I am not sure whether it’s just me, but there seems to be a pattern of more and more businesses ‘neglecting’ the process of proper and thorough reference checking. I wonder whether companies are just too busy, feel that reference checking is not a valuable tool in the recruitment and selection process, or just aren’t sure how to do this most effectively?”
In my mind, reference checking is one of the most critical tools in the recruitment and selection process. It’s certainly not the only tool, but comprehensive reference checking is the ‘due diligence’ for getting the right fit of employees for your business. These are my top tips for ensuring your reference checks are valuable, accurate and insightful:
- Develop a list of questions – During recruitment, develop a list based on your job description and business culture. These questions should be a mix of ‘attitude’ based questions, e.g. questions around workplace ethics, reliability, team work and following procedure, as well as task-based questions – such as computer skills, meeting deadlines, following through and completing set tasks.
- Be consistent – Ask the same questions for each applicant so you are collecting similar information to compare.
- Know who you are talking to – There is a reason industry recruiters don’t really place much value in written reference checks anymore – they are too easy to fake and you have no idea who actually wrote the reference. The same issue applies with verbal phone based reference checking. By simply accepting a mobile number and name given by a candidate, you could be talking to anyone (including their friends and family). Ask specifics about the referees title, reporting lines, time they worked together etc. then verify this with the referee. If you’re still not convinced, call the company directly and check the details. Even if the referee no longer works there you should still be able to find out what position they held, and during which time frame.
- Don’t miss the ‘red flags’ – When reference checking don’t purely skim over questions where you get a vague or uncertain answer from a referee, probe further, ask more questions, clarify the response.
- Check the information you were given at interview is correct – Did the candidate do what they say, complete the projects they spoke about and hold the responsibility they implied they did? Check also about training programs they told you they had completed. Was this what they described?
- Trust your gut – If there is something missing or not adding up, keep looking. Do another reference, ask more questions, go back to a previous reference you conducted. Don’t proceed with the recruitment of a candidate until you are sure you’ve got all the answers you wanted.
- Remember your privacy obligations – All information you hold about a candidate they can request back under the privacy legislation, so make sure you advise the referee of this – as long as they are honest it doesn’t matter what they say, but if they decline to do the reference knowing that, it’s a sure sign they had something negative to say, so that’s a big red flag.
