LEAP JOB PLACEMENT TESTING

Relation to Candidate: Reference Phone:

Confirm Candidate’s Title and Dates of Employment:

1) Did the candidate report directly to you? If not, what was your working relationship?

1. 2) What were this person’s main responsibilities? 3) a. What are this person’s strengths?
2. b. What are some areas in which this person can improve? 4) How does this person work with others? 5) In what ways does he/she respond to stressful (high pressure) situations?
3. 6) Did he/she ever have a problem with tardiness or absenteeism?

7) What advice would you give his/her future manager in working with, and motivating this person? 8) Would you rehire this person? If not, why? 9) On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best), how would you rate this person’s overall performance?

10) Do you have any additional comments that you feel would be helpful?

Of course there are variations upon the theme, so you can be resourceful in choosing reference questions to fit your company’s particular needs. Be uniform in composing these questions. Otherwise, it becomes a cumbersome process, and you can risk driving your researcher crazy. There is also the issue of fairness and how it affects the rules governing employment law. So be consistent.

Reference verifications can be a great tool for the pre-employment screening process. It can be an effective background check, when you use it wisely.

Most human resource managers today are limited to providing only the basics for employment verification. Fear of litigation nullifies anything that may be deemed subjective or, more considerably, litigious. Conducting the formal employment verification will typically return little more than the date your candidate started employment, the date he left, and the position he held. You will often find yourself lacking the input needed to make an informed hiring decision. Once in awhile, the HR Manager will be adventurous and respond that your candidate was “in good standing.”

In fact, at the writing of this article, there was a radio program where the show’s commentator reinforced this principle. The commentator admonished Human Resources Personnel that there is as much a danger in providing a positive reference as there is in providing one that is negative. He went on to say it is important to keep all employment verifications as uniform as possible. He suggested providing only the start date, completion date and the position held.