Dear All,
Another issue I have faced is that references often tell you what you want to hear about the candidate..mostly good and also underplayed negative traits.
very rarely have I recd a negative feedback about a candidate.
Is it because the references have been informed earlier about it? They are the names given by tthe canidadate himself thus ? is there a way of third party reference check on issues of integrity, performance in previous job etc ?
Yogesh Pahuja
From India, Ahmadabad
6Another issue I have faced is that references often tell you what you want to hear about the candidate..mostly good and also underplayed negative traits.
very rarely have I recd a negative feedback about a candidate.
Is it because the references have been informed earlier about it? They are the names given by tthe canidadate himself thus ? is there a way of third party reference check on issues of integrity, performance in previous job etc ?
Yogesh Pahuja
From India, Ahmadabad
HI Yogesh,
I think you are really right. I agree with you. But what I think is conducting reference check is also a skill of an HR professional. If we follow only guidelines or points in the form we may not be able to gather the right information but if we go beyond the format & use our soft skills while interacting, we can definitely gather much more information.
This is all from my personal experiences.
Regards,
Pooja Bansal
From India, Pune
I think you are really right. I agree with you. But what I think is conducting reference check is also a skill of an HR professional. If we follow only guidelines or points in the form we may not be able to gather the right information but if we go beyond the format & use our soft skills while interacting, we can definitely gather much more information.
This is all from my personal experiences.
Regards,
Pooja Bansal
From India, Pune
Pooja
I agree with your view. however the issue doesnt stop there...no matter how good we are in interpreting tone of the respondent, hidden meaning, ask intelligent questions, ...the authenticity still remains questionable.
I had an employee..for whom thomas profiling was done, 3 references were spoken to, 2 rounds of interview done..everything..wthin 3 months she left..and that as a non performer even though the references were senior officails of well known corporates whom you would not like to question and spoke high about her...
Yogesh
From India, Ahmadabad
I agree with your view. however the issue doesnt stop there...no matter how good we are in interpreting tone of the respondent, hidden meaning, ask intelligent questions, ...the authenticity still remains questionable.
I had an employee..for whom thomas profiling was done, 3 references were spoken to, 2 rounds of interview done..everything..wthin 3 months she left..and that as a non performer even though the references were senior officails of well known corporates whom you would not like to question and spoke high about her...
Yogesh
From India, Ahmadabad
Hi Yogesh,
Sometimes reference checks can only yield so much information. At times, employee may be forced to leave the company due to circumstances beyond his / her control.
Otherwise, there are many factors you can focus on to prevent employee attrition after joining. With a strong selection process, it is possible to screen out candidates who either do not have the required ability to perform on the job or are frequent job hoppers.
Regarding reference checks, I think it is important to go beyond the references provided by the candidate and contact other authorities from the university / company where the employee may have studied / worked earlier (except the last / current employer).
Regards,
Deepti
From India, Pune
Sometimes reference checks can only yield so much information. At times, employee may be forced to leave the company due to circumstances beyond his / her control.
Otherwise, there are many factors you can focus on to prevent employee attrition after joining. With a strong selection process, it is possible to screen out candidates who either do not have the required ability to perform on the job or are frequent job hoppers.
Regarding reference checks, I think it is important to go beyond the references provided by the candidate and contact other authorities from the university / company where the employee may have studied / worked earlier (except the last / current employer).
Regards,
Deepti
From India, Pune
Yogesh,
Pls understand that in the situation you have described, the candidate left as a non performer. That means the candidate was not suitable for the profile your offered or could not fit into company culture or could be due to certain other uncontrollable situation. So here the major problem lies with the selection criteria. I think that is the reason why we as HR recruiters shoyld not only focus on Technical aspects but also on the overall personality of the individual & their fitness within the company.
Pooja
From India, Pune
Pls understand that in the situation you have described, the candidate left as a non performer. That means the candidate was not suitable for the profile your offered or could not fit into company culture or could be due to certain other uncontrollable situation. So here the major problem lies with the selection criteria. I think that is the reason why we as HR recruiters shoyld not only focus on Technical aspects but also on the overall personality of the individual & their fitness within the company.
Pooja
From India, Pune
Hi,
One cannot RELY on the reference checks.
Rarely you receive a negative feedback, because of our own cultural weakness. One tends to feel that if a person has not succeeded in my organization, it is not as though he will not succeed in some other organization as the performance/work culture may be and generally differs from organization to organization. This thinking may also be right and let us not treat this as our cultural weakness.
Even when I know that an employee has been uncooperative, dishonest or non-performing in my organization, if he is getting a job outside, I say, "good riddance"! as it has saved me the bother of terminating his employment. When I deliberately conceal the truth of the concerned person's employment with my organization, then I am being dishonest and this is a weakness of our culture.
But then again, how many us are really willing to take into employment a person about we have received (say) an unfavourable response! We also like to play "safe" and give up someone we had otherwise found suitable. Do we not trust our own judgement? Can we not take him, watch him unbiased and decide his fate in our organization on his own merits?
References are therefore to be treated as just opinions arising out of given situations. We do not know who was at fault at that end, but might end up punishing an innocent candidate.
We must acquire competence ot judge candidates for employment and have the guts to go by our own judgment and that would be a great service to our great profession of HR. Extreme cases like criminal involvement, proven dishonesty, adultry etc. are to be treated with an extreme response, may be.
Because of the high unemployment perhaps we can be so casual in avoiding candidates with unfavourable references and play safe. When the things change and we won't be enjoying such luxuries, we will have to concentrate on effective understanding, evaluating people in all situations and to learn to conserve and build human resources skillfully. Till then we live with present situation!
Good Luck to all
Regards
samvedan
September 9, 2006
From India, Pune
One cannot RELY on the reference checks.
Rarely you receive a negative feedback, because of our own cultural weakness. One tends to feel that if a person has not succeeded in my organization, it is not as though he will not succeed in some other organization as the performance/work culture may be and generally differs from organization to organization. This thinking may also be right and let us not treat this as our cultural weakness.
Even when I know that an employee has been uncooperative, dishonest or non-performing in my organization, if he is getting a job outside, I say, "good riddance"! as it has saved me the bother of terminating his employment. When I deliberately conceal the truth of the concerned person's employment with my organization, then I am being dishonest and this is a weakness of our culture.
But then again, how many us are really willing to take into employment a person about we have received (say) an unfavourable response! We also like to play "safe" and give up someone we had otherwise found suitable. Do we not trust our own judgement? Can we not take him, watch him unbiased and decide his fate in our organization on his own merits?
References are therefore to be treated as just opinions arising out of given situations. We do not know who was at fault at that end, but might end up punishing an innocent candidate.
We must acquire competence ot judge candidates for employment and have the guts to go by our own judgment and that would be a great service to our great profession of HR. Extreme cases like criminal involvement, proven dishonesty, adultry etc. are to be treated with an extreme response, may be.
Because of the high unemployment perhaps we can be so casual in avoiding candidates with unfavourable references and play safe. When the things change and we won't be enjoying such luxuries, we will have to concentrate on effective understanding, evaluating people in all situations and to learn to conserve and build human resources skillfully. Till then we live with present situation!
Good Luck to all
Regards
samvedan
September 9, 2006
From India, Pune
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