Industry-leading electricity generator and retailer Meridian Energy was established in 1998. Their operations include seven hydroelectric power stations, seven wind farms, and they employ over 900 staff in a wide variety of roles, from engineering to administration.
The HR team at Meridian Energy were experiencing frustrating delays in their reference checking processes, which was having a negative impact on their recruiting goals, including candidates withdrawing their applications or accepting other offers. "It was incredibly time consuming, and difficult to get hold of referees in a timely manner, including those offshore," says a member of Meridian's talent acquisition team. "It didn’t add any value or joy for us trying to complete all references manually."
Wanting to speed up and streamline their reference checking and screening processes, Meridian made the decision to implement the Checkmate solution as a means of addressing the delay challenges.
Reference checking is at the heart of the Checkmate solution. HR teams can create dynamic questionnaires that follows a natural conversation, enabling the team to create follow-up questions and build a narrative - all while saving time. This is because HR teams can leverage:
"It was very straightforward, and skipped the sudden reference calls, giving time to answer the questions how I liked," says a nominated referee. Because what it comes down to is that Checkmate allows HR teams to ask more, with less —something referees appreciate.
Since the implementation of Checkmate, the team at Meridian have noticed a boost in not just time savings, but in the positive responses received from both job applicants and their referees.
"Hiring managers really like it as they get the references back quicker than we have previously, which doesn’t hold up recruiting new staff," says the HR team. "We can now move to offer a lot quicker, avoiding delays which can cause candidates to take other offers or withdraw. We have also got time back to do more business critical recruitment."
One of the key features of Checkmate is its engagement abilities. HR teams can encourage passive candidates to access their career portal, with:
This means that Meridian's HR team are not only meeting their recruitment goals and objectives much faster, but they now have more time to focus on core business objectives.
As with all our customers, Meridian have access to an Account Manager to oversee the implementation of Checkmate and to facilitate with continuous expert support. "We have an excellent Account Manager. He is always keen to get back to us with proactive updates and if we have any questions or concerns, he is quick to get back to us with answers," say Meridian's HR team. "And any suggestions we have, they have listened and taken them into consideration, which has been really amazing."
Not only that, but Meridian have also been impressed with the implementation of Checkmate itself. "Set up was quick and easy," they say. "And it's so easy to keep updating and editing as we go. Checkmate has given us back so much time as recruiters!"
Keen to see Checkmate in action? Try it for free!
We’d love to learn more about your organisation and share how Checkmate can streamline your hiring processes. If you’d like to know more, please get in touch with our team, fill out the form below, or feel free to book at demo/call at a time that’s convenient for you.
