The Real Purpose for Checking References

As with many hiring managers today they are checking references the same way they have been for the last 50 years.

This comment is valid if you are going to do the standard reference check. You know, the one that asks the same questions Moses asked when he checked references. Such as:

• Would you rehire them?
• Do they communicate well?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• What are their technical skills?
• How would you compare them on a scale of 1 to 10 to their peers?

I’m sure you have different questions to ask, so please don’t reply to me with your favorite reference checking questions as that isn’t the purpose of this article.  That may be another article for discussion.

This one is on the purpose for checking references, not the questions to ask. Why even conduct a reference check if the question in the first paragraph is valid? Why take the time since you know what the person is going to say?

Our contention is that the list of reference checking questions above are nice things to know, and these are not bad questions, but they don’t get to the heart of why one should conduct reference checks. Here’s why you should check references, “What percentage of candidates do you believe embellish or exaggerate during the hiring process?” If you immediately thought of a number higher than 10% then that is the reason for doing reference checking.

Reference checking should be used to validate that what the candidate told you during the interview was something they really did do and that they did it to the extent they described during the interview. That is what you want to obtain from a reference, because if  the candidate is embellishing or misleading, all the other questions are irrelevant. You should not hire them. If they aren’t embellishing or misleading, then the other questions become relevant.

Reference checking is part of the validation step of a good hiring process (such as our Success Factor Methodology). Hiring managers need to validate that what candidates tell them during the interview is true. One way to do this is by talking to a reference and asking them about what the candidate told you during the interview. You can ask the reference, “Mary mentioned to me that she was the lead person implementing the new system in North America. Can you describe for me her role and what she accomplished in this implementation?” Does the reference’s story match up to what the candidate said? Do the time frames agree? Does the reference validate the outcome, the scope of the project, the scope of what Mary did, the budget, the challenges, etc?

If it does, Mary didn’t embellish. If it doesn’t, then you have a decision to make.