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So you reference checked your new employee and they’re struggling on the job, so what went wrong?  How can you ensure your reference check is a true prediction of performance when recruiting?
 
Reference checks not only tell you whether to consider someone for employment but can also highlight how to manage a person, or indicate what sort of training they may require.
New Zealand is one of the last bastions of reliable reference checking.  We don’t have the risk adverse attitude of the US, now prevalent in the UK and Australia, where company employees are banned from providing references to past employees.   I once refused to sign a company’s US

written Code of Conduct, which asked me to not provide references.  As a recruiter I felt morally obliged to provide references especially since there was no issue within NZ for doing so.  We are one of the few countries with laws (Privacy Act s.29 (1)(b) & (3)(a)) that protect the referee, though it’s unlikely this is why reference checking remains common as most referees aren’t aware of this.  It’s more likely our culture of ‘self-responsibility’ – I doubt that it would even occur to the average New Zealander to sue the company who provided a good reference for someone who didn’t perform.   So how can you ensure you’re getting the best out of a reference check?  

Do

•    Use references to choose between two close candidates.  It’s amazing what extra perspective you can gain.
•    Give the responsibility of references to the person who will manage the employee.  They will have to deal with any aftermath so ensure they have their say. Or at least use an experienced person without any vested interest in the success of the candidate’s application.
•    Follow a template structure but probe further dependent on the referees’ responses, for instance if a referee states someone was average – you need to know why, and benchmark what they consider average.  
•    Be aware of the occasional company who are trying to off load a non-performing employee.  Luckily most people remember the law of karma, and realise what goes around comes around.
•    Align your questions with the interview questions you asked the candidate so you hear the other side of the story about what a candidate did.  Competency based reference questions are valuable, such as ‘Tell me about the time the candidate did… (whatever the candidate told you in interview). Compare the two versions.
•    Let reluctant overseas referees know of a referee’s protection under the NZ Privacy Act.