Doing a Reference Check: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

“It is wiser to find out than to suppose.”

- Mark Twain, American Writer

As an employer, there might be different facets to the hiring process that you might be responsible for. However, one of the most important objectives of all those activities is to find the best employees possible. A part of accomplishing that is research. You need to do a little homework on who they are, where they came from, the kind of work they do and so on. This is where a good old reference check comes in handy!

Many companies and employers alike use reference checking as a tool to dive into the work history of candidates to see if they fit the role. However, there is a lot more to it than just checking someone’s resume. If you know what to ask, who to ask and how to go about it, a reference check can work wonders for your end recruitment result. In this blog, we will cover a step-by-step reference check that will give you the best results possible. Before we dive into it, you need to remember these are only the core steps that we are going to cover. You might need to add or modify steps according to your specific needs or circumstances.

Reference Check Step #1: Verify the Candidate's Identity

The first item on the agenda when conducting a reference check process; verify that the candidate is who they claim to be. Yes, this may seem quite obvious in hindsight, but you never know if you will be able to weed out the dishonest candidates in the batch.

When you are reaching out to the previous employer, make sure to ask very specific questions. Ask about the candidate’s name, title at the previous company, dates of employment and whatever else basic information you require. Think of this as the background verification part of the process to make sure that this candidate is qualified to undergo the recruitment process. You don’t want to waste all your company’s time and resources taking them through the recruitment steps, only to find out that they didn’t even work at the capacity they claimed in the first place.

The words of the reference carry only as much weight as the credibility of the reference themselves.

Reference Check Step #2: Verify the Reference's Relationship with the Candidate

Typically speaking, one would have to deal with professional references. This is what candidates would usually provide. However, in today’s changing job market and cultural fit requirements, even personal references are sometimes taken into consideration. With this being the case, the scope for error and false information grows. It is up to you to verify who these references are. Ask them how they know the candidate in question.

Once you know their relationship to the candidate, you can easily cross-verify the authenticity of the reference provided. This adds value and weight to the information the reference provides concerning the candidate. All these factors make this an important junction in the reference check process.

Reference Check Step #3: Gauge the Candidate's Fit

Now onto the whole point of this reference check– to find out if the candidate is a good fit for the company. Use your time wisely, especially if you are talking with references over the phone. Not many will be inclined to talk to you, and even fewer might be inclined to give you all the answers you need. So, every question has to be geared towards finding out if the candidate is a good fit for your company.

Explain the scope of the job to the reference and ask if they think the candidate is a good fit for that role. If they give you vague answers or hesitate, then it may be an indicator that the candidate might not be the one you are looking for. Remember, silence speaks volumes in the face of an investigation.

"Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought."

- Albert Szent-Gyrogyi, Hungarian Biochemist

Reference Check Step #4: Ask the Reference to Rank the Candidate

No doubt you will have to have a variety of questions ready for the reference check conversation. Some questions may be more open-ended than others, but the essential idea is to get an understanding of the person behind the resume. Having said that, one of the best ways to get an idea is to ask the references to rank the candidate on a scale of 1 to 10.

Asking them to rank candidates this way forces them to think more deeply about the number as it will represent a lot of what they have to say about the person. Now don’t be fooled when someone ranks someone a 10 out of 10. No one is that perfect, nor can they be. If they rank them suspiciously high, ask some follow up questions as to why they would claim that number. The same applies if references rank candidates very low.

Reference Check Step #5: Find out about Strengths and Weaknesses

Here is where you cut straight to the chase. At this point, you want to point-blank ask for reference about the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, you need to know if this person will fit into the company dynamic. Being straightforward with this will give you clear cut answers that you can use to determine the final verdict. This is more about identifying growth opportunities than anything else, with the added benefit of knowing your possible future employee better.

A candidate's work character is just as important as their work history.

Reference Check Step #6: Don't Overlook Behaviour

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Reference Checks Vs. Employment Verifications: Weighing Your Options

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

- Milton Berle, American comedian

If you have ever been involved in the recruitment process, you might have heard the terms reference checking and employment verification being used interchangeably. However, this is a common misconception. While both can be used to verify an employee or candidate’s employment history, they are vastly different in how they are carried out. Quite simply, reference checks have more versatility to them. In this blog, we will explore what these two modes of verification are, how they function and how you as an employer can use them to leverage the best results.

What is Reference Checking?

A reference check comes as part of a standard hiring process. This is when the candidate in question provides the hiring manager with contacts that can attest to his or her abilities. These can be personal or professional, though it is often the latter. Reference checks give hiring managers an idea about the candidate’s work history, responsibilities, performance and even workplace behaviour.

Essentially, you can attain a wide range of information about the candidate that ties into their physical performance and work history as well as abstract metrics such as behaviour, workplace etiquette, work standards and so on.

What is Employment Verification?

Now, where the reference check allows for a wide range of data collection points, the employment verification is a little more boxed in. This is where a prospective employer or future employer gets in touch with the previous employer. They will then confirm job-specific facts like the job title, start and end dates, the reason for leaving or why they were terminated (if that is the case).

Reference checks offer more variety and help you assess the candidate's different facets. This better suits the needs of the modern workplace.

Reference Checks Vs. Employment Verification

Before we get into how you can leverage reference checking; we need to understand the key similarities and differences between a reference check and employment verification. When it comes to a reference check or employment verification, it generally happens over a call, sometimes an email. The recruiter or hiring manager asks questions relating to the candidate’s productivity, communication skills, success points, attendance, cultural fit, and other metrics that point to their strengths and weaknesses.

As we mentioned before, employment verification is a little more straightforward. The line of questioning is a little more limited to the job roles and such. Don’t get the wrong idea though, this is a tried-and-true method that will give you the answers you want, but only for validating that the candidate worked at the company, for how long and at what capacity.

If you’re looking for more of a feedback or review based answer on how they performed and what they are like to have as an employee, then a reference check is your best bet. Having said that, both methods are common to a head with a common obstacle, which is the struggle to get unbiased or full information from the phone calls.

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often."

- Winston Churchill, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Why Is It So Hard to Get Information via Phone Calls?

Regardless of the path you take, as the hiring manager, you will often run into one of two problems. One, you might face time constraints and two, referees may be unwilling to answer. Let’s be honest, calling around about a single employee to multiple sources is a time-consuming affair. Half of the time, most of the referees won’t be willing to speak to you either. This will severely limit the amount and quality of information that you get from these calls.

Another common issue with either process is that traditional reference checks happen so late in the game. Usually, they take place towards the end of the hiring process. By that time, it becomes more of an exercise in futility- a formality. The information you get at that stage won’t make much of a difference unless it is something significant, given that the company has already invested so much time and effort into recruiting said candidate.

Methods for Leveraging Reference Checks

Now that we have a basic understanding of how the two methods function, it’s time to turn our attention to the reference checks. This is the more versatile of the two and can potentially give you a candidate’s full professional history if done right. So, let’s get into it!

Tip #1 Ask the Right Questions

When you’re conducting the reference check, make sure to line up the questions in such a way that it correlates with key hiring decisions. Some of the best questions will challenge what you initially assumed about the candidate’s characteristics during the initial rounds of the interview. You could set them to target specific things such as communication skills, critical thinking and so on.

Use a simple question such as: How well did he or she communicate in high-stress collaborative situations? This will reveal volumes about a person and give you valuable feedback on how they worked in a team, independently and under pressure. If these factors coincide with your hiring values, then it will help you make an informed decision about the actual hire.

Keeping a uniform baseline is one of the best things you can do when comparing reference check data of candidates.

Tip #2 Break It up into Stages

You will want to structure the recruitment and reference check process into several stages. This will help you set a standardized baseline that avoids unwanted bias. It is especially helpful when you have a large volume of candidates to check. There are a few things that we recommend you focus on when standardizing. First of all, the questions have to be standardized. Have a common set of questions on hand that can be asked for all candidates’ referees. This will give you a healthy measure to make a comparison with later.

The next thing you want to standardize is the criteria for acceptable references. At what level or rank should the referee be in the previous company? Are referees outside of the workplace acceptable referees? This will help you cut down on the sheer number of references and focus on the ones you need. It will also set the stage for the next issue, which is identifying the credibility of the referee. Make sure that the information you get is from a proper source. Lastly, we recommend that you have a fixed time limit for the amount of time you dedicate for each reference check. As we mentioned before, it can be a time-consuming process. So, make it count!

Tip #3 Do It Early in the Process

It may be an outdated practice to have reference checks done towards the end of the recruitment process, yet it is still common. It is a common misconception that this is just for verification purposes, therefore it can be done at the end as it doesn’t yield much information. However, a reference check can raise major red flags when done right and does factor into the final hiring decision.

The best time to do it is immediately after the first few rounds of the interview. Do it before you invest too much time and effort into any one candidate. It will tell you if it is worth pursuing. You can also do it intermittently throughout the process to verify and investigate the candidate’s claims as the recruitment process goes on. The point is to catch any red flags early on, or as soon as possible.

Tip #4 Automation is Your Best Friend

Phone calls are the traditional method of doing these reference checks, however, automated reference checking is far better. Given the nature of automated reference checks, referees are more likely to answer honestly and fully. Since everything is online, there is not much room for human bias and it’s a massive time-saver for everyone involved. This eliminates the need for the hiring manager to play phone tag with candidate referees and gives you more time to focus on the rest of the recruitment process. This is why we here at Credibled offer you such an extensive, automated reference check!