Reference Checks

As part of a recruitment process, most employers are very interested in what your past employers have to say, and will ask for reference checks to be conducted. In nominating suitable referees, consider the following points.

Your referee needs to be a person who knows you well enough to provide an accurate account of how you perform at work - your achievements as well as your failures. They should be prepared to be honest but ideally be an advocate for you obtaining future work.

They should not be someone with whom you've kept up a personal relationship, as their comments may be assumed to be biased.

You should always brief your referees on the detail of the role you are being considered for. Typically, the questions they will be required to answer include:

• Verify the information provided by the employee/candidate about the level of seniority and breadth of their professional experience at a firm;
• Confirm the candidate's performance in the role - style, behaviour, professionalism, technical skills, leadership capability, stakeholder management and so on;
• Determine a third-party view of the person in action from a day-to-day perspective of a peer, a manager and sometimes either a client or a junior team member;
• Gain a perspective as to how they behave in a team, leadership, business development situation;
• Provide an opinion of whether the new role being offered to the candidate is appropriate for them and whether they feel the candidate will perform well in that role;

Remember that your referee is providing a personal favour to you in giving their time and opinion. You should always be appreciative of that and if you get the job make sure you call them to say thanks.