When you have your recruitment process planned, it’s important to consider every step and think about the potential challenges you could face. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of finding new hires, but it’s also important to remember that you will be relying on these people to do their job well for your company. Working out if a candidate is suitable for the role can be challenging, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. Reference checking is an excellent way of ensuring that your new employee will fit in well with the rest of your team and make a useful contribution from day one.
Here are 5 reasons why you should prioritise reference checking during your recruitment process:
It’s a cheap and easy way of finding out if a candidate will be a good fit
Reference checking is an important part of any recruitment process, but it can be challenging to fit it into your tight schedule. While other practices such as psychometric testing can reliably give you information about your candidate, they can be extremely expensive and difficult to implement. If you get in touch with a candidate’s previous employers, you can get a detailed look at how they performed in their last role. You should be careful when contacting previous employers to ensure that you are conducting the reference check ethically and in an inclusive way.
Ensures better onboarding and integration
A major part of your role as a manager is to help new hires integrate and feel comfortable at work. When you reference check your candidates, you can find out if any of their former employers have suggestions or tips for how you can help them settle in and feel comfortable. For instance, if a candidate who has been working remotely for the last few years is now moving to your office and they don’t have much experience with working in offices, you can pass this information on to them. You can also check the company’s culture and the other employees to make sure they fit in well with the rest of your team.
You can spot red flags before you make an offer
When you are conducting reference checks, you can identify potential red flags that could affect your candidate’s ability to do the job. For instance, if a previous employer mentions that your candidate frequently clashed with their peers, you can have a deeper discussion with the candidate before making any decisions.
You can find out if your interview process is working well
Reference checking can help you find out if your interview process is working well or if there is room for improvement. If you’re interviewing candidates and they always have positive references, you know that you are doing a good job of selecting candidates who are a good fit for the job. If you get negative references from the people you interview, it may be that you are interviewing the wrong people. If you're struggling to find candidates with the skills you need or getting negative references, you may need to switch up your hiring process.
Helps you build your employer brand
Your brand is how customers and employees perceive your company. References are an excellent opportunity for you to show off your employer brand. If you check references and receive nothing but positive feedback from your candidates’ previous employers, you will be reinforcing your employer brand. If you get negative feedback, on the other hand, you’ll have a chance to address it. This can help you improve your brand and will also show your candidates that you are willing to work to improve your company.
Bottom line
The best companies are the ones that hire great people and then do everything they can to keep them. If you are serious about hiring great people, you need to check references. If you are serious about keeping great people, you need to check references. By checking references, you can find out if your candidates will be a good fit for your company and if they will be a good fit for your team. This will help you hire better employees and keep them longer, which will ultimately improve your company’s performance.
We hope you liked the article! Do you have any questions? Get in touch! We can discuss how references and Refapp can work for you and we are happy to provide a demo and a trial of the platform.