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Why don't companies reference check?
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We are quite used to organizations taking short cuts with recruiting. What we don’t understand is why they would do this with such an important and potentially costly investment, but they do. Maybe they think they can do it on the fly because they are good at it. However, even if you are good, why not at least make a couple of calls to check your “gut feel”, or whatever else you are relying on, is right.
Before discussing reference checking we must first say we strongly advise using a systematic and thorough process for recruiting. This is an important exercise and getting the wrong person can be expensive. In summary, a rigorous process should include:
An updated Job Description clearly stating the results required and appropriate measures.
A list of goals which will be a measure of how good the recruitment exercise has been. For example, “after two months the successful candidate will have produced monthly accounts without supervision.”
A profile of the “must have” qualities of the successful candidate and clearly defined behaviours that would show they have these. For example, if they must be able to analyse accounts and make recommendations you need to ask about the last time they did this, exactly how they did it and what sort of recommendations they made and what the outcome was.
Advertising should include these factors so you can start to screen out the people who will not be eligible.
Telephone screening will also further screen out people when you ask them for these examples.
Your interview plan will include questions to ask about all these “must haves”.
Any testing or medical checks should be selected on the basis of adding value to your decision making on these key factors.
This brings us to reference checking. Even if you’ve been bold enough (or careless enough) to skip the rest of the process outlined above, you should at least check you are being told the truth and the candidate who has won you over is as good as he/she says they are.
Don’t rely on the references provided by the candidate. They are hardly going to give you the names of their most critical colleagues, managers, customers or suppliers. During the interview, as you listen to stories of their expertise and success, ask for the name and number of the person they reported to and if it is OK to call them. Do this early on, and often, and you will probably get answers to your questions that are bit closer to the facts than they would be otherwise.
Then call these people and ask them the same questions. “Tell me how he went about analysing the accounts. Tell me about the recommendations he made from that analysis. Can you tell me of some that were particularly useful? Did the recommendations get acted on? Was the process thorough?”
So why don’t companies reference check? Maybe they’re over confident. Maybe they’re too lazy. Maybe they’ve found traditional general reference checking of little value – and using the standard references provided may well be. Maybe they don’t know how. Few managers would buy a new piece of equipment or software costing tens of thousands of dollars a year without checking out other users yet they hire a person without equivalent checking.
Our recommendation is to recruit carefully and thoroughly. It is a good discipline to instil throughout an organization. It must include reference checking. For the price of a few phone calls, why would you skip this? If you do nothing else – at least make these calls and verify the information you collected at interview. It could save you a lot of money.
If you would like more information on a thorough and effective recruitment process, please contact us.
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