Most human resource managers today are limited to providing only the basics for employment verification. Fear of litigation nullifies anything that may be deemed subjective or, more considerably, litigious.
Conducting the formal employment verification will typically return little more than the date your candidate started employment, the date he left, and the position he held. You will often find yourself lacking the input needed to make an informed hiring decision. Once in a while, the HR Manager will be adventurous and respond that your candidate was in good standing.
Human Resources Principle
In fact, at the writing of this article, there was a radio program where the show’s commentator reinforced this principle. The commentator admonished Human Resources Personnel that there is as much danger in providing a positive reference as there is in providing one that is negative. He went on to say it is important to keep all employment verifications as uniform as possible. He suggested providing only the start date, completion date, and the position held.
Reference Verifications
Reference verifications can be best used to discern the skill sets of your job candidate. Recruiters will employ the reference check to determine if their candidates are qualified in special skills and experience. You may call upon references to define a job candidate’s level of IT skills, or his fluency with general and industry-specific software programs. You may wish to better understand his abilities in graphic and web design, which can provide essential considerations.
As a recruiter, you may want to know more about your candidate’s networking capabilities, who he knows in his industrial sector. If he is a salesperson, you may know just how well connected he is in, say, licensing products in certain geographic regions. For international candidates, when language capability is a concern, you can use the reference verification to help assess these abilities.
Candidate Things
Always bear in mind the reference that your job candidate supplies you, will be a favorable reference. No candidate in his right mind would give you references that would go out of their way to sink his ship. Sometimes the reference may not find the candidate as favorable as the candidate would like to believe.
While the reference wants to be a good person, they may also want to divulge the more negative aspects as well. There is a number of reasons for doing so. Sometimes they wish to give you a heads up. Sometimes there are personal issues. Sometimes they are just covering their butts.
Verdict
The reference may not tell you directly that the candidate is tough to deal with or is someone who they would never hire again. Yet they would like to. So it is not the answer itself, but the way they answer that serves as the indicator. It’s what they don’t say or their hesitation that provides the tipoff they were less than thrilled with your candidate.