{"id":30578,"date":"2018-02-14T22:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T03:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=30578"},"modified":"2018-02-15T13:20:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T18:20:33","slug":"business-report-reference-checks-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2018\/02\/business-report-reference-checks-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Why Reference Checks Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30186\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30186\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30186\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/11\/michael-cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/11\/michael-cruz-c-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/11\/michael-cruz-c.jpg 369w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30186\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Cruz is president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC, Queensbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An overlooked part of the hiring process is the reference checks.\u00a0 In large companies, we sometimes leave this to HR.\u00a0 In smaller companies (and the large ones too) we leave this to the end of the hiring process.\u00a0 You know, when you say, I want to make an offer to this person, \u201cLet\u2019s check references.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This shortchanges the reference process is several ways.\u00a0 First, we have fallen \u2018in love\u2019 with this candidate. That makes us have \u2018happy ears\u2019.\u00a0 We don\u2019t hear warning signals.\u00a0 We ask inane questions.\u00a0 \u201cwould you hire this person again?\u00a0 What were his\/ her challenges in their position?\u00a0 And others like that.<\/p>\n<p>And, we are asking these questions of the people that the candidate gave us.\u00a0 Face it, the candidate can find three people to say nice things about them.\u00a0 Even then, they have been trained by lawyers never to answer real reference questions.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The better way is to ask reference questions from people you know.\u00a0 Use your network.\u00a0 Use Linked In.\u00a0 Find people you know in common.\u00a0 Or people who may know the candidate.\u00a0 Ask for off-the-record references.\u00a0 If you know me personally, I will probably respond differently.\u00a0 Ask these references with behavioral questions.\u00a0 \u201cCan you think of a time that they had to work on a team.\u00a0 How did Candidate X react to that particular situation.\u201d\u00a0 Another is, \u201ccan you think of a time you had a coaching moment with this person?\u00a0 What was it about and how did they react?\u201d\u00a0 Find colleagues, not just former managers.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, you will not find people you know.\u00a0 But follow through.\u00a0 One of your contacts may be able to introduce you to someone who knew the candidate.\u00a0 Once, we had a candidate whose work history was across the country.\u00a0 We found someone who could introduce us to someone that had worked with him.\u00a0 The questions we subsequently asked at the next interview caused us to avoid a mis-hire.\u00a0 It saved us the $16,000 cost of a mis-hire.<\/p>\n<p>To make reference checking effective, move this process up to immediately after the first interview.\u00a0 Asking specific questions will give you data to clarify during subsequent interviews.<\/p>\n<p>Of, course, the most important thing is to listen to what they say.\u00a0 Follow up, ask questions to get more details.\u00a0 Check out any details that are irksome and you too, can hire better and save money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An overlooked part of the hiring process is the reference checks.\u00a0 In large companies, we sometimes leave this to HR.\u00a0 In smaller companies (and the large ones too) we leave this to the end of the hiring process.\u00a0 You know, when you say, I want to make an offer to this person, \u201cLet\u2019s check references.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - 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