© Prostock-studio | stock.adobe.com

Over the last 45 years, I’ve hired and trained many outside and inside salespeople. I’ve made a lot more hiring mistakes than wins. This writing is to hopefully help you, the manager, make fewer mistakes than I did. Sales professionals can also learn to stay in touch with previous supervisors. Make checking references an integral part of the interviewing process, not just a formality. The tendency is to ask easy questions, hoping no red flags come up that would cause you to question the decision you have already made to hire the person. Don’t do this!

Who will give a usable reference? I’ve found the only reliable references are previous supervisors. They will know how well the candidate performed. Friends and former coworkers will tell what a nice person the candidate is and will only say what will help the person get the job. Character references were worth something 60 years ago, but not anymore.

If a candidate can’t give me at least one former supervisor to speak with, that ends the interviewing process. A lot of large companies require reference checking go through their human relations department. You can only find out dates of employment, position title, and sometimes pay. Finding out the candidate lied about his employment dates and title can weed out a few candidates, otherwise human relations can’t help you with what you really need to know.

I’ve learned to ask for two supervisor references before a final interview. I call them, hoping to uncover some good attributes and generate some clarifying questions for the final interview. Sometimes just asking for two supervisors will stop the interviewing process because you may never hear from the candidate again. (Meaning the candidate does not have good references.) Time and trouble saved!

When responding to requests for references of your own past employees, check the law of your state. You may find that your honest feedback on a former employee is protected as long as it wasn’t done to intentionally hurt the candidate, but was simply answering legal questions honestly. This essentially protected the reference giver from liability in giving reference information. Sometimes a previous supervisor will say, “I have to call human relations for a reference.” I tell the supervisor I will not hire someone without speaking to a previous supervisor and ask if I can call his personal cell after work hours to talk about the candidate. If he or she still refuses, this may or may not be a negative reference in itself. You have to sense the tone of the supervisor and decide if it is a red flag or not.

Questions to Ask About the Candidate

Ask the tough questions. This is important. Before we get into the tough (important) questions, what does it take to do a reference check? Reference checking requires both skill and intuition. Let’s talk about skill first. A vital skill is to ask all reference givers the same questions about the candidates. This means you have to have them written down, leaving space for answers.

The first thing you say is “Anything you tell me will be held in strict confidence, meaning no one else will know what is said except you and me.” If you hire the person, don’t tell him or her what was said, just say “It was a good reference.” Next, state the position the candidate is being considered for. This will tell the reference giver why you are asking certain questions so he or she will answer more completely.

Verify month and year of the start and end of employment and the job title held. Ask what the nature of the work was. Ask how well the person got along with coworkers and why the person left the company. Ask about how many sick and personal days were taken per year. For sure, ask how often the person was late for work and by how much. I’ve had to let two people go in the past year because they were consistently late by 15 to 30 minutes. (I didn’t ask the question in my reference check.) Ask: how were his or her results compared to others in a similar job?

Now for the difficult questions. Ask what two main strengths the person had, then what the two main weaknesses were. To help the reference giver feel more comfortable with answering, I tell him or her, “We all have our weaknesses, I know I do.”

Always ask if the person had any drinking, drug or gambling habits that interfered with his or her work. This question paid off one time when the reference said, “I prefer not to answer that question, but you can call a Salt Lake City police detective for the answer.”

Always ask if they would rehire the person if a suitable opening came up. This is a hard one to ask because, before asking, you may think they might re-hire when they find the candidate is available again. This is a chance you have to take. It can be a make or break question. If they say no, always ask why not? If there is a long pause before answering yes or no, this is where your intuition comes in. It is important to probe at this point, hoping to uncover the issue. Sometimes the issue is not one that affects doing the job you have open. Last, ask: Is there anything else you’d like to tell me that might help in understanding his or her capabilities?

Your intuition comes into play with reading the way the tough questions are answered. One time I called a small business owner/supervisor reference saying a candidate had given his name to call. The owner responded that he can only tell me dates of employment and job title. I then said to him, “I’ve called references, hired and trained a lot of salespeople, and one thing I’ve learned is that it is more important to read in between the lines of what is being said than what is actually said. Would I be correct to read between the lines of what you just said? “He responded emphatically and loudly, “Yes!” I thanked him. He obviously didn’t want to recommend the candidate.

The president of an equipment company called me one time to check a reference on a person who used to work for me. He told me he was calling about an individual who was interviewing for vice president of sales. When I heard the name, I thought to myself, “This person is not qualified to be vice president for any equipment company.” I responded that I would answer any question as long as it was very specific and not general. To me, that is a red flag statement in itself. He proceeded to ask me several “soft ball” questions, questions that really do not uncover the capabilities and weaknesses of the person. He hired the individual. I heard he let the person go after a few months. He might have saved his company time and money had he not already decided to hire the person.

In summary, the reference check is a vital part of hiring a person who can do the job. Make it count.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].