HiveRef Employment References

HiveRef is reference software for hiring teams. Send structured referee questionnaires from your phone, let referees answer online in their own words, and get a structured reference report with an AI summary and authenticity signals. Built for recruiters, HR teams and small businesses that hire.

Not a criminal background check, police check, DBS, VOG, or government document service. HiveRef collects employment references from workplace referees only.


PHONE REFERENCES COST MORE THAN TIME

Most employment references are still collected over the phone. It feels thorough. It usually is not.

• Chasing referees by phone and email takes 60 to 90 minutes per candidate, and still sometimes produces nothing
• You write down what you think you heard. Paraphrased notes are not a record of what a referee actually said
• Every hire gets asked different questions, so you cannot compare two candidates side by side
• An unstructured phone chat is where a question you should not ask slips out
• You have no way to tell whether the manager on the line is really a manager, or a friend returning a favour
• A phone call gives you no authenticity signals at all
• If the hire goes wrong, there is nothing to point to. Notes in an inbox are not a hiring record
• References sit at the end of hiring, where delays hurt most. A week of chasing can lose you the candidate

The cost lands on the business: failed hires, roles left open longer, sensitive reference data sitting in personal inboxes, and legal exposure you cannot defend because nothing was documented.


WHAT CHANGES WITH HIVEREF

Referees write their own answers, in their own words, on their own phone. Every candidate gets the same structured questions. Reminders chase for you. You get one report you can put in front of a decision maker, with an audit trail attached.


WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Start a referee questionnaire for any role in a few taps
• Send one candidate or several at once
• Let the candidate enter their own referee details, or add them yourself
• Pick questions from a library, generate role-specific questions with AI, or save reusable question sets
• Automatic referee invitations and reminders
• Track every questionnaire: sent, in progress, completed
• Search and organise questionnaires into folders
• Read the full reference report or download it as a PDF
• Build a talent pool from referees who opt in for future roles
• Invite your team to one shared workspace, with questionnaires, question sets and usage in sync


REFEREE AUTHENTICITY SIGNALS

Fake and coached references are a real hiring risk, and a phone call cannot spot them. HiveRef surfaces authenticity signals from IP, timing, email type and network context, so your team can review referee answers before relying on a reference. Humans always make the hiring decision.


COMPLIANCE BUILT IN

• GDPR-aligned protection as a global baseline
• UK GDPR and Australian Privacy Principles where they apply
• Question wording guardrails that flag risky or discriminatory questions before a questionnaire is sent
• Full audit trail included in every report
• Referee and candidate consent captured and recorded
• Employment reference software only; not criminal or government screening


WHO IT IS FOR

• Recruiters and recruitment agencies
• HR and talent acquisition teams
• Hiring managers who need references done between meetings
• Small businesses hiring without a dedicated HR team


HOW IT WORKS

1. Start a questionnaire and choose your questions
2. Add referees, or send the candidate a link so they add their own
3. Referees complete a short form on any device
4. Reminders go out automatically
5. You get a structured report with an AI summary and a PDF


PLANS AND BILLING

New workspaces start with a free trial. Paid plans and prepaid candidate credits are purchased in the app through Google Play. Prepaid credits do not expire and are shared across your workspace. Manage or cancel your subscription any time in Google Play.