Tips and best practices for checking candidate references.
Written by Bailey Reiners
You’re narrowing down your options, and you think you’ve found the right candidate for your role. Now you just need to complete one final check to make sure everything about this candidate lines up.
Cover the basics, like determining how the reference knows the candidate and what their job responsibilities were. Ask the reference about the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Try to get a sense of how the candidate fit with or added to their previous company's culture. Don’t be afraid to ask for specific examples. Be polite, positive and to the point.
Knowing the reference check questions to ask will help you get the final answers you need to make a confident hiring decision. Because every company, candidate and role are different, we’ve provided a wide range of reference check questions for you to use and customize for your specific needs. You don’t need to ask every question on this list; instead, use it for inspiration as you come up with your own ideas.
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Before asking candidates for a reference, make sure your hiring team has determined the type of references you need to fill in any gaps and verify what you already know about the candidate. Are you interested in talking with their previous manager to hear more about a project they mentioned during the interview, or maybe a past direct report to learn about the candidate’s management style? Once you’ve determined the type of references you need, share this information with the candidate, and ask them to identify the people that best match your criteria. Request that they provide a name, job title, their relationship, email and phone number for each reference. Also, tell the candidate to inform the reference that your hiring team intends to contact them. That way the reference has time to prepare and isn’t caught off guard when you contact them. When you reach out to a reference, identify whom you are calling about and what you hope to get out of the conversation. This helps the reference tailor their answers to highlight the qualities you want to hear about the candidate. There are a number of different reference check questions you can ask, but there isn’t enough time to get all of them answered in a single conversation. So, we’ve broken down different types of reference check questions for you to filter through and pick the ones most relevant to your candidate and hiring needs. More on Recruiting 72 Recruitment Tools You Should Know In 2022
Let’s run through a few basic tips and tricks for making sure you get the most out of the conversation.
Don’t ask yes or no questions. The majority of our example questions require the reference to elaborate on their response, but if there’s still a noticeable gap in information, ask follow-up questions.
Know that the reference may talk with the candidate about your conversation, so make sure you’re polite. If you don’t end up choosing the candidate, you want that information to come from you, not their reference. But don’t be overly positive: Try to remain neutral as best you can during these conversations. Just as you don’t want candidates to hear that the conversation went poorly, it’s also not good for them to feel like they have the job before you’ve made your final decision.
If a reference is being vague or avoiding a question, there’s probably a reason for it. If they’re not willing to elaborate, it might be the sign of a red flag.
Many of these questions you have already asked candidates, so look for differences in responses. If you find any, there may be a lack of information or one of the parties may not be telling the full truth — another potential red flag.
This includes questions about whether the candidate has kids, what their religious affiliations are or about their age.
