#TalentAttraction #Tuesday – Reference Checks? So Last Decade!

By RecruiterGuy | July 14, 2020

Whoa! Is your company the same company complaining that you cannot find new employees who fit your culture?

What happens when a company skips a couple of due diligence steps during an acquisition? Most often, after the acquisition, they discover information they wish they acquired during the due diligence they cut short.

Yes. I know Corporate Counsel counsels Human Resources that conducting reference checks puts your company at risk. Want to know some bad news? EVERYTHING a company does puts it at risk!

Truly. Build a product. Someone uses it unexpectedly and gets hurt. Provide a service. The client only utilizes what they want to hear. The result is poor results. A manager asks illegal interview questions because they were not taught how to interview effectively by your Human Resource staff. Your company can be sued any day by any person. The question is whether that person will win – or not.

What Is The Purpose of an Effective Reference Check?

Reference checks are as old as recruiting and new hire selection. In the days past, companies were smaller. A manager who considered hiring someone from another company would simply call the other manager to question that person on the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

The purpose is much greater than the practice followed by many companies – verify dates of employment and titles. Managers perceive this practice of “reference checking” as little value to them.

A true reference check is an Interview. Unless the candidate is an hourly worker, a reference check is an interview to discover whether the candidate has the requisite skills and experience to succeed in the position. How accurate are your job descriptions? This is how the interviewer determines whether the candidate is a good skills/experience fit. Make sense?

If you have not read my Talent Attraction Tuesday blog, this may be a good time to review – https://recruiterguy.com/talentattraction-tuesday-the-lowly-misunderstood-job-description

In a minute, we will discuss the cultural fit aspect.

What Happens When a Company Skips Reference Checking?

Four times during my recruitment career, I called a reference and told them who used their name as a reference. In all four instances, the potential reference burst out laughing! I thought, “This is not going to go well!” And I was correct.

On one of those calls, the Manager told me that she “fired the Candidate two weeks ago!” Isn’t that statement valuable information? The candidate had strong Programmer/Analyst skills. She just had this little personality flaw. If your company’s policy is not to conduct reference interviews, you will miss this person’s flaw and learn after 6 months or so her/his fatal flaw – AFTER doing damage to your team. Is the cost worth skipping Reference Checks?

Who Should Conduct Reference Checks?

Let us get this off the table immediately! Not Human Resources (nor me)! Why? Because we know a little about many positions, but not a lot about this ONE. Therefore, many references will send a little flag up during the discussion – and we may not recognize what the reference meant.

The Hiring Manager should be taught how to effectively interview the references. They will know if they see the flag the reference sent up.

Once on one of my recruiting/consulting contracts, I worked with a Hiring Manager. The Vice President permitted me to train his Internal Audit Manager to effectively conduct reference checks.

I recruited several IT Audit candidates for her and phone screened all three. During my phone screens, it is my practice to force rank candidates based on my understanding of the position and the team. In this situation, the manager selected my second candidate. She knew her position/team better than me – no problem.

I coached her on how to conduct a reference check. She protested saying she was sure the candidate was fine.

With my encouragement, on Monday she conducted the first reference check. She called me immediately. She complained that this was a waste of time! The reference said what she expected. I thanked her for following up and encouraged her to make the next call tomorrow.

After the second reference check, she called me. “This is a Waste of Time!”. They gave her what she was expecting to hear. I congratulated her for conducting both references. Then I encouraged her to complete the last reference check in the spirit of Internal Audit. She growled…and then agreed to make the call the next day.

The next day she called me. Instead of being upset, she was Excited! I could not wait to hear why. She said, “I was thanking the reference for their time. Then a question popped into my head. I asked the reference if he minded if I asked one more question. His response made me decide not to hire that candidate.” This is the reason a company needs to commit to conducting reference checks. Think of the cost of hiring the wrong candidate! This is also the reason the best person to conduct a Reference Check is the Hiring Manager.

“Hiring Managers Don’t Want To Check References!”

I wish I had $10 every time I’ve heard that quote or variation thereof in the past 39 years! Of course, they do not want something added to their desk!

This is how I handle this objection.

In his book, “Topgrading…” by Brad Smart, he classifies employees into three categories – A-Players, B-Players, and C-Players. The A-Players are the top 10%. The A-Player manager will do all of the due diligence to ensure their candidate is also an A-Player or may be mentored to that level. The B-Player is generally gathered in the 50% to 80% level. They will be okay – “Steady Eddies or Ediths” – and earn compensation deserving at that level. The C-Players are threatened by direct reports stronger than they. I ask, “Do you view yourself as an A-Player or a C-Player?”

Hint – they Always want to be listed in the top 10%.

I congratulate them. Then discuss our strategy for referencing checking, including offering to join them on the call.

What Should We Do Next?

The first step is to discuss the importance of reference checking with the Executives. Mention the cost of a poor hire (Next week’s topic). Then develop buy-in from the executives that managers will conduct reference checks after they have been coached on conducting proper Reference Check Interviews.

These are two Improvement Suggestions:

Before allowing ANYONE (including Human Resource staff) to interview candidates, require they pass interview training or a refresher course once every two years.
Before allowing ANYONE to conduct a Reference check, require they pass training.

Magic Reference Check Questions

After creating questions to determine if the candidate has the requisite skills and experience, consider asking the following questions for professional candidates. These questions may give you a sense for the person’s cultural fit:

If I were Jane’s Manager, how would I best manage her?
What frustrates Joe?
How does he show his frustration?
What do you feel is Olivia’s top strength relative to this position?
Where do you feel Olivia needs to improve?
What do you feel I need to watch for? (open-ended question that is surprisingly effective at the end!)

The RecruiterGuy.com Talent Attraction business model is my differentiator. I focus on one client at a time and charge a flat monthly fee. This model enables me to attract new talent to your organization while identifying and suggesting improvements to your company’s Talent Attraction process, including Manager Interview Training. https://recruiterguy.com/

Learn how I coach my Career Transition Clients in my most recent book – Employee 5.0: Secrets Of A Successful Job Search In The New World Order http://amzn.to/2D9w39f My book includes an appendix with sample interview questions.

I help organizations Recruit, Onboard, Actuate, and Retain Top Talent.

See you on Tuesdays!

Bill Humbert is available for Speaking, Talent Attraction Consulting, and Training contracts.

Bill@RecruiterGuy.com 435-714-4425

https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/speaker/profile/23767/Bill-Humbert

USA 01-435-714-4425 Bill@RecruiterGuy.com

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