, ID checks, and police checks on candidates. Plus, IOR uses Xref’s talent pool functionality. 

IOR using Xref’s Talent pool feature 

Xref’s talent pool feature, People Search, works on an ‘opt-in’ basis, allowing your candidates and their referees to share job titles and contact information. People Search will store insights on preferred future roles, making it easy for Talent Acquisition to filter and sort candidates for open roles.

65% of IOR referees opt-in to be contacted about future open roles at IOR. Elle shared with us a recent big win IOR experienced when using People Search.

“We were struggling to recruit two Heavy Vehicle Mechanics (HVM’s) so we could move to a 7:7 roster at our Lytton Transport workshop.  

We had previously had to use an agency due to the scarcity of talent here.  

We then had a new recruit provide two referees via Xref, who were also HVM’s. Those two referees used the ‘opt-in’ feature, allowing us to contact them.  

Pree, IOR’s Talent Acquisition Advisor, reached out and we then successfully hired both referees. Not using an agency saved us at least $20K in agency fees.

They have both now commenced onboarding and allowed the workshop to turn on their night shift capabilities. It was a huge win, celebrated across the business.”

People Search has now become an integral part of IOR’s hiring strategy, providing hiring managers with easy and fast access to a high-quality pool of candidates with the right skill set for the available roles. 

Xref’s outstanding support

In our ever-changing world, Xref continually reinvests in research and design to meet its clients' needs. 

Elle expresses her gratitude towards the Xref team. 

[Since starting to use Xref only five months ago] “I have already sent 84 reference checks. Our Account Manager, Jonny is a superstar – he knows what’s important to me within talent acquisition and ensures he can deliver.  I am kept up to date with performance metrics and industry news. Nothing is too tall of an order.”

Xref allows the IOR People and Culture team to focus on other priorities by freeing up the time previously allocated to speaking with referees and manually inputting candidate information. 

By working closely with the Xref team, IOR has made its recruitment process more efficient. It has automated all its pre-employment checks and stored them in one place. 

“Xref provides a professional, efficient, and easy-to-use tool that gets us working smarter, not harder.”

Final thoughts

IOR faces some specialised challenges when hiring highly specialised people in remote areas. Xref reduces the time it takes to hire a candidate, meaning IOR can hire top talent quickly and beat other competing employers. 

IOR has adjusted its recruitment process to make the most of Xref, reducing time-consuming tasks like manually collecting references over the phone. IOR has found that using Xref is easier and faster for talent sourcing via People Search and making confident hiring decisions. 

From reference and background checks to the People Search talent pool, Xref has given Elle and Pree access to high-calibre candidates who they have hired to fill open roles. 

Before Xref, the search for these candidates would have been lengthy and expensive. But now, IOR can use the connections of its candidates and new recruits to speed up the reference check process, ultimately reducing time to hire and securing top talent fast.