By Gordon Basichis,
Co-Founder of Corra Group
Most human resource managers
today are limited to providing only the basics for employment
verification. Fear of litigation nullifies anything that may
be deemed subjective or, more considerably,
litigious. Conducting the formal employment
verification will typically return little more than the date your
candidate started employment, the date he left, and the position he
held. You will often find yourself lacking the input needed
to make an informed hiring decision. Once in awhile, the HR
Manager will be adventurous and respond that your candidate was
“in good standing”.
In
fact, at the writing of this article, there was a radio program where
the show’s commentator reinforced this
principle. The commentator admonished Human
Resources Personnel that there is as much a danger in providing a
positive reference as there is in providing one that is
negative. He went on to say it is important to keep
all employment verifications as uniform as
possible. He suggested providing only the start
date, completion date and the position held.
Is
this bare bones information enough to make an informed decision on
an employment candidate? Sometimes. When
the job is simple enough and no special skills are required…
yes. Then all you need to know is whether or not your candidate
actually worked at his previous place of
employment. You may need to know more
about an IT candidate’s technical skills, but whether or not
your candidate’s last job as a pizza boy can shed any real
light on his abilities is open to debate.
Because the typical employment verification yields such sparse
information, more and more businesses are turning to the reference
verification in order to find out more about their candidates and their
respective skills. While the reference verification can have
its pros and cons, for a fair number of hiring situations
it’s a smart way to go.
Reference verifications can be best used to discern the skill sets of
your job candidate. Recruiters will employ the reference
check to determine if their candidates are qualified in special skills
and experience. You may call upon references to
define a job candidate’s level of IT skills, or his fluency
with general and industry specific software
programs. You may wish to better understand his
abilities in graphic and web design, which can provide essential
considerations.
As a recruiter, you may want to know more about your
candidate’s networking capabilities, who he knows in his
industrial sector. If he is a sales person, you may
know just how well connected he is in, say, licensing product in
certain geographic regions. For international candidates,
when language capability is a concern, you can use the reference
verification to help assess these abilities.
Of
course, there are other questions you may ask in your reference
verification process. You may want to know more about your
candidate’s management skills or style. You need to
determine if he works well with others, if he is a team player or the
sort that works better off by himself. Does he show up on
time? Is he absent frequently? What are the areas
where he can improve?
At
Corra, as part of the verification process, we ask the reference to
rate the employment candidate using a scale of one to ten.
Ten is the highest score. Usually, to be considered a viable
employment candidate, our clients would like to see at least a seven
rating. Seven and up is considered pretty solid.
Sometimes
the reference gets carried away and barks out a
ten. Most employers will look at this as
boosterish. But there are the exceptions. If the
reference is an upper level executive and qualifies his or her
statement with such phrases as “I’ve been around
for umpteen years and rarely have I seen someone work as well as So and
So,” the employer will take it more at face value.
In most cases, the higher level ratings are a nine or nine
plus. The reference will often qualify his rating
with “Everyone has room to improve…”
Always
bear in mind the reference that your job candidate supplies you, will
be a favorable reference. No candidate in his right
mind would give you references that would go out of their way
to sink
his ship. Sometimes the reference
may not find the
candidate as favorable as the candidate would like to
believe. 
While
the reference wants to be a good person, they
may also want to divulge the more negative
aspects as well. There
is any number of reasons for doing so.
Sometimes they wish to give you a heads up. Sometimes there
are personal issues. Sometimes they are just
covering their butts.
The
reference may not tell you directly that the candidate is tough to
deal with or is someone who they would never hire
again. Yet they would like to. So it is
not the answer itself, but the way they answer that serves as the
indicator. It’s what they don’t
say or their hesitation that provides the tipoff they were less than
thrilled with your candidate.
Listen
for the speech inflection, the hesitation, or the reference’s
struggle to find the right word or term. Sometimes
they are working so hard at being diplomatic you can glean a more
negative appraisal. Sometimes, if prodded, they will tell you
a little more about the downside of your candidate.
Sometimes that won’t veer from the positive appraisal, but
while they don’t say it outright, there is something in the
way they answer that can tell you more than they had
wished. Or, they told you exactly what they wanted
to say, but with plausible deniability.
It
should be noted for the rare but embarrassing occasion that when you
get a reference contact information, make sure they are a legitimate
source. Either insist on the business phone number
as well as their cell number, or find some way to substantiate that the
reference isn’t your candidate’s cousin Larry
pretending he is the former CEO of Nonexistent Enterprises ready to
give your candidate a really great review. Think it
doesn’t happen? Think again.
But then you might weigh your candidate’s penchant for
duplicity against his daring and creative thinking. Just
kidding.
| Candidate
Name: |
|
| Reference
Name: |
|
| Reference
Title/Company: |
|
| Company
where they worked
together: |
|
| Relation
to Candidate: |
|
| Reference
Phone: |
|
| Confirm
Candidate’s
Title & Dates of Employment: |
|
| Did
the candidate report directly to you?
If not, what was your working
relationship? |
|
What
were this
person’s main
responsibilities?
a) What are this person’s
strengths?
b) What are some areas in which
this person can improve? |
|
| How
does this person work with
others? |
|
| In
what ways does he/she respond
to
stressful (high pressure) situations? |
|
| Did
he/she ever have a problem
with tardiness or
absenteeism? |
|
| What
advice would you give
his/her future manager in working with, and
motivating this person? |
|
| Would
you rehire this
person? If not,
why? |
|
| On a
scale of 1 to 10 (10 being
best), how would
you rate this person’s overall
performance? |
|
| Do
you have any additional
comments that you
feel would be helpful? |
|
Of
course there are variations upon the theme, so you can be resourceful
in choosing reference questions to fit your company’s
particular needs. Be uniform in composing these
questions. Otherwise, it becomes a cumbersome process, and
you can risk driving your researcher crazy. There is also the
issue of fairness and how it affects the rules governing employment
law. So be consistent.
Reference verifications can be a great tool for the pre-employment
screening process. It can be an effective background check, when you
use it wisely.
Gordon
Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in
pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He
has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the
entertainment industry, the financial, healthcare and technology
sectors. You can contact Gordon at 310-966-1556,
gordonb@corragroup.com
or
www.corragroup.com.
If
you would like additional information on this topic or others,
please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting
Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica,
CA
90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com
& our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.
Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services,
including in-depth personality assessments for new hires &
staff
development, team building, interpersonal & communication
training,
conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee
coaching.
Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to
reproduce any portion provided in this article. ©
2008.
The information contained in this article is not meant to be a
substitute for professional counseling.
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