By the time most companies get to references, the decision is already made. The call becomes a formality: confirm the dates, confirm the title, ask if they'd hire the person again, hang up.
That version of a reference check almost never changes the outcome, which is why so many owners have decided references are useless. They're not useless. They're usually just done badly.
I wrote about this on LinkedIn in October, and it connects to a September post on the cost of rushing a hire. This is the fuller version, with the questions I actually use.
Why references are worth doing well
A reference check is one of the few chances you get to hear about a candidate from someone who watched them work day to day. Your interviews show you how someone presents. References show you how they performed.
The evidence backs this up. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management notes that reference checks predict job performance better than years of education or experience, and recommends structured phone checks of about 20 minutes each, with at least three contacts and consistent questions.
Compare that to what a bad hire costs. In a CareerBuilder survey from 2017, 74% of employers said they'd hired the wrong person, and the average bad hire cost $14,900. That's before counting the time to search again and the strain on the team in the meantime. An hour of phone calls is cheap insurance.
Five things that make references worth the time
1. Talk to people who managed them. Ask for references who supervised the candidate directly, not just peers or friends. A manager has seen them under pressure, given them feedback and watched what they did with it.
2. Ask every reference the same core questions. Consistency lets you compare answers across references and across candidates. Without it, you're collecting anecdotes.
3. Ask about specifics from the interview. If the candidate said they led a migration project, ask: "She mentioned she led the migration project. What was her role in how that went?" This is where you find out whether the story holds up.
4. Ask what kind of manager helped them do their best work. It tells you as much about fit as anything on the resume, and the answer will help whoever manages them next.
5. Listen for what's missing. Hesitation, faint praise and conspicuous gaps tell you more than a glowing generic answer. "He was always on time" is not an endorsement of someone you're hiring to lead a team.
Questions you can use
- How did you work with this person, and for how long?
- What were they responsible for, and what did they do especially well?
- Tell me about a time they had to handle something difficult. What happened?
- Where did they need the most support or development?
- What kind of manager or environment brought out their best work?
- They told us about [specific project or result]. What was their part in it?
- If you had the right role open, would you hire them again? What would that role be?
The last question is useful because of the second half. Someone who would hire the candidate again "for the right role" may be telling you what the right role is, and whether yours is it.
When to do them
Do references before the final decision, not after. If they're only a formality once the offer is drafted, you've already decided not to listen to them.
Two or three structured conversations, about twenty minutes each. That's the investment. Compared to the cost of a hire that doesn't work out, it's one of the cheapest steps in the entire process.
If you'd like a reference check template built around your must-haves, reach out through the contact page.
Sources
· U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "Reference Checking": https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/assessment-and-selection/other-assessment-methods/reference-checking
· CareerBuilder survey by Harris Poll (2017; 2,257 employers): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nearly-three-in-four-employers-affected-by-a-bad-hire-according-to-a-recent-careerbuilder-survey-300567056.html
If you're struggling to do reference checks worth doing, we'd love to assist!