Today, the majority of human resource managers can only provide the fundamentals for employment verification. Anything that might be deemed subjective or, more importantly, litigious is null and void if there is a fear of litigation. The most that can typically be gleaned from a formal employment verification is the date your candidate started working, the date he left, and the position he held.In most cases, you won't have the information you need to make an educated hiring decision. The HR manager will occasionally be daring and say that your candidate was "in good standing."
In point of fact, at the time of writing this article, a radio program had a commentator who emphasized this principle. The commentator cautioned Human Resources personnel that providing a positive reference carries just as much risk as providing a negative reference. He continued by stating that it is essential to maintain uniformity in all employment verifications. He suggested listing only the beginning, end, and current position.
Is this sufficient information to make an educated choice regarding an employment candidate?Sometimes. Yes, provided that there are no specialized skills required for the position. Then all you need to know is whether or not your candidate worked there in the past.It's possible that you need more information about an IT candidate's technical skills; however, it's up for debate whether or not your candidate's previous position as a pizza boy can provide any real insight into his capabilities.
More and more businesses are turning to reference verification to learn more about their candidates and their skills because the typical employment verification yields so little information. While reference verification can have its advantages and disadvantages, it is a smart choice for most hiring situations.
The best method for determining a job candidate's skill sets is to use reference verifications. The reference check is used by recruiters to see if their candidates have the necessary skills and experience. Referees can help you determine a candidate's level of IT expertise or his familiarity with general and industry-specific software. You might want to learn more about his skills in web and graphic design because they can help you make important decisions.
As a recruiter, you might be interested in learning more about your candidate's networking skills and the people he knows in his industry. You might be aware of how well-connected he is, for example, when it comes to licensing products in particular regions. When language proficiency is a concern for international candidates, the reference verification can assist in assessing these abilities.
Obviously, you can conduct additional reference verification inquiries.You might be interested in learning more about your candidate's management style or skills. You must determine whether he collaborates well with others, is a team player, or prefers to work alone. Is he there on time?Is he frequently absent?What are the areas in which he could do better?
At Corra, as a feature of the confirmation interaction, we request that the reference rate the work competitor utilizing a size of one to ten. The highest score is ten. Most of the time, our clients want at least a seven rating to think you are a good job candidate. Seven and up are regarded as fairly solid.
The reference may occasionally get carried away and bark out a ten. This will be perceived as boosterism by most employers. However, there are exceptions. The employer will take the reference's statement more at face value if the reference is an upper-level executive and qualifies it with phrases like "I've been around for umpteen years and rarely have I seen someone work as well as So and So."
Generally speaking, the more elevated level evaluations are a nine or nine or more. Always keep in mind that the reference that your job candidate provides you with will be a positive reference. The reference will often qualify his rating by saying, "Everyone has room to improve..."You would never find a candidate in his right mind to provide references that would go out of their way to harm him. Occasionally, the candidate's reference may not be as complimentary as the candidate would like. Even though the reference wants to be a good person, they might also want to talk about the bad things about themselves. There are numerous justifications for doing so. They may occasionally wish to alert you.There are occasionally personal issues. They might just be covering their buttocks at times.
It's possible that the reference will not explicitly inform you that the candidate is difficult to work with or that they would never hire them again. However, they'd like to.Therefore, the indicator is not the response itself but rather the manner in which they respond. The clue that they weren't thrilled with your candidate comes from what they don't say or from their hesitation.
Pay attention to the reference's speech inflection, pause, or difficulty locating the appropriate word or phrase. You can sometimes make a more negative assessment of them because they are trying so hard to be diplomatic.If you poke them, they may occasionally elaborate a little more on your candidate's flaws. Although they may not explicitly state it, there is something in the manner in which they respond that may reveal more information than they had intended. Or, they said exactly what they wanted to say, but it was plausible that they could deny it.
In the rare but embarrassing event that you get a reference's contact information, you should verify that they are a legitimate source. Either insist on their cell phone number as well as their business phone number, or find a way to prove that the reference isn't your candidate's cousin Larry, who is pretending to be the former CEO of Nonexistent Enterprises and is ready to give your candidate a great review.You think it never happens?Try again. However, in that case, you might weigh your candidate's propensity for duplicity against his daring and innovative thinking.I was joking.
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