Previous posts have featured the bad things that happen when organizations either fail to check references, or only do a cursory job. If that wasn’t enough motivation, consider the benefits – successful reference checking gives you the ability to:
- Verify information gathered from interviews
- Gain additional insight into candidates from experiences and perceptions of others
- Obtain in-depth information about applicants’ past job performance and work habits
- Identify - and reject - individuals who are incompetent or have a history of work problems or chronic absenteeism
- Ferret out individuals who would be a poor fit for the job or the organization
- Realize rewards of increased productivity and reduced turnover
What’s not to like? Well, unfortunately the current system - using the telephone to corral a reference and ask a few factual questions - is basically broken, inefficient, and ineffectual. It can take multiple attempts over days to get hold of references who may or may not provide useful input.
“Yet even though it is often difficult or impossible to find out about an individual’s suitability for hire during the typical reference check,” Wendy Bliss points out, “employers must make the effort.”
Fortunately, the telephone is not the only option anymore. With new advances in technology, it is now not only possible, but practical to collect useful and actionable information from references, using Web-based reference checking.
At this point, virtually anyone seeking employment has Internet access – and so do the vast majority of references, particularly supervisors and managers who can provide the best information about a candidate’s prior performance. This means the difficulty in making contact with potential references via telephone disappears.
Using a Web-based reference checking system also overcomes other hurdles to making the reference checking process simple and efficient – including the reluctance of references to provide information for fear of litigation. A simple-to-obtain waiver on the part of the candidate releases the hiring company and the references from legal liability, and encourages references to give candid and truthful information.
A Web-based reference checking system provides a method of obtaining feedback from references that is objective, confidential, and consistent. The same questions are asked concerning all candidates for a given position, adding to the employer’s protection against accusations of discriminatory hiring practices.
Reference checking via telephone still has its place, to be sure – in the hands of a skilled interviewer, with a willing participant, and when very specific or detailed insights are needed. With a web-based system, however, much of the drudgery associated with telephone-based references can be averted.
So from the standpoint of both employers and references, there are easy and economical ways to address the legal concerns around effective reference checking, and answer the business and legal imperatives:
“It has now become the employer’s responsibility to gather information about a potential employee. If the employer chooses to hire an individual without checking his or her background, then the employer must be willing to accept the risk that if something goes wrong after that person has started working for the company, it may be held responsible.” Andler, Edward C., The Complete Reference Checking Handbook (AMACOM, 2003), p.60ff
That's all there is to it.
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