Reference Check Questions You Don't Want to Skip

If you were thinking of going to that new, expensive restaurant in town and knew of someone who had just been there, would you ask for their review or rely solely on the content on the restaurant website? The chef calls it his finest culinary project to date! The professional food photography looks amaaazing! But…you’d probably ask that acquaintance for their take, right? Why not apply that same logic to reference checks?

This is often seen as a useless step and thus thrown out completely. The reasoning is somewhat understandable; the reference pool is curated by candidates themselves, you think, thus, they’re heavily biased. Well, so, too, is the entire interview process. Like it or not, a candidate’s job is to convince you of their fit for the role, and that’s the filter that’s applied to every answer to your thoughtfully crafted questions. It's up to you to make the interview process useful, and crucial to that mission are reference checks. We strongly recommend a 360 view, which includes speaking to a former manager, former client, and former colleague.

You’ll find that there are some key questions to get at what you really want to know about a potential hire before you send an official offer. It won't take long, and it will yield the same result 95% of the time (the person is hired), but the other 5% will save you a lot of headache (and probably, some heartache, too). Here goes:

1. Was the candidate on-time and dependable?

When we hire for higher level roles, we often forget to ask about the basics--you know, the questions our manager at the pool cared most about (Will they show up for their shift?). These basics carry through our entire professional lives, and you'd be amazed to hear some of the answers you'll get to this question. The good news is, if John is late daily, but a stellar employee, this question will yield that response, "John isn't a morning person, but he makes it on time when it counts, and boy, can this guy sell." This question is all about the qualifiers.

2. How does the candidate respond to feedback and constructive criticism?

This question may stump the reference for a moment and that's good. You want to make them think and answer something unrehearsed so you get the full, here’s-what-it-was-like-to-manage-them truth. Plus, you can read between the lines on this one: the reference’s tone of voice tells you all you need to know about a candidate’s coachability versus defensive nature. Is there hesitation in the reference’s voice? Or do you sense them recalling something difficult in their past with the candidate in consideration? Or maybe you pick up a warmth and genuine enthusiasm in their voice when reflecting on their positive experience managing this candidate. Even if you've already made the hire, this question will tell you a lot about how to manage this person moving forward.

3. What are the candidate's strongest qualities?

If the reference doesn't RAVE at this point, you know there's an issue. Giving the reference a chance to say something positive should yield an animated, exciting, I-love-this-person-and-you-should-too vibe. Anything less should concern you.

4. As this person's manager, what will they need the most help with?

This isn't a trick question; you actually want to know. Again, this will help you to effectively manage this person. Any red flags will arise naturally.

5. Would you hire this candidate again?

Again, you're looking for fireworks: "of course!" "in a heartbeat!" "are you kidding?! YES!" A simple, "sure, yeah" is just not good enough here.

That’s all there is to it! Reference checks done right are quick, simple, and highly valuable, helping you to manage this candidate in the future or bringing to light any red flags that didn’t come about in the interview process. All it takes is a little bit of emotional intelligence to identify the questions that would benefit from an outside opinion and recognize what you’re looking for when you hear it.

One more tip just for fun: Save your notes on reference checks and put them in an employee’s file. They’re fun to refer back to in future performance reviews, and they can give an employee a great sense of how they’ve grown as well as validation of their strengths.

Questions on reference check essentials? Contact us for more info! Careersteam@cfwcareers.com