Checking References on prospective employees is a necessary step in your hiring process. Obtaining references has become more difficult due to the rights of your candidates. Many corporations are more reluctant to provide any extensive insight into the candidate in which you are inquiring. Therefore, you need to become creative in ways to still obtain what you need in order to validate the information presented to you by prospective employees.

The first part of reference checking is to qualify the reference.
First determine the relationship to the candidate. Get the titles of both your candidate as well as the reference. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to check a reference and they give you the title they feel is what you want! You must verify the title of every reference. I have even been given a receptionist who was listed by my candidate as a V.P. of HR! Of course I was able to recognize her lack of knowledge and my candidate told me the truth once I approached her. Also find out the amount of time they were working together. Next, obtain all pertinent information regarding the company for which this reference was/is employed. Make sure to determine the scope of responsibility. Ask them the size of the company and the types of people and positions they had/have on staff. Inquire about the work environment by asking about the pace, performance standards, overall quality of staff and the overall quality of the internal procedures, processes and systems. Finally, you should ask how they measured performance.

Qualifying your reference is a great way to gain valuable insight into your candidate without asking direct questions. If you are able to encourage your references to talk about themselves, they are likely to also provide information about your candidate.
Another way to gather information is to ask leading questions. This way you make it less threatening by giving them words to simply agree or disagree with you when answering.

It is very important to identify and avoid the candidate that just can’t give you a professional reference from a past direct Manager/Supervisor, etc! If you are checking references and your candidate provides you with HR Departments that will only verify dates of employment it is a red flag! Typically if someone has been with a company for a while, “someone” should be willing to say something positive about that person! Often Managers will say a few things “off the record.” If the person has been out of touch with their references, again, professional references should be in contact at all times – especially during a job search – another red flag!

When conducting reference checks, take the given information and make sure you validate what your candidate has told you. Obtain the needed insight by getting the right person on the phone to talk with you! DO NOT EVER skip this step when you are hiring for your opportunities. If you do, the results can be disastrous!

Nancy J. Phillips, CPC

1. Control the interview – it is your show!
2. Don’t buy first impressions – most people make up their minds within the first ten minutes. This may be a mistake. You may miss out on a great candidate that takes a while to feel comfortable selling themselves.
3. Help interviewees feel at ease – they will open up and talk more.
4. Spend more time listening than talking. Get your candidate to talk 80% of the time. Hiring authorities usually talk about 50% of the interview.
5. Have a purpose for every question otherwise you are wasting valuable time with your candidate. If this person is a great candidate, in this market you will lose out to one of your competitors.
6. Take notes. Do not rely on your memory. Tell your candidate before your interview that you will be taking notes – this puts them at ease.
7. Don’t make assumptions. Look for repeat patterns of behavior to draw conclusions about the candidate.
8. Don’t tell your candidate what answer you want them to give. Avoid leading questions. Don’t tell them what you are looking for until they have given their responses.
9. Be systematic. If you are interviewing several candidates, be sure to ask them the same questions. Stick to the same general issues in order to be able to compare them fairly.
10. Be honest. If you know for sure that the candidate does not fit your opportunity, it is not fair to lead them to believe that they are still in consideration. The professional thing to do is to tell them that while their background is great, you don’t think it is a match for this opportunity. The dreaded “ding” letter is much more painful because they still hope they will be the one!

These Tips are simple, but they are also good solid basics to remind you to keep your interviews professional and fair. Most importantly, these Tips will ensure positive results!

Nancy J. Phillips, CPC