Reference checks

Open this screen in Saral/hr/settings?tab=onboarding

Ask a new starter's previous employers for a reference, without chasing anyone by hand. Off by default: switch it on here, say how many references each kind of worker needs and what the referee is asked, and Saral collects the referees from the starter, emails each one a short form, reminds them, and shows where every reference stands on the worker's Compliance tab. The answers are for vetting access only.

You enter

The switch, and how many references each worker type needs — employees 2, professionals 1, CIS subcontractors and agency workers 0 by default (their checks are elsewhere).
What the referee is asked: Factual only (dates and role — what many employers' policies let them confirm), Standard (adds reason for leaving, would they re-employ, attendance, reliability, anything else), or your own set of the questions.
The reminder schedule (days after the request, at most so many), how long the referee's link stays open, and whether a derived References received item joins the joining checklist — advisory or a gate.
On a worker's record: a referee the office adds (name, organisation, role, how they know the person, email or phone, and that the worker agreed), and a reference taken by phone or from a letter — typed, or the letter dropped and read.

Saral fills in

The referees themselves, where the starter gives them — on the accepted hiring-offer page and on their own My references page — with the request emailed as soon as there is an address.
Each reference's status, derived from the evidence and never ticked: not yet asked, requested, reminded, received, declined, or could not be verified (marked by the office, or the link ran out with no reply).
The reminders, on your schedule, re-using the same link; a referee can decline in one click and nothing more is asked of them.
A reference letter read into the answer fields — the free rules take dates, role and would-re-employ off the text; the model fills the rest tonight (or now, after the price question) — as a draft a person applies.
Whether the reply came from the organisation's own domain or a personal address, shown as information beside the answers, never as a verdict.

It produces

A References row on the worker's compliance card and, when switched on, a derived item on the joining checklist; the referees' answers on the Compliance tab for vetting access; the reference lines in the evidence pack and the GDPR export; and a reminder email trail the referee can act on.

What this is for

A reference is the one check on a new starter that depends on somebody outside the business answering. Done by hand it is a letter nobody chases and a phone call nobody writes down. Here the starter names the referee and confirms they have agreed to be contacted, the referee gets a short form on a link that works on a phone and needs no account, reminders go on your schedule, and the office sees at a glance who has answered and who has not. Nothing here replaces judgement: a reference is read by a person, and an unanswered one is a fact on the record, not a block on the worker.

Who sees what

Everyone who can open the worker record sees the referees and the status of each reference. The answers, the referee's contact details and any letter are for vetting access — the same narrow key that reads DBS and sponsorship records — because a reference is personal data given in confidence about the worker. Adding a referee and sending the request goes with editing the worker record; recording what a referee said on the phone, reading a letter and marking a reference unverifiable go with vetting management. The worker never sees the answers in the app; their route is a subject-access request, which the GDPR export answers.

How a reference is received

Three ways, and the status is the same derived fact whichever it came by. The referee completes the form — one submission, then the link is dead. The office records a phone reference — who said it, when, and the answers to the same questions. Or a letter or email is dropped on the record and read: the free rules take dates, role and would-re-employ off the text; where they fall short the model reads the rest tonight on the overnight lane (or now, after the usual price question), and what comes back is a draft with its source marked, which a person applies. A reply from a personal email address rather than the organisation's domain is shown beside the answers as information — a sole trader's reference is often a Gmail — never as a failure.

Reminders, declines and the unverifiable

Reminders go on the days you set after the request (three and seven by default), never more than your maximum and never twice in a day, re-using the link the referee already has. A referee who would rather not can decline in one click, with or without a reason, and nothing more is sent. A request the link ran out on, or one the office marks because the organisation cannot be reached or will not confirm, reads as could not be verified; the worker may give another referee. None of these states blocks anything unless you have made the checklist item a gate.

Retention and erasure

References fall under HR → Settings → Data retention as their own rule: a year after the worker leaves (your own longer window applies, never shorter), the referee's name, contact details, answers and any letter are removed and the dates and status of each reference stay as the record that the check was made. A reference about a candidate who was never hired goes once the offer closed before the window. A GDPR erasure removes the same at once; the GDPR export includes every reference about the worker.

Next screen: /hr/workers

Not what you needed? Inside Saral, ask Kuku (Alt+K) — if it cannot answer, “Ask a human” sends the question to Saral support with the chat attached.