Truth About Managing People ... and Nothing but the Truth, The

Chapter 7. Don't Count Too Much on Reference Checks

Reference checks fall into one of two categories—past work experience and personal. References from past employers tend to be valuable in the hiring process. But unfortunately, they’ve become increasingly hard to acquire. Personal references, on the other hand, are easy to acquire but they’re essentially worthless.

As we noted in Truth 1, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. So accurate and reliable information that tells us about a job candidate’s past job experience can be a valuable input into the hiring decision. The problem is that employers have become increasingly reluctant to provide anything but the most mundane information to outsiders. In many cases, that information ...