How Texas A&M University Digitised Talent Verification

Balancing Recruitment Speed with Uncompromising Fairness

"The challenge we had before partnering with Xref was balancing the desire of our hiring managers to seek references on finalist candidates with the need to ensure that references were sought in a fair and consistent manner."

Nicola Franklin | Talent Management Director

Texas A&M University faced a complex challenge that is incredibly common in large educational institutions. They needed to find a way to balance the thorough vetting of it's finalist candidates with the strict institutional requirements to maintain a fair, unbiased, and highly consistent evaluation process. Traditional phone references were fraught with inconsistencies. They required tedious scheduling, relied heavily on subjective conversational notes, and often resulted in documentation that was scattered and difficult to review.

Standardised Questionnaires and Automated Security

To solve this systemic issue, Texas A&M decided to completely digitise their reference requests. Hiring managers were empowered to set up standardised, role specific questionnaires, guaranteeing that every candidate was evaluated against the exact same core competencies. Crucially, the digital platform introduced advanced, automated security protocols that traditional phone calls could never offer. This proactive approach to fraud detection ensures the integrity of the hiring process by actively identifying suspicious behaviour before an offer is made.

"Xref's platform offers us the opportunity to set up standardized reference questionnaires... In addition, the system flags any responses that are received which come from the same IP address or computer operating system as the candidate, which need further investigation."

Centralised Compliance and Reclaiming Lost Time

The strategic shift to a digital platform provided the university with the essential oversight and operational efficiency they critically needed. By completely removing the need to play phone tag and wait on hold, the recruitment team and hiring managers saved countless hours each week. Furthermore, this streamlined approach guaranteed that all reference documentation was securely centralised, ensuring strict regulatory compliance and flawless record keeping across the entire university system.

"We've also found that references are received very timely, which saves our hiring managers time spent scheduling and following up with phone references, plus it ensures consistent documentation that is saved centrally."

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