Do Reference Checks Still Matter?

“References Available Upon Request”

This sentence is placed smack dab at the bottom of almost every resume and CV you’ll collect. Employers like references. Applicants hate asking for them and do not like to bother their friends and coworkers. So what you get is a compromise – the acknowledgement that if you want references, you can have them, but only if you remember to ask.

How Much Do References Matter?

Reference checks have been an important part of the recruitment process for decades. But how much do they really matter? The original purpose of a reference was to get any other information you could about an employee that they didn’t share on their resume. But with the internet, and the legal protections that applicants have preventing negative information, enough information is already online that that’s become less useful. So what are the benefits of reference checks?

Benefits of Reference Checks

Reference checks still can hold a lot of information, and are a great tool for recruiters. Benefits of reference checks include:

• Verifying Claims – One of the remaining benefits of reference checks is the ability to verify claims that the applicant made on their resume. For example, if an employee claims “I created the company website,” you can talk to a reference and ask “who created the company website?” in an effort to verify the accuracy of that statement. That can be very valuable for those that are hiring someone based on specific experiences or achievements.
• Showing Preparation – It’s not always the quality of the reference check that matters. Sometimes it’s “did they prepare their references, and are their references prepared to vouch for them?” Applicants that ask their references, prepare the numbers and contact information, let them know you’re calling, etc., are the ones that are going to be better employees, no matter what the references say.
• Genuine Praise – This can be hard for most people to hear on the phone, but those that are very good at figuring out what is genuine and what is not will often find that genuine praise has a greater impact on their hiring decisions than fake praise. If you call someone’s boss, and they sound like they truly valued that employee, that’s a good sign.

Each of these would not be possible without the benefit of a reference check.

How to Get the Most From Your Reference Checks

Reference checks haven’t lost their value. The problem is that most people do not use reference checks correctly. They ask only a few vague questions and aren’t listening for the intricacies of the answer. Reference checks can be invaluable, as long as you know what to ask and how to manage them correctly.

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