After going through rounds and rounds of interviews, you’ve finally narrowed it down to the best available candidate. You’re ready to make an offer, but you just want to do your due diligence and conduct reference checks to make sure your assessments about the candidate is correct.
Here are a few tips to ensure that you can maximize your time with your candidate’s professional references and to get the right information about your candidate:
1) Make sure the professional reference is aware they are being contacted
In most cases, the candidates would have identified who their professional references are and will provide you with their contact information. It is important for both confidential and professional reasons that both the candidate and their references are aware that you will be calling to get a professional reference. If email contacts are provided, you can also send an email to the professional references to confirm a time with them to do the reference check before calling.
2) Make sure you are well prepared to conduct the reference check
Those who agree to be a professional reference have no obligations and are voluntarily doing so to assist in the hiring process for the candidate their providing the reference for. As such, be professional and be well-prepared to conduct the reference check as efficiently and effectively as possible so that you do not waste any of their time. Ensure that you have a list of relevant questions and explain properly the role that the candidate is interviewing for so that they can use their professional judgement on how to respond to your questions.
3) Ask direct questions that require direct response
Be direct in your questions as you are trying to get the most accurate information about the candidate. People do not know your agenda, nor would they know what information you’re trying to find out about the candidate. Don’t ask questions that makes the professional references guess as to what you’re trying to ask them. The more direct the questions, the more precise and quicker you’ll get the information you need.
4) Ask the same thing in different ways
And no matter how direct your questions may be, you may still find that the professional references aren’t really giving you the answer that you’re looking for. It is important to remember again that they may not know what you’re trying to ask and in order to get the answers you’re looking for, you may need to ask the same question multiple times and to ask in a different way each time to get the full picture.
5) Do not ask any questions that they are not comfortable in answering
And under no circumstances should you ask and / or pursue any questions in an unprofessional manner. Do not ask any personal questions about the candidate or mislead in anyway for the professional reference to make any answers or responses that you’re trying to get out of them.
Here are a few questions that you may have missed on your list of questions to ask about your candidate:
1) Confirm duration of employment and role & responsibilities
One of the reasons we do a reference check is to ensure that the information we have been given is truthful and accurate. Often, we just assume that candidates are telling the truth and we skip pass some very basic details such as the duration of their employment, their job title, and their responsibilities. It doesn’t take very long to ask, and by doing so confirms the candidate’s experience.
2) Highlight past Accomplishments
There is nothing as reassuring as concrete examples of accomplishments. Make sure you ask about relevant accomplishments that the candidate may have achieved in the past that would prove value to the position that they are interview for. Having such accomplishments validates their skills and abilities and an indication that they can do the same in the future.
3) Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
In most cases, a professional reference is usually a former or current, supervisor or manager of the candidate and one of their responsibilities is to objectively evaluate the candidate’s professional and work performance. As such, they are the ones who can best identify the strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement for the candidate. Compare that to the candidate’s response to the same questions will confirm the answers and indicates how well the candidates know themselves (or how truthful they are about they abilities).
4) What are Areas for Improvement
It is also a good question to ask what areas of improvement that they would have liked to see the candidate make to further advance their skills and experience. Depending on how long ago it was that the professional reference had worked with the candidate, you can see whether the candidate have since proven to improve in those area or they have not improved at all since.
5) Eligibility for Re-hire and Recommendation
This is one that we don’t think twice about, but it is an important one. Some professional references are giving a reference as a favour, or out of professional courtesy. We do not know their reasons and by asking this simple question, we will know whether their glaring endorsement about a candidate is true if they themselves would also re-hire the candidate themselves and recommend them to others.
The opportunity to speak with someone who has working experience with a potential candidate is very precious. By keeping these few tips and pointers in mind when preparing yourself to speak with a professional reference, you will be able to maximize your time speaking with them and gather as much information as you need to make an informed decision on a candidate.
Contact us today to speak with one of our Recruitment Specialists and let us help you build your team with talent today!