by Johanna Wirth
Veteran HR professionals know good employees aren't
necessarily good at job interviews. Likewise, good interviewees
don't necessarily make for good employees.
Given that, it is absolutely essential to do a
reference check on all potential hires.
Candidates don't always know precisely what you
are looking for and often generalize about their skills and experience.
On the
other hand, many candidates exaggerate about their background, and
some mislead or outright lie.
Unfortunately, few job interviewers are trained
to determine if the candidate can do the work the employer needs.
Job interviewing is really a skill and all too often interviewers
simply ask a lot of questions in hopes the candidate will give the
right answers. To the rescue is reference-checking, which, if done
right, can produce the answers the job interview failed to produce
-- greatly increasing the likelihood that you will hire the best
person for the job.
Get Specific
The best indicator of a job candidate's future
performance is past performance. What you want -- from both the
interview and the reference check -- are specific, tangible examples
of past performance. The focus of a job interview, therefore, should
be to get examples of the candidate's best work in a variety of
different areas.
Look for technical expertise, managing people,
commitment to the job, responding to pressure. Try to get the candidate
to provide examples of their ability to do the work across the wider
demands of the job.
During the interview, push beyond vague, general
answers. The more specific and targeted your questions, the more
you'll learn about the candidate's qualifications. If the candidate
says they did their best work while working on project XYZ, find
out exactly what the project involved, what their role was, how
the project worked out, who their supervisor was.
Conducting the Reference Check
Following the job interview, you need to get the
other side of the story. Consider doing the following:
Don't settle for generalities when you speak with
a candidate's former employer. If you ask, "What kind of a
guy is Joe," you'll be told, "Well, Joe is a great guy."
But you won't know more than you did before. Instead, say, "Joe
tells me he managed the XYZ project. Please tell me in your own
words what the project involved and about the role Joe played. Was
he a good manager? How did he work with other people? How well did
he handle pressure?"
Don't let the reference-provider get away with
value judgments, such as, "Joe is a hard worker." Push
for examples of why that value judgment was made. "Why do you
think Joe was a hard worker? Why do you think Joe has good team
skills? Can you provide examples to validate those judgments?"
When it comes to checking references, you can
ask any reasonable question you want. There are few legal hurdles
to checking out a job candidate with anyone you choose to ask but
there are some restrictions on what references can tell you, though.
Most employers fear giving out negative information
about a job candidate.
Many states have passed laws shielding reference
providers from legal action by former employees. But in none of
these states is the protection from lawsuit unconditional, so many
companies maintain stringent reference-giving policies. And that
usually means not saying anything even remotely negative when a
reference checker calls.
Keep in mind that companies fear legal action
for giving out derogatory information about a past employee. If
you run into resistance when you check a reference, that alone is
a clue that Joe's work may not be all he said it was.
Experts concur that the only candidates who can't
provide checkable references are candidates who were average or
worse.
You can work around the reluctance to say negative
things by asking carefully worded questions such as "on an
overall summary of the candidate's competency on a scale of 0 to
10, Joe rates where?"
Going the Extra Mile
You can also do a complete background verification
of a candidate for nominal cost of between $75 and $150. That covers
academic-degree verification, employment verification, credit verification
and a criminal background check.
Also, it may be appropriate, and sometimes necessary,
to look beyond the references the candidate has provided to get
a truly unbiased appraisal. After checking a reference you may want
to ask if there is someone else who knows Joe and then be referred
to another person in the group who worked with Joe.
Word of Caution: Be mindful about who you
contact -- especially if the candidate is currently employed. Letting
others know the candidate is looking for another job is definitely
a breach of confidence. But done selectively and discreetly, you
will gain important additional information about the candidate.
Johanna Wirth is a Boston-based business writer.
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