I've currently reverted back to gathering references myself as I have found that gathering them via an external provider was taking too long and after a few times where I ended up doing more chasing of the candidate to get them to chase their references, I decided it was easier just to do the whole thing myself and be done with it.

Since then I've been getting references back within a couple of days of the request rather than a couple of weeks!

In reply to Gemma:

Hi Gemma,

Thanks for the advice. Which external providers have you used in the past?

I'm looking at XRef at the moment.

Thanks

In reply to Jamie-Lee:

We use a company called Sterling Backcheck. I inherited it as it was used by our affiliate when they were doing our HR for us. I've found that the process just takes too long and it is actually quicker for me to ask candidates to provide their reference details and contact the references directly myself.

Also given that most businesses now only confirm factual information I find the use of an external company a bit redundant as most references don't actually answer the full questionnaire they are sent.