The demand for results in the fast-paced world of recruiting has given way to requirements for quicker returns of Reference Checks. What used to have an industry standard of a 5-7-day turnaround is now needed in 2-3 days or less.  The norm in today’s marketplace is for applicants to provide the names and contact information for references that are to be contacted as part of the Reference Check process. By having the applicant provide information in this fashion is self-fulfilling and leads to the question as to how valuable is the information of such a reference? Does the reference have the professional relationship that candidate indicates or are they related in some fashion and doing the reference as a “favour”? Do we as Human Resource professionals do references because they are a required part of the hiring process or do we do them to obtain valuable information that we can use to make informed decisions.

We have found countless examples of candidate supplied references which were discovered to be false. A recent example is a reference that was supplied and gave a “glowing” reference for a candidate. The reference provided was in a management position for a large corporation that the candidate purported to have previously worked. The reference was thorough and covered all the necessary information. Later, as the candidate was not performing nearly as well as the reference indicated he should, a follow-up investigation was performed. It turned out that the reference was a relative to the candidate and in actuality the candidate never worked there. From a best practices standpoint – we need to ask ourselves, what can be done to prevent this?

First, always ask for the candidate to provide professional (management level) references from employers listed on their resume or application. Secondly, in addition to regular Reference Check, we recommend that clients also complete Employment Verification. Employment Verifications are performed through the Human Resources departments of all previous employers listed on a candidate’s resume. This will provide independent verification that a candidate actually worked for a company, the position held, dates and reason for leaving. This simple process will assure a client that the candidate indeed worked for an organization and provide credibility to a provided reference.

Although adding an Employment Verification to a background check will add costs, I am sure you will agree that the savings on a bad hire and preventing the damage that can be caused by someone who uses fraudulent references, greatly outweighs the added expense.

By Daniel Fallows

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