Reference Checking in the Selection Process

What is it about the Recruitment & Selection Process that seems to attract such apathy and incompetence? From the corner shop to some of the world's largest conglomerates, people seem to consider "average" to be an acceptable success rate in hiring. This is despite the knowledge that you cannot run a successful business with above average performance by hiring average people.

The research has been there for years, but few have paid it any attention. Reference checking is critical to making the right selection decisions and scores better than the traditional interview for predicting success. The McQuaig Institute of Executive Development, one of North America's leading authorities in the field of candidate assessment, suggest the following weighting scheme for selection decisions.

• 25% to Behavioural and Ability Assessments
• 10-15% to Education and Work Experience
• 35-40% to Interview Performance
• 25% to Reference Checking

These are obviously just guideling figures and the actual ratios will vary to some degree depending on the role. For example, you might push the Education and Work Experience weighting out to 20% and bring the Interview weighting down to 30% for an extremely technical role. But by and large you do not alter the weightings of the Reference Check and the Assessments, because these are the only truly objective measures if done properly.

Why should you accept prepared referees?  Ask the candidate for a selection of referees. I suggest 10 to 15 referees would be a good number. You won't check all of them, but you can make your own selection from this list as opposed to the candidate's prepped selection.

Make it clear to the candidate that you are not going to call them all. Point out that you would like to have a broader selection to choose from that covers more aspects of their previous roles. Help the candidate get over the shock of your request by suggesting the categories you are most interested in and ask for 3-4 names in each. Possible areas might include:

• People they have worked under,
• People they have workes alongside
• People they have supervised
• People in other departments they have had regular interaction with,
• Some customers or suppliers they have had significant dealings with.

If they can't come up with enough names, help jog their memory by going back over past roles from their resume or CV.

Somethimes we just won't make those calls. Remember, if you fail to check you are reducing your chances of a successful hire by anything up to 50%.  Talk to someone in sales for advice as to how you might get over this "call reluctance" hurdle.  Or ask around you might even find a colleague better suited to this task.

Get beyond "Name, Rank and Serial Number" responses. HR People are their own worst enemy when it comes to checking references.  But by asking for a longer list of referees, you also greatly improve your chances of getting past the "Gate Keeper" and directly to the people with the information you need. Treat it like any other task and prepare a script or checklist of areas you need to cover in the phone call or face-to-face meeting.

Remember, the candidate has supplied you with these names, you can make the call more "personal". Again, your sales people can advise you here. Use a conversational tone with the referee, don't make it sound like a call from the IRS or the police. The more relaxed the call, the better the quality of information. Use probes to get behind the issues you need to clarify.

Remember, if you make a hiring decision, without checking out the candidate's references, you are making a decision based entirely on information supplied by the candidate. The success rate of an interview only selection process is rarely much better than 50%.

Check the candidate's references before you make the hiring decision. However, it is not always considered to be ethical to check references with their current employer, without making a job offer, subject to satisfactory references, health checks etc. But you can check previous employments.

How often have you made a major purchase without taking advice from a third party?  Hiring an employee is a major investment. Where does payroll come in terms of overheads in your business? It is not uncommon to find more discussion and investigation around the purchase of a new photocopier than in hiring the person who may occasionally make use of the machine.

Hire the best, don't accept average success rates in selection. Get the balance right - Check References.