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Career Guides Career Corporate Human Resources Training & Development Knowledge Managment Time Management Stress Management Sponsors Ezboard IS Community-Supported Communities. Support us and your communities. In order for communities to thrive and grow, they need the support of their members. and we rely on both the support of our users and the support of advertisers to provide these invaluable services to you. Please help keep this site banner free by clicking here. Affiliates A Premier Provider of Management Consultant & Training Solutions. A Pocket PC Unified Body of Individuals in Singapore.		Reference Checking Overkill The president of my company recently began insisting that recruiters get six or seven reference checks for each candidate. Most people barely provide three people as references, and it sometimes takes days to contact them. We have lost out on fantastic candidates because they accept another offer during our weeklong reference check process. What can I say to the president to get him to lighten up and just do some hiring? Believe it or not, there can be such a thing as too many references. It's more important to get the right references rather than a number of marginally useful ones. That way, you'll have better information on which to base a hiring decision. You should check a minimum of three references; select those names with care, insuring that they have worked closely with the candidate and have thorough knowledge of his job responsibilities and performance level. There is a strong preference to supervisors, but subordinates, coworkers and clients can be added to the mix. The number of references may vary depending on the work history and the type of information you need to make a solid decision on the candidate. Covering the past seven to ten years of a work history is a good guideline and will allow you to track a candidate's performance and career progression and also to identify any patterns, reoccurring problems or issues. There is validity to the issues you mentioned in terms of time constraints and availability of references. Review your upfront process to make sure you have all the necessary information from your candidates -- the right contact names, best times to call, etc. Put the burden on the candidate to produce the names of people you want to talk to, rather than accepting a list of names and numbers from them and finding out later they are personal references, business and golfing buddies, etc. Get three relevant references to start with and if the information provided is positive, thorough and jives with the application information, work history, and what the candidate told you in the interview -- you probably have a winner. However, if concerns are raised or red flags appear, you will need additional references to confirm or dispute the issues. Using more references ends up being repetitive, time consuming and offers nothing new to a reference report. My recommendation is to come up with a new upfront process to show the president. Let him know that you understand the importance of reference checks and will contact only the most relevant references -- people who have supervised and worked directly with your candidates. By doing this, you will also benefit by streamlining your process. Develop a separate reference information form and include a waiver with it. On the form, request four to five names of work related references and use three references as your screening criteria. If questions are left unanswered or more info is needed, then go to extra references. Remind your recruiters to be as thorough as possible in the reference interviews -- ask all follow up questions, don't let anything slide, don't take things at face value, etc. Develop a more in depth format for references interviews. Tell your president that your recruiters go straight to the sources that know the candidate best and leave no stone unturned in checking references. < Back >		Updates HR Professionals Guide Training & Development Guide Manager's Trouble Shooting Guide Series Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Selling Series HR Management Practises Series Featured Communities BIK & Associated A Premier Training & Management Provider in Training & Development Workshops. PPCSG.Org A Web Forum for the Techno Gadgets Trend Followers. Lots of Informative and Guides for your Pocket PC.
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