Case Study: Bright Horizons scales reference checks with Phenom Voice Screening Agent

Bright Horizons cuts reference-check chasing time by 50% with Phenom

Bright Horizons, a family services company providing child care and in-home care, faced a significant challenge in completing mandatory, state-regulated professional reference checks for its caregivers. Their background check vendor left roughly 15% of references unresolved, forcing a dedicated team of talent acquisition coordinators to spend hours each week chasing down responses, which stalled their hiring pipeline and created compliance risks. To address this, they partnered with vendor Phenom to utilize its Voice Screening Agent.

Phenom's solution automated the reference check process with an AI voice agent named Joey. The agent contacted references via a scheduled or immediate call, asking a structured set of questions and following up with probes based on their responses. This resulted in a 50% reduction in time spent chasing references and saved each Talent Acquisition Coordinator 3.5 hours per week. The implementation by Phenom also reduced the time to complete compliance screening, accelerating hiring while maintaining rigorous quality standards.

Bright Horizons