They start Monday. The references don't exist.
Obtainr chases candidates and their referees for the documents a placement needs — from your own mailbox, in your name — and checks each reply against your requirements, so “cleared to start” means cleared.
14 days free · no card · cancel any time
What you're actually waiting on
A placement is agreed in a phone call and then spends two weeks not starting, because compliance is a document-collection problem wearing a lanyard:
- Right-to-work documents — a passport, a share code, a visa, in date and legible
- Proof of address, sometimes, depending on the client's own policy
- Two references, from referees who are on holiday, have left the company, or don't return calls
- Qualification certificates for anything regulated, and the originals for anything clinical
- DBS paperwork, and the identity documents the DBS check itself needs
- A signed contract, and signed terms with the client before you can invoice
- Bank details and a P45 or starter checklist before payroll closes on the 20th
The candidate wants the job and still doesn't send them, because the request arrived as one long email listing seven things and they did none of them. The referee isn't ignoring you either — they get one email, in a busy week, from someone they've never met, about someone who left two years ago.
Half the people you need aren't your customer at all
You can push a candidate into an onboarding portal because they want the job. You cannot push a referee into one. A former line manager at a company you have no relationship with will not create an account to help someone who no longer works there — but they will reply to a short, polite email that names the person, the dates to confirm, and how long it'll take.
The referee
No relationship with you, no incentive, no account. The single biggest cause of a delayed start date.
The candidate's current employer
Being asked to confirm dates for someone who is leaving. Slow for entirely human reasons.
The end client's HR team
Has their own compliance pack, their own forms, and their own definition of what's acceptable.
An awarding body or university
For verifying a qualification. Answers email, on their own schedule, and has never heard of your system.
Obtainr sends an ordinary email from your ordinary mailbox. It works on anyone with an email address, whether or not they've ever heard of us. There is nothing for them to join.
How it runs on your work
Describe the chase the way you'd brief a junior
“Get right-to-work documents and two references for Aisha Bello, starting on the 14th.” Obtainr asks what counts as acceptable right-to-work evidence, whether a share code is enough, and what each reference has to confirm — and holds every reply to that.
It goes out from your mailbox
Gmail or Outlook, connected once with OAuth. Your address, your signature, your existing thread. Replies land in your inbox where you'd expect them. Nothing is relayed through a third-party sending domain, and there's no "sent on behalf of" header.
They get a link and a QR code
Each chase carries an upload link and a QR code. A candidate photographs their passport from their phone in under a minute, with no account and no app. The link expires when the chase completes or after 30 days — which matters when the documents are identity documents.
The reply comes back, and gets read
If a referee replies confirming the dates but not the job title you asked about, Obtainr notices that one requirement is unmet and asks the one follow-up question, on the same thread. You get told the candidate is cleared, not that four emails arrived.
A case, end to end
A candidate starts in nine days. She sends a photo of her passport photo page. One referee replies “Happy to confirm she worked here, great person”. The other hasn't replied.
Obtainr reads both. The passport satisfies the right-to-work requirement. The reference does not satisfy “confirm job title and employment dates”, so it sends that referee a two-line reply asking for exactly those two facts. The job shows one item outstanding — the second referee — which is a phone call you now know to make eight days early instead of on the Friday.
Where it stops, plainly
Where it stops, plainly. Obtainr is reply-driven. When a reply arrives it reads it and, if your requirements aren't met, sends the next chase. It does not yet follow up on a timer against total silence — if someone never responds at all, the chase waits and you make the call. That's a real limitation and it's on the roadmap. Everything else it doesn't do.
Silent referees are the classic case where you'll still need to pick up the phone, and Obtainr will not do that for you. What it does do is make sure the six chases that could have been resolved by email were resolved by email, so the phone call is the exception rather than your Thursday.
Questions recruiters ask
Can Obtainr chase referees, not just candidates?
Yes, and that's usually where the time goes. A referee is just another recipient with a set of requirements attached — confirm the dates, confirm the title, confirm eligibility for rehire. Obtainr emails them from your address and checks the reply against what you asked, following up if the answer is warm but incomplete.
Is it appropriate for identity documents?
Documents are sent over an encrypted connection, attached to the single chase they belong to, and the link stops working when the chase completes or after 30 days at the latest. That said, right-to-work checks have their own legal requirements about how documents are verified — in some cases in person or through a certified provider. Obtainr collects documents; it does not perform or certify a right-to-work check, and it isn't a substitute for the statutory process.
We use an onboarding platform already. Where does this fit?
Onboarding platforms are built around the candidate, who has a reason to log in. They're much weaker on the third parties — referees, previous employers, awarding bodies — because those people won't register. That's the gap Obtainr fills, using ordinary email that anyone can reply to.
Can it handle a batch of candidates at once?
Each chase is one recipient and one set of requirements, so a batch is several chases. There's no bulk import today — you start each one deliberately. For a high-volume desk that's a few minutes a morning rather than an unattended campaign, which is also the safer default when the emails go out in your name.
Honest numbers
Small numbers, and real ones. There are no client logos on this page because we haven't earned any yet — here's the full data set.
Obtainr is used for the same problem elsewhere
The document changes. The shape doesn't: you need something from a person who doesn't work for you, and no portal will make them log in.
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Try it on the placement that starts too soon
14 days free, no card. Take the candidate whose references haven't landed and let Obtainr ask for them.
£49 per user per month, with 100 chases included. Billed to the agency.
14 days free · no card · cancel any time