When you’re faced with choosing between several candidates for a vacancy, or need to hire numerous candidates quickly, checking references can seem like a drain on time and resources. If your organization’s hiring process doesn’t routinely include checking references, it may be because your idea of due diligence is more diligent than duly. Here are four reasons why you should check references, along with ways to streamline the process.
Ask and You Shall Receive
Checking references should begin with just that – a closer look at the references candidates supply. To ensure you’re getting information you can use, make sure the form you give candidates asks for what you need to evaluate references at face value. Ask candidates to identify whether the reference is professional or personal, whether the reference and the candidate have ever been employed by the same organization, and why the reference is qualified to speak to the candidate’s qualifications for the position.
Beware the Co-Workers Only References
If a candidate’s reference list has no former supervisors listed at all, that’s a huge red flag. There may be a perfectly good reason why – the candidate is applying for her first job or the candidate is still employed by her supervisor – but it bears scrutiny, and if the candidate is hesitant to offer a good reason, then you may want to look for another candidate.
You Can Learn a Lot in a Little Time
HR departments have made giving and checking references a touchy situation. You may be tempted to skip checking a candidate’s references if you know that the organization’s HR department has warned supervisors about revealing anything more than the basic facts of the candidate’s employment history. But there’s a wealth of information in these basic facts, and you can learn a lot from the reference’s tone. References who seem hesitant or evasive may be telling you volumes about a candidate without saying much at all.
Past Performance is Often the Best Indicator of Future Performance
No matter how great a candidate may seem on paper, the truth is, the best indicator of how the candidate will perform in your organization is how they performed in a similar environment in the past. When you ask references questions about the applicant’s knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as their work behaviors, you’re likely to get a good idea of how they will perform in the job.
Simply don’t have time to screen every single candidate? Delegate the duty by working with Staffing Partners to hire temporary and temp-to-hire candidates who’ve been prescreened. Contact Staffing Partners’ employment experts today to see how you can simplify the hiring process in your organization.
