Employment checks, powered by Referoo, let you request, track, and review employment and compliance checks directly from the candidate’s profile in ELMO Recruitment, instead of juggling separate portals, spreadsheets and email threads.
How to trigger an employment check
When you trigger an employment check package:
ELMO sends the request details to Referoo.
Referoo automatically emails and SMSes the candidate to collect consent, ID information and referee details, and then contacts referees to complete their checks.
As each component check (e.g. reference, right-to-work, police check) is completed, the status and report PDFs are surfaced back into the candidate’s Employment Checks, Powered By Referoo section in ELMO, giving recruiters and hiring managers a single place to see outcomes.
Use employment checks when you need to:
Confirm a candidate’s identity, work rights, and history (e.g. reference, police, Working With Children screeening, AHPRA and Teacher verifications).
Meet compliance obligations in regulated sectors such as aged care, childcare, disability, healthcare, education and hospitality.
Keep all screening evidence in one auditable system of record linked to the candidate.
Before you start
Make sure the following are in place before you trigger an employment check:
Recruitment licence and feature access
Your organisation must be licensed for ELMO Recruitment and have Employment Checks, powered by Referoo added to your agreement.
Background check packages configured
An admin or ELMO representative must:
Enable background checks for your organisation via Administration and select which pre-configured packages your organisation can use.
Ensure the recruitment email address (for notifications) is configured in Administration → General → Company details (typically a shared recruitment inbox).
Eligibility
Recruitment agencies, labour‑hire providers, RPOs or other intermediaries can’t use ELMO Employment Checks to run checks on behalf of another organisation (their client). Only the hiring organisation (the employer named on the requisition) can request employment checks through ELMO. Checks must relate to roles within that organisation’s own workforce (including employees and direct contractors engaged by that organisation).
User permissions
Only users who can view/manage candidates in Recruitment can access and trigger employment checks.
Step-by-step: Trigger an employment check
Step 1 – Open the candidate profile and go to the Employment Checks, Powered By Referoo section
Navigate to the Recruitment then Requisitions.
In the candidate profile, locate the Employment checks, Powered By Referoo panel.
If this is the first time you are requesting checks for this candidate, the section may be empty.
Step 2 – Start a new employment check and select the candidate’s work location
Click Add Check in the Employment Checks Powered By Referoo section.
In the Select State field, choose the Australian state or territory where the candidate will be working, or select Australia Wide if available and appropriate.
Some packages are only valid in specific states, so the state selection can affect which employment check packages are available.
Step 3 – Choose an employment check package
From the Package or Select package dropdown, choose the relevant employment check package for this candidate (for example, Core Screening, Healthcare Frontline, Schools and Early Education, Healthcare Frontline (Children facing), or Teachers Frontline).
Review the package inclusions (e.g. reference check, right-to-work, ID verification, Working With Children screening, police check, AHPRA and teacher verification) to ensure it aligns with the role’s regulatory requirements.
Step 4 – Confirm and submit the employment check
Click Add Check to submit the request for this candidate which will immediately trigger the employment checks.
At this point, the Background Checks section will immediately update to show the status of the requested package (for example, Pending).
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NOTE: Once you click Add Check the cost of the background check will immediately be incurred.
What happens after you trigger an employment check
Once you have submitted the request:
Candidate and referee experience
Referoo automatically sends SMS and email prompts to the candidate to:
Capture their consent.
Collect ID and right-to-work information.
Capture nominated referees.
Referoo then contacts referees to complete their reference forms, optionally including LinkedIn verification and fraud detection checks depending on package and configuration. Candidates and referees can access live chat support provided by Referoo (near 24‑hour weekday coverage), and candidates can log in to a dashboard to view the status of their checks. Click here to learn more about the candidate and referee experience.
Status updates in ELMO
The Employment Checks Powered by Referoo section in the candidate profile will expand to show each individual check within the package and its status (for example, Pending or Report Available).
When a check is completed, the status changes to Report Available, and a link to the report PDF is displayed. Recruiters receive email notifications when updates occur during the background check process, sent to the recruitment email configured in Administration → General → Company details. Completed reference checks may display an alert icon if Referoo detects behaviour that could indicate a fraudulent reference (for example, the referee using the same IP address as the candidate). You can learn more about the fraud detection here.
Early access experience
Employment Checks (powered by Referoo) is available to select customers with early access from May 2026, with broader availability targeted for early in the new financial year. The following limitations apply during this period and are important to understand before triggering a check.
Geography and coverage
Australia only – Employment checks are available for Australian candidates only in MVP. New Zealand support is planned but not yet available.
Packages and configuration
Pre-configured packages only – Customers cannot create or edit their own packages. Packages (e.g. Core Screening, Healthcare Frontline, Schools & Early Education, Teachers) are purchased as-is and include a fixed set of checks.
Templated reference questions only – For launch, employers cannot add custom questions to reference checks; question sets are determined by the package.
Workflow and re-checks
No in-product re-trigger – Customers cannot re-trigger a background check themselves. Any re-triggering must be requested via your Account Manager.
Point-in-time checks only – Periodic/ongoing re-checks are not supported at launch. This is being considered for the roadmap.
Notifications – candidates, referees, and recruiters
Candidate / referee notifications
Candidates and referees receive SMS/email prompts and can access Referoo’s live chat support and dashboard.
If a referee’s email bounces or is undeliverable, the candidate, not the employer, is notified and must correct the referee details.
If a referee declines to provide a reference, the candidate, not the employer, is notified and must nominate an alternative referee.
Recruiter notifications
Recruiters are notified via email when there are status updates and when a report becomes available, but will not be directly notified about bounced referee emails or referee declines in the early access phase.
Reporting, insights and employee record
Reports stored in Recruitment only – Completed reports are stored as PDFs against the candidate’s Recruitment record; they do not yet surface in analytics/Insights or automatically follow the candidate into the HR/employee record.
Usage reporting is manual – For launch, customers must contact their Account Manager to obtain a list of packages used; package usage is not yet self-serve in the product.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Q1. How am I charged for an Employment Check?+
As soon as you request an employment check package for a candidate in ELMO, your organisation incurs the cost of that package, which will be billed in arrears by ELMO in the following month. Customers cannot revoke a check once requested. Practically, this means that after you confirm the package selection (for example by clicking Add Check or Next on the confirmation screen), the package is considered ordered and chargeable, even if the candidate does not complete every step. Employment checks are billed per package, per candidate, with pricing that varies by package type and (for some checks) state-specific pricing. Click here for more information on billing.
Q2. Who can see employment check outcomes/results?+
Recruiters and hiring managers with permission to view/manage candidates in Recruitment can see: The status of each check in the candidate’s Background Checks section; The summary and detailed PDF reports, which are stored on the candidate’s record in Recruitment. Candidates can see the status of their checks in their Referoo dashboard, but do not receive full copies of the employer reports. Reports currently live only in the Recruitment module; they are not yet exposed in analytics/Insights, nor automatically copied into the HR Core employee record.
Q3. Can I cancel or re-trigger an employment check after I’ve started it?+
Cancelling: Once an employment check has been requested in ELMO, it cannot be revoked, and costs still apply. Re-triggering: Customers cannot re-trigger a background check themselves in early access. To re-run checks, they need to contact their Account Manager, who will coordinate with Product and Referoo. A self-serve re-trigger experience is under consideration for a future release.
Q4. Does triggering an employment check automatically notify candidates and referees?+
Yes. Once you submit the employment check in ELMO: Referoo automatically sends emails and SMS to the candidate to capture consent, ID information and referee details, and then contacts referees to complete their reference forms. If a referee’s email bounces or the referee declines the reference, the candidate is notified and must update or replace the referee details. The employer is not notified directly of these events in MVP. Recruiters receive email notifications as overall check statuses change and when reports become available, but not for every candidate/referee-level event.
Q5. Do employment checks support New Zealand or other countries?+
In the early access phase, employment checks are limited to Australian background checks only. Support for New Zealand is planned for a later phase, but timing is not yet confirmed.
Q6. How long are employment check reports stored, and do they follow the candidate into HR?+
Reports are stored along with the requisition/candidate record in Recruitment and remain in the system for that record’s life; they do not automatically move with the candidate when converted to an employee in HR Core as part of MVP. There are open privacy and data-handling considerations that ELMO is working through to determine how and when report data may follow a candidate into the employee record and/or appear in analytics in the future.