What Does a Neutral Reference Check Tell You?

When recruiting for an open position at your company, it can be hard to know who to hire. You’ll ultimately need to make the choice about which potential worker is going to be the best fit for your organization.

One of the most important ways in which you can determine whether a worker is a good hire or not is to talk with past employers who have first-hand knowledge of the worker’s skills and work ethic. A reference check can be an important tool in finding out if a worker is qualified, but you need to know what to ask and how to interpret the outcome. These tips can help you to make sure you get the information you need from a neutral reference check:

• Ask the right questions. You want to solicit as much useful information as you can about the employee. This means verifying when they worked, what his or her role was, and what skills the employee used. You can use the information obtained from this type of reference check to make sure an employee isn’t lying about experience. Be sure to ask if the employee would be rehired and find out why or why not. If a past employer says he wouldn’t take a candidate back, this is a big red flag.

• Talk to the right people. You want to talk with a direct manager or supervisor of the potential job candidate to find out more about how well the candidate worked and whether he or she was a team player. If there were multiple parties who worked closely with the candidate who is applying for the position in your business, you may wish to speak with several to get more insight into what the potential employee can really bring to the table.

• Evaluate the information with a critical eye. Did the reference you spoke to seem genuine? What was the tone? And, was a lot of substantiating information offered? Sometimes, references are not always honest, as employers can give false positive reviews to get rid of bad workers and avoid potential defamation claims, or can give false negative reviews to try to keep a good worker.

• Don’t use reference checks as your only resource. Consider a variety of factors, with the reference information serving only as one key data point in a wider range of metrics used to measure whether a candidate is right for the job.

A reference check is helpful, but nothing beats working with an experienced staffing company when recruiting. talentcorner has the reputation and background your business needs to help you find the best workers who will make a contribution to your company’s success.