“How do I get valuable referee checks?”
This is one of the most comment questions I am asked by selection interviewers.
I don’t even like the term referee ‘check’ – it sounds as if you have made up your mind and just need a tick or cross. The conversation with the referee is not a chat – it is a structured job-focused interview. You will be interviewing the referee just as you interviewed the candidate.
I like to make an appointment first rather than “have you got a couple of minutes?”. This flags it will be a serious meeting not just adhoc comments. In the intervening time I will email them the job or at least the key selection criteria so that they can reflect and prepare their responses. Of course a good candidate will have contacted the referee and briefed them as to what achievements s/he would like the referee to verify.
Your job is to get a balanced report. As most referees are not keen to offer negative comments, try the following:
“Could you rank the Key Selection Criteria from strongest to weakest?”
“What would you have liked X to improve on more than anything?”
“What was on their development plan?”
and of course “Would you employ X again?”
And then follow up with probes for specifics.
Listen to the non-verbals: the hesitancy, the qualifiers (“well I would if…”) and the lack or abundance of enthusiasm.
I have even had surprisingly helpful responses to this question “Is there anything I haven’t asked you that I should have?”
If you get a “poor“ comment, you need to probe for evidence just like you probe the candidate for specifics. If you get conflicting reports from two referees, you must go to a third. Something is going on!
