National Reference Register

As more and more organizations require background screening for their prospective employees, providing employee references has become an inconvenient part of everyday life for most HR professionals. With the average time spent in each job decreasing and career changes becoming more frequent, the burden on organizations to provide such reference data has increased, diverting staff, time, and resources from other strategic HR tasks.

At the same time, the trend of applicants “bending the truth” or supplying false information on their CVs is growing. This means that prospective employers and credit providers are taking a more diligent approach to verifying employment status, thereby increasing the pressure on HR professionals to provide reliable reference data in a timely manner.

How can you ensure that a request for reference information is from a legitimate source?
How can you ensure you do not violate an employee’s privacy by releasing employment details to an unauthorized third party?
How can you ensure that the reference given does not contain defamatory or subjective information that could lead to legal action from the employee?
How can you ensure that the privacy, subjectivity, and liability of employee references do not place your organization at risk?
How can you ensure that your organization responds with equal speed and accuracy for all employees when references are given by many managers around the company?

The National Reference Register (NRR) aims to overcome these problems by streamlining your referencing system. By subscribing to the NRR, employment data from all past employees is stored electronically, ready to be provided quickly, securely, accurately, and uniformly to prospective employers.

How it works

Reference requests for candidates are directed to the NRR website where the information is checked against the database. The reference is then provided to the reference requestor upon receipt of payment.

National Reference Registry Diagram

NRR reference report

An individual reference entry typically consists of the following information:

Full name of the individual
National Insurance number and date of birth of the individual
Name of organization where the individual was employed
Position(s) held by the individual
Department(s) in which the individual worked
Start and end dates of employment
Reason for leaving (optional)

Benefits to subscribing organization

By far the greatest benefit of the NRR for subscribing organizations is that their HR personnel are freed from the time-consuming task of attending to reference requests. This enables staff to focus on other activities that add value to their organization.

Other subscriber benefits include:

Ensures that references are accurate and based on fact
Ensures that HR procedures are compliant
Establishes a good marketplace reputation for responding promptly to reference requests
Eliminates subjective comments and improves brand reputation
Guarantees that a reference is always obtainable
Eliminates risk of lost reference files
Replaces need to search old files

Benefits to past employees

References checked through the NRR are guaranteed to be accurate against information provided by the supplying organization. The information sent out is relayed in a standard format to help ensure privacy is protected. Each request contains a unique reference number allowing the information to be traced back to its source. References are never delayed, providing an advantage over other job seekers whose references may take longer to verify.

Other employee benefits include:

References are always available
References remain consistent over time
References are factual and usually devoid of subjective comments
Fast response to employment opportunities
Control over who may view the reference

Technology

Subscribing organizations supply the minimum information requirements as simple text files, which can be easily sourced from their existing employee data management systems. These text files are used to update the NRR each time a new batch is received, translating into individual employment histories. Subscribing organizations generate employee reference files on a regular basis for all employees that have left the organization since the last file was received, with each record in the reference file describing an individual employee reference. The content remains the property of the subscribing organization.

Security

Access to the data is strictly controlled via several security and audit mechanisms. Kroll deploys stringent security and access control procedures, both to its systems and its premises. Staff members are bound by a confidentiality agreement, ensuring no information is made available to the press or to any other unauthorized personnel. All reference data is stored on a secure server; Kroll ensures that data stored in the NRR database can only be edited by the subscribing organization. It is also important to note that under no circumstances are verifications processed without the signed consent of the candidate.

Privacy

Kroll takes the individual’s right to privacy very seriously. Protection of privacy is of the utmost importance, both for ethical as well as legal propriety reasons. Kroll is not a soliciting agent and has no need to track personal information of individuals for any purpose. You can also read Kroll’s full privacy policy.