Employee Screening, Employee Vetting Services from Eurocom C.I.

Newsletter 1 Article 3

Handling employee references

Are you looking for trouble?

 

No matter how great a candidate seems, how appealing, how experienced, how perfect a fit, you're looking for trouble if you don't check references before making an offer. It is less disruptive to under go the entire process twice than deal with the hassle of removing or reassigning of an employee, not to mention the costs of wasted weeks of training, acclimatization and management time.

As screeners, we are amazed at how many human resource departments refuse to give detailed reference material allowing only dates of employment and compensation to be released. Yet these same departments often insist in full disclosure when recruiting. This used to be the default corporate stance out of fear of liability, but in today's political and security heightened climate, if you have signed releases from applicants specifying that you have permission to ask about their work experience, most references should feel that it's safe to talk in confidence and candidly.

When we speak with the reference, we make a point of explaining that the candidate has signed a release and offer to fax or e-mail a copy of the signed release for the reference's files. Who and how you ask for the reference and the way you ask are both important. If you're funneled to the HR or personnel department, you may still get only verification of name, rank and serial number. So you must get the name of a line manager (never a close colleague) from the candidate and it's reasonable to be wary of candidates who claim to be unable to provide reference information. Finally, if you get a bad reference do not ignore it and try and acquire an acceptable one from someone else within the company to replace it.

As we seldom get to see the candidate during the interview process, you should take the opportunity to ask candidates contextual and behavioural questions and always compare the original CV submitted with their application to subsequent screening questionnaires, you may be surprised how many variations there are! We refer to this as CV cross-referencing and offer it as a service to clients.

Eurocom C.I. was launched in 2006 to provide pre-employment screening services following the increase in employee fraud being investigated by our parent company Carratu International Plc.

To discuss your specific screening requirements call us on 0845 880 5888.