References that come back written down, not remembered.
Stop running references from your inbox. The candidate nominates their referees and confirms they were told first; each referee answers the same questions on a private link with no account; the answers land on the candidate profile where the scorecards already are.
One process, the same questions, every finalist.
Request, collect, compare and retire — without a single forwarded e-mail.
The candidate nominates
You ask for one to three references; the candidate adds the names on their own link. Your recruiters can add a referee themselves when they already have one.
Nobody is contacted by surprise
The candidate has to confirm they told their referees before a single invitation goes out. No confirmation, no e-mail — that is a rule in the product, not a reminder in a checklist.
Structured written answers
Seven standard questions with a rating scale and an honest "can't say" option, plus up to three questions you write for this role.
Inconsistencies raised by rule
When a referee says they do not know the candidate, describes a different working relationship, would not work with them again, or lands three points away from another referee, the profile says so. Plain comparison — no model involved.
An optional written summary
Ask for a short written read of the answers when a set is long or contradictory. It returns strengths, gaps, contradictions and follow-up questions — never a score and never a verdict.
A deadline on every reference
Set how long answers live — anywhere from a month to a year. When the date arrives the names, addresses, employers and answers are erased and only the fact that a check happened remains.
A link, a form, and it is done
Referees are busy people who owe you nothing. They get one link, no account, no password and a form that explains how their answers will be used before it asks anything. If they would rather not answer, declining is one click.
Third-party data, treated as third-party data
A reference check collects personal data about someone who never applied to you. Hireall treats it that way: the candidate nominates and confirms, the referee is told how their answers are used, IP addresses are stored as one-way hashes, and everything erases itself on the date you chose.
The hires where a reference changes the answer
Senior roles, regulated roles and cohorts too large to phone.
Leadership roles
The reference conversation for a senior hire usually happens once, verbally, and is never written down. This one is.
- Same questions for every finalist
- Answers sit beside the panel scorecards
- Visible only to the roles you allow
Roles that require them
Where references are part of the file, they are collected identically every time and erased on a schedule you can show someone.
- Consent recorded before contact
- Referee told how answers are used
- Automatic erase, date set per request
More finalists than phone calls
Reminders chase the referees who have not answered, twice, and then stop. Nobody on your team keeps a spreadsheet of who owes what.
- Automatic reminders, capped at two
- Status per referee on the profile
- Closes itself when the last answer lands
What it does and does not do
The questions recruiters and legal teams ask first.
No, and you should not buy any tool that claims it does without telling you how. Hireall checks that the address is well formed and is not the candidate's own, and records the relationship the referee states so you can compare it with what the candidate said. Judging whether a referee is credible stays with your team.
The candidate chooses who is nominated in the first place, and nothing is sent until they confirm they have told those people. A referee who would rather not take part declines with one click, and that is recorded on the request.
You can add up to three of your own to the seven standard ones. The standard set is fixed on purpose: references are only comparable when every candidate was asked the same thing.
It reads the returned answers and writes strengths, gaps, contradictions and suggested follow-up questions. It is instructed never to produce a score, a ranking or a hire recommendation, and referee names, addresses and employers are not sent to it. It costs one credit, runs only when someone clicks it, and everything else in the module works with AI switched off entirely.
No. Reference results are not wired to pipeline automation at all — no rule can read them, and no stage moves because of them. Somebody reads the answers and decides.
References belong next to the scorecards
See a reference check run end to end in a 30-minute demo.
Talk to our team
Tell us about your roles and team size — we'll map Hireall to your hiring process and the plan that fits.
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