Employers: Top Tips for Checking References

Employers: Top Tips for Checking References
By John Chambers

In the race to find the ideal candidate for your life sciences position, experts warn against rushing past the opportunity to delve deeper into an applicant's past.

Checking a candidate’s references is a necessary element of any hiring process and there can be a wrong and right way to do it.

"There is no predictor of future behavior like past behavior" The Chronicle of Higher Education noted in an article this year. “There is no better source of information on past behavior than an eyewitness.”

The news outlet suggests tips to ensure these sources are reliable, such as placing each reference’s feedback in context, acknowledging risks associated with candidate contacts, and listening closely to the way references phrase feedback. Media and e-commerce resource AllBusiness recommends conducting an employee background check and offers nine other ways to learn the most about an applicant’s professional history:

• Tell each candidate of your intentions to check his or her references
• Ask applicants to sign a release form stating you will be speaking with their past employers
• Fax a copy of the release and your own credentials to references before contacting them
• Verify basic candidate information with each reference
• Avoid vague questions
• Pay attention to less-than-positive feedback
• Cautiously weigh glowing references
• Focus on speaking with former supervisors and coworkers instead of a candidate’s current colleagues
• Do not rely on verbal confirmation of past salaries. Politely request documentation

Content resource About.com recommends creating a standard document that can be forwarded to or discussed with references, including questions that pertain to candidate strengths, weaknesses, working relationships, and whether or not a reference would rehire the applicant.

About.com insists a standard procedure helps ensure hiring mangers ask the right questions especially considering some companies limit their employees to only offering references that disclose position, salary and dates of employment. Other information about candidates is not shared in case there is any potential a former employee could sue for slander. This has led some companies in parts of the United States to seek legal protection in case they are asked to provide references.

Successfully contacting references often comes down to training, About.com says. “Before you turn your managers loose on reference checking, however, training in how to check references is required. Since you never get a second chance, particularly with the candidate's former manager, doing it right the first time is paramount,” the Web site states.

In the end, The Chronicle of Higher Education notes checking references is still only one part of an often detailed hiring process.

“ … The key is to see references as a part of a human process, with all the glorious positives and infuriating negatives so associated. They can never be more perfect than the people who offer them.”