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Reference Checking Email this article to a friend Printer-friendly version

It is ultimately your responsibility as the recruiter to do your best finding appropriate candidates to fill positions for your clients. Thus, you cannot rely on a resume and interview alone even if you have a good "gut feeling" about the candidate. References should be checked once the interview is complete, along with any testing you may perform. Have a specific position in mind for the candidate and ALWAYS PERFORM REFERENCE CHECKS BEFORE OFFERING THE JOB. Ask the candidate for three to five references of supervisors/managers or co-workers they've worked with in the past. You should inform the candidate that you'll be performing reference checks before making any hiring decisions and ask them to sign a release form. This form will allow you to ask further questions than the standard dates of hire, salary, position, etc. You'll be allowed to ask deeper questions regarding specific work performance of the candidate legally. Before calling any references, you should come up with a plan as to the types of questions you are going to ask and what items you're going to follow-up on once you get the information. If you're contacting several different candidates' references for the same position, make sure to ask the same types of questions. The information the candidate gives should coincide with the testing results and what their references tell you. Communicating with a candidate's references should be as personal as possible. Explain to them who you are, why you're calling, and what position you're considering the candidate for. The first questions you should ask are related to the basic information: What were the dates of employment? What job titles did (the candidate) hold? What was the salary? What types of job functions were performed? Did (the candidate) supervise anyone? Once you get this information, start moving into more specific questions you'd like the reference to expand upon based on what the candidate told you during the interview. Some questions would be as follows: How long have you known (the candidate)? What is (the candidate's) most positive strengths? In what areas does he/she need to improve? How would you rate (the candidate's) overall performance? Would you hire (the candidate) again? Why/why not? Was (the candidate) absent, late, or leave early often in an average month? What kinds of people did (the candidate) have trouble working with? How were issues resolved? How did (the candidate) handle urgent assignments? Did (the candidate) communicate well when explaining a project/technical information, etc? How well would you say (the candidate) would fit into the position I'm considering him/her for? There are discriminatory questions that cannot be asked. These questions revolve around a person's race, sex, age, sexual orientation, or physical ability. If you have trouble getting in touch with a reference because they don't return your calls, this should raise a red flag for you but don't give up. Continue to try to reach them, but should this fail, go back to the candidate to try and figure out why and ask for an additional reference within the same organization. Another source of trouble may be with references not wanting to give more than the basic information. Many employers are told by the company's legal staff that in order to avoid an invasion of privacy lawsuit is to only give generic information. Fax over the signed release form before calling the reference, this may help them open up a bit during the interview. Top of Page