Brand Messaging
Our brand tagline
Before you hire, check with Xref.
What does this mean?
- We’re reliable
- We’re trusted confidantes
- We support great hiring
- We’re THE tool for online reference checking
Who is Xref
Xref is where genius meets simplicity.
Behind the personable Xref service is a team and platform that are willing to break convention to create opportunity.
Everything we do reflects our passion, innovation and drive.
What do we do?
Short Description
Xref is trusted by businesses globally to offer reference, background and ID checks that are fast, simple and secure.
Long description
Xref is a best-in-class, global solution that makes reference, background and ID checking fast, simple and secure. The user-friendly technology is backed by local support teams, offers multi-language capabilities and meets the highest global compliance standards (ISO 27001). Xref is accessible from any device and integrates with multiple leading HR tools and ATS platforms to offer seamless, end-to-end recruitment workflows.
What’s our story?
Since 2009, Xref has been on a mission to bring positive change to the recruitment process. It is the product of a frustrated recruitment professional and an MBA-qualified technologist who both have a passion for positive change and teamed up to improve the efficiency, consistency and reliability of pre-employment reference checking.
Headquartered in Sydney, the ASX listed company has since expanded across APAC, Europe, Canada and the USA. The flexibility of the product architecture enables Xref to tailor the solution to suit the needs and demands of each market and sector it serves.
Xref now supports thousands of businesses across multiple markets and industries, delivering a robust and reliable service to some of the most highly regulated, audited and trusted companies globally.
What makes us different?
Compliance & governance - Xref is certified by the world’s highest global standard for data security. It is ISO 27001 certified and offers globally compliant data collection and storage. It meets all regulatory requirements, to ensure every candidate is assessed fairly.
Value & trust - Xref is trusted by more than 1,200 businesses globally. It offers a reliable tech solution with dedicated account managers and local support. It’s an enterprise-ready solution that scales with businesses as they grow.
Fraud detection - Xref detected more than 7,000 cases of potential fraud in one 12 month period. Xref's unique fraud algorithm monitors for unusual activity during a reference and raises a red flag if anything potentially fraudulent is detected.
Relevant & valuable insights - Xref offers candidate assessment and benchmarking at a glance. It delivers relevant data analytics to inform great recruitment decisions with tailored and comparable insights, perfect for candidate benchmarking.
A tailored experience - Xref offers opportunities to tailor the entire reference checking process to suit the needs and requirements of a business and the role being filled.
Time & efficiency - Xref references take 30 seconds to request and are returned in as little as 24 hours. And as a reference is completed, Xref notifies the requester, they do not have to wait until all responses have been received to start reviewing feedback.
Our customers
Informed recruitment & HR professionals looking for efficiency and more...
Our customers know the benefits of recruitment tech, today they expect faster, more secure options to traditional recruitment methods. But they also want to see real value in the solution they implement. It’s not enough that the technology just works, they want a trusted partner to support them in ensuring their personal position by delivering the results they need to make the best decisions for their business.
The thousands of businesses Xref supports typically fall into four categories:
- In-house, corporate. The challenge: sourcing, hiring and retaining the best talent is tough in a candidate-led market.
- In-house NFP & charity. The challenge: as one of the most audited sectors, supporting the most vulnerable communities, hiring due diligence is essential.
- Staffing & recruitment agencies. The challenge: the pressure that comes with quickly placing high-quality candidates to help retain the best clients.
- Government. The challenge: the compliance needed to deliver a recruitment process that can compete with private sector hirers.
Our people
We are passionate professionals.
We inspire and empower through innovation and smarts, keeping customers informed, supported and effective in their roles.
We embrace technology and the value it offers, but we put people first.
We work hard and together we celebrate every individual and company success. We’ve hit some major milestones and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.
Values
Our Values
Driven by ambition
It's our goal to make a real difference in whatever we do. We’re redefining traditional processes by building meaningful and relevant solutions.
A big heart
Xref has a big heart - we have an unwavering passion for success. We put people first with our solution and in our workplace.
Positively charged
We are positively charged, with an incessant desire to succeed. We believe in challenging the status quo and providing extreme value.
Our Vision
Be the trusted catalyst to positive recruitment results for every employer and jobseeker, by changing the way the world hires.
Our Mission
To continually exceed the expectations of a demand-driven world. Empowering great recruitment decisions with a platform businesses can trust to verify hires, and candidates can rely on to help them reach their potential.
Removing the distraction of manual processes, delivering insights that inform decision-making and putting essential tools at the fingertips of every business looking to build the best team, globally.
Communication
Tone of voice
Core principles
Considered
Our audience and their situation is at the forefront of all communication decisions.
Modestly informed
We are proud to be the expert in our field but we’re a thought leader that’s still learning.
Consistent
The “Xref voice” can be heard in every engagement.
Supporting principles
Fun but professional
We take the value we add seriously, not ourselves.
Insightful and inquisitive
We are data-driven and we share our knowledge at every opportunity but we are always looking to learn more.
Brave but smart
Just the right level of fun, without undermining our intelligence.
A few tips & rules...
The tips
For every piece of content, ask yourself:
- Is this suitable in terms of the audience/market conditions/timing?
- Is the copy free of political views/opinions?
- Could anything in the copy be deemed harmful to another person?
- Does it present Xref as a brand at the forefront of the recruitment tech industry?
- Does it (where appropriate) demonstrate the Xref personality - is it fun, passionate and heartfelt?
- Does it (where appropriate) call on the expertise of outside sources to complement or add to the expertise we have authority to offer?
- Does it sound like a real person has written it?
- Does it position Xref as a forward-thinking brand with a vision for the future?
The rules
If content is King, grammar is God!
We must ensure the grammatical accuracy of every engagement, for the sake of the brand.
Remember, investors are reading all public content, we want them to take it seriously.
Some common pitfalls to watch out for….
- Remember a business is singular - always use “Xref IS…” not “Xref ARE…”
- Avoid the overuse of “that” - whatever you’re writing, read it back and if you’ve included a “that” ask yourself if you need it.
- Be smart with repetition - while some can be effective, unintended repetition will be distracting for the audience.
- Check your adjectives - stay concise and keep “fluff” to a minimum.
- Limit your exclamation points - use words not punctuation to convey excitement.
- Check prepositions - use “more than” rather than “over, “less than” rather than “fewer”
- Consider your commas - read everything aloud, are all your commas necessary?
- Xref is a proper noun - which means it’s all one word with a capital at the beginning, no other variations.
- Remember your audience - our default spelling is to be kept Australian, American spelling is for North America targeted content only.
Logo
Spacing
An area of clear space should be maintained around the logo that is equal or greater than the distance “X” as indicated in this diagram.
Partnerships
Partnership logos should follow clear space rules.
Logo guidance
Do not use a drop shadow on the logo.
The logo should never be cropped.
Do not change the opacity of the logo.
Do not stretch or distort the logo.
Logo must only be positioned horizontally on the page.
Do not use other colours on the logo.
Colour Palette
Primary Palette
Our colours define us. The Xref green distinguishes our brand and sets us apart from our competitors. It’s used for highlighting key words and features as well as primary CTA buttons. Our greens work in unison and complement each other the same way we complement the HR industry.
Secondary Palette
These colours may be used sparsely and in minimal amounts as accent colours on backgrounds and supporting elements. They cannot be used for text.
Typography Palette
As the name suggests, these are for our content. Downriver is used for section headings while the dark slate grey is for all body copy.
Base Colours
These are used for the base of graphics.
Colour guidelines
- Don’t use secondary colours for base creative.
- Don’t use secondary colours to replace Xref green accents.
- Xref green must be present in all designs.
- Secondary colours cannot be used for content.
Typography
Headings
Typography - Messina Sans
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Body Copy
Typography - Messina Sans
Photography
Photography guidelines
XREF is human-focused, so our photos are too. It's important to us that when communicating through photography the attitude of the XREF brand is clear. Photography should primarily be in situ and include faces with positive expressions. The environment or scene should feel natural, not forced. Tonally the photography should be cool in tone and quite minimal. There should be no clutter or overcrowding in the shot. However, there needs to be an avoidance of feeling clinical or sterile.
- Images cannot look too cheesy.
- Avoid filtered images.
- Stay away from any that look too fake/staged.
Illustrations
Illustration guidelines
- Don’t increase image size as this will cause pixelation.
- GIFs must be on a white background.
- GIFs are only for Google Slides, PowerPoint or Keynote presentations.
Icons
They’re used to visually emphasise key statistics as well as define sections on the website.
Icon guidelines
- Don’t increase icon size as this will cause pixelation.
- Make sure the icon is directly related to the content.
- Icons must be on either the white or subtle grey base colours.
- Make sure icon size is consistent.
Product Shots
Product shot guidelines
- Don’t increase image size as this will cause pixelation.
- Make sure there’s content in relation to the screens.
- Don’t use outdated screens.
- Don’t add heavy drop shadows to the screens.
Integrations
Integration guidelines
- Don’t increase image size as this will cause pixelation.
- Product shots must be sanitised - no real data.
- Make sure the screens aren’t outdated.
- Don’t add additional drop shadows to the screens.
Social
Social guidelines
- Don’t use any old logos.
- Don’t use stock photography that doesn’t fit within our guidelines.
- Don’t use the favicon or logo as a full image for posts.
- Make sure images or graphics are relatable to the content.
- If using a photo or graphic, make sure it is not pixelated or low quality.
Resources
Downloadable content
We’re industry experts and as the leaders it’s up to us to help guide the recruitment industry. There are a number of resources available that are industry specific, features within the Xref platform, integrations or thought leadership based.
Templates
We want to make your job as easy as possible while still looking great! Presentations and Google Doc templates are available for all staff to use.
To access the Google Slides template, select “New” at the top left hand side of the drive, hover over the Google Slides arrow and select “From a template”.
Where you can find us
