How Xref Reduces hiring challenges for Precision Sourcing

Tell us a bit about Precision Sourcing

Precision Sourcing is a technology and data staffing business that was founded in 2005. We believe we've got a very important job, and that's helping people.

As it stands today, we've just over 20 staff and our vision is to be the greatest technology and data staffing business in Australia. We've got some huge growth plans, we want to double our business over the next couple of years.

Recently, we've really transformed the business by leveraging some great technology. We're trying to stay ahead of the curve, not just be another agency. This also led us to be awarded Recruitment International’s ‘Best Use of Recruitment Tech’ award, which is great because it means we have staff who are living our values. They're willing to change and try new tech.

How can other agencies stay ahead of the curve?

Modern recruitment is part marketing, part recruiting. You can't just sit there with a phone anymore. What other agencies need to do initially, is put themselves out of their comfort zone and commit to changing. We've been stuck in our ways as an industry but we, at Precision Sourcing, are really very fortunate that we work with a lot of clients doing some pretty cool stuff, so we were constantly thinking, "How can we be doing this? How can we make it relevant to recruitment?",,

We are in constant conversation with our clients about time versus cost benefit. Whatever the cost of a tech solution is, it’s always going to be less than the hourly rate of a consultant. So the time vs cost benefit is obvious to us.

Productivity has increased because we have been able to leverage technology. Our bottom line has grown and our margin has grown. We just want our consultants focused on those moments of truth, the craft and human side of people influencing.

As an industry, we need to value ourselves and not just drop our fees. We are improving what we deliver and what technology we’re using but it’s frustrating to see people still dropping fees. At Precision Sourcing, we believe we've now got a story to tell about how we've invested in tech, digital marketing and data to improve our service.

How important are reference checks in what you do and how did you think Xref would help?

Prior to using Xref, our reference checks were very ‘old school’. We had a reference form, and we did it over the phone. It was very time consuming and a big struggle, especially if the references were overseas. It would delay the process of getting somebody secured and signed up.

But candidates are strangers, and when you're representing a stranger in front of your client, it is a massive risk. You can reduce that risk by meeting them and using competency based questions, but, ultimately, they're still a stranger, and they could still be telling lies.

So, you have to do your background checks, but they need to be formal, compliant and secure, and you need to be able to just get them out the door and not have to worry about them. That’s where we knew Xref would help.

What has been the outcome of using Xref?

It's pretty simple really; the less time consultants have to deal with admin the more time they can spend with their candidates and their clients, both influencing and helping.

We’ve also been able to get the reference process started earlier, and then plan our next steps with the client based on the feedback that we've got. So we can put a better call into the client as well as working out if we really want to represent the candidate and if they are really a suitable fit.

Xref also gives you insights beyond the reference itself, such as if there has been a lag in the process - this can mean either the candidate has not sent their requests, so they may be not interested in the role, or the reference has not responded. You can also see when people log into it - if they have logged in, you know they are engaged. It just helps us to stay ahead of any issues. Rather than the old school approach of waiting for a reference to respond to an email or phone call. Just having those different checkpoints really helps.

One of the great surprises with Xref is the amount of new business we've been able to leverage off the back of it. We've had brilliant conversations with clients who have congratulated us on the detail of our references and, as a result, we've been able to generate additional work with them.

How does having Xref in the Bullhorn platform make a difference to your processes?

Requesting an Xref through Bullhorn is a three-click process, it takes about a minute and offers ease of compliance. When a deal is approved, the references are already in Bullhorn, so there is no jumping in and out of the platform. We spend a lot more time in Bullhorn than anything else, so it’s great we can stay in one place.

It’s helpful that we can also jump into Xref directly now and again to see if there has been a lag in terms of timings or just to check how many credits we’ve got. But it’s great that the team don’t actually need to leave Bullhorn unless there is an issue.