Friday, March 04, 2005

Professional References

This is an often underappreciated resource for both hiring authorities and candidates who are seeking new opportunities in any market, but especially healthcare. Most good recruiting consultants who are competitive about their practices know that professional references provide credibility for the candidate and substantiate the “contributions” and “professionalism” of top candidates.

A mistake most make about professional references, it that they occur at the end of a job search and usually don’t happen until close to the offer stage of negotiations. Cutting edge recruiters know that by pushing up the timing of a professional reference, they can advance a candidate more quickly through the hiring process and get attention for someone who otherwise might have been buried in the stack of resumes or CV’s.

So just what is a reference check then? It is an objective evaluation of a candidate's past job performance, based on conversations with people who have actually worked with the candidate on a daily basis within the last 5 to 7 years. A good reference is a person with whom the candidate has actually worked; may include current or former supervisors, peers and subordinates; may be either business or professional.

Reference checks allow for an in-depth look at past performance of a potential new hire. It allows the prospective employer to evaluate how the candidate’s skills, experience and overall performance fit the requirements of the job to be filled, and if done properly, it highlights areas in which the candidate can improve or gain additional experience to increase his or her value to the employer over time. From the employers’ perspective, it clearly demonstrates that care was consistently and fairly used in the employee selection process.

We no longer live in a society where companies can hire based on someone having an honest face. An accepted estimate of the costs of mis-hiring is three times the annual salary of the employee. That means that the tangible value placed on professional references is high. An astounding 40% of resumes or CV’s are estimated to have some distortion.

So what can you do? As a job seeker entering the hiring market, know who you are going to use for professional references and why. Select people who can speak to your skills from a 360 degree perspective – 1) those you reported to; 2) peers; and 3) those who reported to you. Not every job seeker’s experience includes a 360 degree perspective, but approximate it as much as possible. If you are a physician for example, who has been in his own practice and doesn’t have a boss, then providing peer references and increasing the number of them is even more important. There are ways to still meet the needs of a prospective hiring authority by being thoughtful and proactive about providing the name and contact information for those who really know what you do and how you function in a professional environment.

If you are working with a recruiter, you might encourage him or her to speak with one or two of your references and summarize the information learned for inclusion along with your credentials to a prospective employer. If you are a hiring authority, you might ask for a couple of references to be completed in advance of bringing a candidate onsite for a personal face to face interview. Having the information from the reference in advance of the interview can help frame interview preparation of the part of the interview team meeting a candidate.

If you would like to learn more about this topic, included below are some excellent references or feel free to contact me. References can make or break a hire. Take the time to assure they work for you.


 Reference Checking for Everyone: What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself, Your Business, and Your Family, Paul W. Barada, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2004
 The Complete Reference Checking Handbook, Edward C. Andler with Dara Herbst, American Management Association, 2003

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