Prospective employees have long been told to change their profile pictures to something more ‘professional’ when applying for a job but even with those tweaks, HR tech company Xref (ASX: XF1) may still find that embarrassing pic of you shotgunning UDLs in your underwear to the cheers of many. 

Social media and Google searches have become standard practice amongst hiring departments but the process is largely time-consuming and small things, like embarrassing pictures, can be missed. To reduce their risk from new employees that might otherwise not be a ‘social fit’ for a company, Xref has partnered with CheckSocial to enhance the referral platform’s pre-employment checks. 

By adding CheckSocial to the Xref marketplace, employers can add the social media checking to their Xref service to receive information about the applicant’s social media presence, all of which is generated by artificial intelligence (AI). 

“The services offered by our Additional Checking Marketplace continues to grow, adding to the additional checks such as Criminal, Identity Verification and Working Rights already available,” said Xref CEO, Lee-Martin Seymour. 

“The inclusion of CheckSocial adds to the variety of checks available and is the only Social Checking tool that we have integrated into our Marketplace service.” 

CheckSocial uses AI technology, combined with expert human analysts, to thoroughly vet candidates using a digital footprint check. The checks are designed to give employers increased confidence that the hire is the best fit for their organisation while reducing the financial, cultural and reputational risk of a bad hire. 

“Xref and CheckSocial share a common goal of helping organisations to hire confidently. This integration makes it easier for Xref customers to access additional checks and we are very excited to partner with Xref and be included in the Marketplace,” said CheckSocial Founder and CEO, Dan Holman. 

Xref’s fully automated online reference checking platform allows employers to request one or multiple references in minutes and receive fast, honest feedback within 24 hours. Xref also enables employers to know who a candidate really is with RapidID, Xref’s biometric identity verification solution.

As an indirect winner of the pandemic, Xref has seen a major uptick in sales as HR departments have turned their entire recruitment and hiring process to online-mediums without the opportunity to interview candidates in the office due to lockdown restrictions. This resulted in a 56% increase in sales for Xref in FY21 when the Company reported $12.5m in revenue with more than 1 million users exchanging referral data on their platform.