SelectOne Blog

Reference Checks: To Do or Not To Do?

You have sorted through a pile of resumes, scheduled and conducted first, second, third and sometimes even a 4th round of interviews, and are finally ready to make that coveted candidate an offer. But wait – there is one thing left to check off the to do list – one that in the opinion of many is a completely useless task – the dreaded reference check!

Hiring is hard enough as it is and is fraught with numerous decisions such as:

  • How do I find the right candidates?
  • What is the right salary range?
  • Who should be involved in the interview process?
  • How do I schedule all the candidates to fit into the calendar of what is usually many internal interviewers?
  • What questions do I ask?
  • Do I conduct behavioral or traditional interviews?
  • How do I onboard the right person to make sure they have a good experience?

These decisions are all part of your hiring process and if done properly should provide a platform for vetting the candidate vs. your needs. They are all extremely time consuming and provide an appropriate level of value to the process. So, why would you complicate things at the end of your process by conducting reference checks on your final candidates – a task that many feel adds no value to the process?

What follows is a few points on why reference checks are useless, and why they should be eliminated form your next hiring process.

  • We live in a litigious society and the majority of companies will instruct all references to be funneled to HR where they simply confirm basic facts on the candidate. (Dates of employment, job title). Companies fear that anything negative can be construed as a basis for litigation and as a result are hesitant to do anything other than confirm dates of employment. So, even if the person doing the reference check digs deep and is persistent, chances are it’s unlikely you will get any groundbreaking information out of the call.
  • References (if more than dates of employment) almost always are good. In my 15+years as a recruiter, I have never been exposed to a bad reference that knocked a candidate out of contention for a job. Most candidates will never list a reference they don’t trust to give them a strong recommendation.
  • Most people use a reference as a final check, and thus have an inherent need to validate their assumptions about a candidate. While they may call on a reference and ask cursory questions about them, they are likely unwilling to risk the significant time commitment that was put into the search by multiple members of the hiring team by digging deep into a candidates’ past (even if they are allowed by the referencing party).

Finding out information about a candidates work habits, behavior, and technical skills is of course a critically important part of any hiring process. Just make sure you uncover this information during your interview process and don’t wait until the reference stage to do it. If you do, it will likely be too late.

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