Dear Stephen,
I know that many of your readers who are hiring managers or HR leaders question the validity of reference checking on someone they want to hire and how to understand if they are getting a truthful reference or not. I’m a seasoned industry executive yet I keep getting fooled by references, which I check myself. I feel like I get a good reference, I make the hire, then the trouble arises.
Here’s what recently happened to me:
I had an opening for a regional manager, and I found someone I thought was very good on my own. I interviewed them on more than one occasion. Then, after interviewing with me, they went through a thorough HR interview process, a third-party assessment report, and they met with two other people within our sales organization. The only red flag was that this person was unemployed, which seemed unusual with today’s low unemployment. It’s very hard to find people in our industry who aren’t working unless they were part of one of the last layoffs at #MillerKnoll. Yet, coincidentally, I’ve noticed there are still a lot of people looking to make a move who are currently employed.
So back to the story, I made the hire, and from the very first day this individual started, they seemed like a different person than the candidate I’d interviewed. We made the hire in January, gave them extensive training, and right after NeoCon was when I realized I had made a mistake. Mind you, I interviewed them for at least four months before I made the offer, so it was “long to hire.” But I took your advice, and at five months and two weeks after they started, I was quick to fire. I’m glad I did!
Here’s what is still bothering me -- the candidate gave me four solid references and I checked them myself. Every reference was glowing and in some cases, I got more information than I even asked for. Needless to say, I felt like I was making a better-than-average hire of someone who was circumstantially unemployed. My question to you has been repeated in so many ways in your column: What is a surefire way to be sure I’m getting the best and most honest reference on someone I’m about to hire?
Signed,
These References Need References
____________________________________
Dear Uncertain Reference,
A candidate’s reference should only be one small component of how you make a hiring decision. Let’s face it -- has anyone out there ever gotten a bad reference from someone they’ve asked to provide one?
First of all, everyone hiring should always be asking for references, just don’t let them be the sole reason that you hire someone! If a candidate is handing you a reference to call, chances are the reference has been prepared to give you positive feedback. No smart candidate gives a reference for a job that they have not contacted in advance and confirmed that they will get a glowing report.
Here are some of my best tips for making the best hire:
Extend the interview process by increasing the meetings between you and the candidate to more times than you are doing now. Just the two of you. If you’re interviewing a candidate two times, make it four times; if you’re interviewing four times, make it five or six times. This is just you one-on-one with the candidate. My experience is that the more times a hiring manager interviews a candidate, the more likely a candidate will open up, let their guard down, and in latter interviews, tend to reveal more about themselves personally that will help you understand if they are a cultural fit.
Most executives that make a bad hire typically give the same reason for firing when it happens within the first year – it’s generally always a bad ‘cultural fit’ or that the ‘chemistry’ was bad with the rest of the team. Basically, the person doesn’t fit in. That’s not something that’s going to be apparent from a reference, but it will be apparent in multiple interviews.
Let me briefly mention back-channel referencing, when you contact someone behind the candidate's back; I don’t always think it’s ethical because most candidates will be employed and if you’re contacting someone they haven’t given you permission to, you’re exposing the fact that this person may be interviewing for another job. It would not be fair if word got back to their current employer and it jeopardized their job. It’s different if the candidate is unemployed and you happen to be friends with a person who worked with the candidate in the past, a phone call to that friend may give you some valuable insight.
Bottom line, my answer to your question is—don’t rely on references to make a hire: rely on your interaction with the candidate in many different interviews.
And here’s my best tip: change up the physical environment for the interviews along with the time of day, for example; have a lunch or a dinner, interview in the morning, mid-day, and in the afternoon, maybe even early evening. The time of day you interview should always be different. And taking your new hire outside of the office is also very important, even if it’s not over a meal. And be sure to rely on your HR professional to participate in your hiring decision. This is very important – you’re paying for an expensive assessment so take the time to read it and use it to help you make the hiring decision.
Here’s one other thing I always caution people about; I never recommend a client hire anyone that they’ve only interviewed over Teams. The pandemic is over and so is the notion that you do not have to interview the candidate in person at least once. Teams is a fine place to start, but I always recommend to my clients that they fly a candidate in to meet in person if they’re not in the geography already before they ever extend the job offer. The cost of a flight is nothing compared to the fiscal repercussions of a bad hire.
I hope this helps answer your question, but the bottom line on references is that they should not be blamed when you make a bad hire because even as an executive recruiter I’ve rarely, if ever, gotten a bad reference on anybody. I go by my instinct, along with my chemistry with the candidate and how it matches with my client, and as a hiring manager, you should too.
Signed,
Stephen