Answers to tricky HR questions: Getting better info from references
May 30, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, Hiring, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, References
Our team of experts fields real-life questions about every-day HR issues. Today’s topic: how to loosen tight-lipped reference contacts.
Question:
When we call potential employees references, they often refuse to do anything more than verify employment dates and positions. Is there any way we can get them to tell us more about the people we’re thinking about hiring?
Answer:
The first thing you can try is asking the applicants for help. That’s the advice of Mel Kleiman, author of Recruit Smarter, Not Harder.
Tell applicants that some of the people they listed are reluctant to talk about them. Ask if they could give the references permission to speak freely when you call. Sometimes that’s enough to get a real conversation going.
Also, during the interview, you can ask candidates what they think their references will say about them. Then when you call someone’s former boss, you aren’t stuck asking open-ended questions like, How would you rate Johns dependability?
Instead you can say something like, John told me you’d rate him as highly dependable, because he did (blank). Can you confirm that?
Questions like that are easier for references to answer, and at the very least, it’s a good way to get some back-up for what people say in the interview.
Tags: answers, reference checks, screening
May 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
A few other ideas:
1 - Have applicants sign a release when they come in for the interview. Sometimes faxing this to the reference will help them open up.
2 - Some states (e.g., California) have protections for reference givers–essentially unless you lie, you’re not going to be successfully sued. Providing this info may help.
3 - Not my first choice, but you can remind folks that getting in trouble for providing reference information is VERY rare.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:38 am
This answer comes from Don Paullin, http://www.hiringfiringexperts.com
If the response is…”It is our company policy not to give references.”…try the following approach:
“As a manager I understand that your only legal concerns are with a bad reference. However, if a person has done a good job for me I feel I owe them a good reference. I have no risk in giving a ‘good’ reference; therefore, I am happy to give them for good employees. So, I am assuming that if you are unable to give me a reference it is because the reference would be very negative. Could you help me by answering a few questions about (candidate’s name).
If the reference continues to respond with the company policy statement, you have your reference — which is negative .
June 26th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Not necessarily. I worked for a national trucking company and because each state’s laws were different. We were ONLY allowed to verify position, pay, dates of employment and if the employee was eligible for rehire. If we were “caught” providing any other information, we were subject to disciplinary action. Later because of driver turnover, they implemented a NO REHIRE policy. If you left the company for any reason, you could NEVER be rehired. So that really left a lot of speculation for the reference checker. We would explain over and over, that it did not have any bearring on their performance, that it was company policy. And it became an issue for me when persuing another position. Because I had access to the written policy, I would provide a copy of the policy when asked for employment references. You may be passing up hard working employees because the person on the other end of the phone is simply doing their job as required. A way around that is by asking for co-workers as personal references. By speaking to co-workers, not superiors, you will get a better idea of why the person is looking for a new opportunity and their abilities. You can always call the employer and verify the co-worker’s employment too.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
Another way of securing a reference is to provide the reference with what the responsibilities of your position are and ask the reference what they think of the individuals ability to perform those duties.