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Job References as Part of Background Checks

The professional job reference is increasingly an added background check as part of any preemployment screening program.    The professional job reference can help human resources and hiring managers better assess skill sets for employment candidates.    Sometimes two candidates can be equal in education and seniority, but the professional references will provide the distinction in selecting the best employment candidate.

Professional employment references are the one background check that can drill down deeper into a job candidate’s work experience.  While most employers will only verify the date started, date completed, and position held, the professional reference background check will offer insight into a variety of skill sets.   These skill sets can include existent contacts, relationship building,  and networking capability, which is especially relevant for sales people.   For IT job candidates, professional references will allow hiring managers and human resources to best assess fluency in different software programs and aspects of  related technology.   Communications skills and managerial skills are other key indicators.

When asking an employment candidate for professional references, it is best if he or she provides you with former supervisors.   Former supervisors can best assess the skill sets.  In some cases supervisors and other former associates are, by corporate policy, prohibited from providing professional references.  Some will, anyway, in order to help their former colleagues.   Some will provide references provided it is made clear they are providing personal references as opposed to professional references.  While in some cases the questions may be more limited, there is value in obtaining personal references.  In a great many cases, frankly, the professional reference verifications and the personal reference verifications amount to pretty much to the same thing, anyway.

So with the economy in the doldrums, and with significant  competition for each job that is out there, going the extra mile and including  professional reference checks as part of your background checking system is a prudent move.   It will not only fortify your employment verification check, it will shed light on your job candidate’s skill sets and general character as well.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

One reply on “Job References as Part of Background Checks”

You might be suprised what a professional reference checking firm really can find out about your background, positive and negative! I’d suggest checking your own references before you give them out, for all you job seekers. There are agencies that can find out what your references say about you, try googling “reference checking” and you’ll see.