When reviewing a candidate, it can be really useful to hear from people that actually used to work with them before. This is where References come in handy! With this feature, you will be able to send a form to the reference, allowing the reference to answer when they are available. You will then see their answer directly in the candidate’s profile.
✨ A Company Admin user needs to activate this feature in the Add-on feature center to get started
Once you’ve enabled the feature, head over to Settings → Templates where you’ll find a new section called References. Here you will find a default reference template to help you get started, as well as the option to add your own templates.
Create/Edit reference templates
The reference template is the form you send to the person you want to answer the questions. This lets you gather feedback on anything you might want to know, for eg. what their professional relationship was when they worked together.
Feel free to use the Teamtailor default template if you want, or edit it to your liking. Then you can also add new reference templates to help fit the different types of recruitment processes.
In the reference form, you can use the following question types:
Question type/Title | Description | Icon |
Short text | One line answer requested |  |
Long text | Allows reference to add multiple paragraphs, a great way to indicate that you want a longer answer | 
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Number | The reference can answer with a number only | 
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Date | Ask the reference to choose a date as the answer | 
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Multiple choice | Add several options to allow the reference to choose from | 
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Single choice | Allow the reference to select one of the stated options | 
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Required questions
You can make any question required, by ticking the Required box. This means the form cannot be submitted the reference form without this question being answered. This will be indicated with a small * next to the question for the recipient.
Send the reference form
Once you have the reference templates in place, it’s time to start collecting answers. This can be done in three ways:
1. Send to a Recommender
When a candidate connects with you, they can choose to leave Recommendations that will be added to their candidate card in the Recommendations section. A person added as a recommendation will be sent a Yes / No question: If they would recommend the candidate as a future colleague or not. Once their answer has been submitted, it will be possible to request a reference from them, using one of your templates.
2. Manually add a reference
You will also be able to add references manually on the candidate card. Click on + Add reference in the Recommendations section or in the action bar under ⋮ More → Add reference.
Add the information of the person you want to request a reference from. By ticking Send email the reference form will be sent as soon as you add the reference. If you leave this option un-ticked you can instead send it later when the time is right.
3. Request a reference automatically
You can take the workflow automation to another level by adding an Ask for reference trigger to your recruitment process.
Select what template to send, and as soon as the candidate lands in this stage, the form is sent to any recommender who has answered Yes / No in the initial email.
What does this look like for the Reference?
The email sent to the Reference will look something like this (image to the left). When opening the form, they will end up on a form directly on your career page (image to the right).
View reference answers
Once a reference form has been answered, the recruiter will be notified, and you will see the reference directly on the candidate card in the Recommendations section.
Who will be able to view the reference answers?
Like with most things in Teamtailor, it’s important that data is only visible to the relevant team members. This is why the reference answers are displayed to the team that should be able to view them. Specifically, if the reference is sent from within a job context it will therefore also be accessible by the hiring team members of this specific job.
Sounds complicated? We have listed what is accessible for what user in this article here.
If you want to share these answers with somebody outside of your Teamtailor account, you’ll be happy to know that these are a part of the Share candidate feature, listed under Recommendations & References.
What if the reference doesn’t answer?
When you’ve sent the reference form, this person’s status is changed to Waiting for feedback. If the person doesn’t answer, you might want to manually send them an email via your email service as a small nudge. You find the person's email address by hovering over their name, and clicking ⋮ the three dots:
The people receiving the reference form request will always have the option to Opt-out directly in the email. When doing so, this person's detail is removed from that candidate’s profile. While being on the subject of compliance, the mandatory legal information is automatically added to the bottom of the email, which also includes a link to your company’s Privacy policy.
