Reference Check: Making Smart Hiring Decisions with Feedback from the Candidate’s References

The job hiring process is always a two-way street, where both employers and candidates play equally important roles. Employers aim to find the right fit—someone who meets the job requirements, aligns with company culture, and contributes to the organizational needs. Meanwhile, job seekers look for opportunities that match their skills, career goals, and values. Throughout this process, both sides go through several stages of evaluation, including resume screenings, interviews, and skills assessments. 

As the process comes to its final stages, conducting reference checks becomes a critical step. For employers, it offers a chance to verify candidates’ information and gain deeper insights into their past performance, reliability, and character. For applicants, it provides an opportunity to validate their skills, experience, and professional reputation. 

This article explores reference checks, highlighting their importance, key components, the step-by-step process for conducting them, and common pitfalls to avoid during the verification.

What is a Reference Check?

A reference check, also known as a character reference verification, is a type of background check conducted to gather insights into a candidate’s past work experience, performance, skills, work ethic, and suitability for the role. It typically involves reaching out to the provided contacts or references—former employers, colleagues, and mentors—by phone, email, or any other means. 

Purposes of Reference Checks

Generally, reference checks help employers or hiring managers verify the details shared by candidates during the hiring process, offering a clearer picture of their qualifications and ensuring a better-informed hiring decision. 

Verifying Information

Conducting a reference check helps ensure the accuracy of a candidate’s resume and confirm details such as job titles, responsibilities, and educational background. It can also provide an opportunity to clarify any gaps or unclear information in the candidate’s employment history. 

Assessing Job Performance

A reference check offers insights into a candidate’s past performance, such as whether he or she met targets, handled tasks, and contributed to the team’s success. It can also help employers understand the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, as it can provide a clearer picture of the potential for success in the new role.  

Validating Soft Skills

Other than the strengths and weaknesses, a reference check also helps evaluate a candidate’s work ethic, including qualities like punctuality, reliability, professionalism, and other soft skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. 

Mitigating Risk

A reference check can also help identify red flags, such as dishonesty, poor performance, or frequent job changes, which are typically not evident on the resume or during the interview. This can lead to an effective assessment of potential risks associated with hiring the candidate.

Improving Retention

It can reveal patterns such as job-hopping or other behaviors that may indicate potential retention issues. It thus provides valuable insights for onboarding and development and helps tailor training to the candidate’s preferred work style, as may be necessary. 

How We Conduct Reference Checks

We, at FilePino, follow a structured process to ensure comprehensive and reliable reference checks that support smart and informed hiring decisions of our clients. Here’s how we conduct the background check:

1. Obtaining the Candidate’s Consent

Before initiating any reference checks, we ensure that the candidate has given explicit consent to contact their references in compliance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012. We do this with a letter of authorization duly signed by the candidate. 

2. Identifying Reliable References

We work closely with the candidate to identify references who can provide valuable insights into his or her qualifications, work ethic, and past performance. Typically, we recommend selecting former supervisors, managers, or colleagues who have direct experience with the candidate’s work, as personal references tend to offer limited relevance in the context.

3. Contacting References

We reach out to the identified references either via phone or email, depending on their availability or convenience. Our approach is to create a comfortable and open environment that encourages honest and constructive feedback. Ideally, we prefer to contact references by phone, as it allows for a more personal and detailed conversation.

4. Documenting Contact Feedback

We take careful notes during each reference check to capture all relevant feedback. This documentation helps us evaluate the candidate’s suitability for the role and provides a record that can be referred to later if needed. 

5. Delivering Reference Check Reports

Once the reference checks are completed, we compile and deliver detailed reports to the hiring team. All information is kept confidential, ensuring it is shared only with relevant decision-makers within the organization. Not only for legal compliance, this also helps us maintain trust and respect the privacy of both the candidate and the references.