Pre-Employment References: Are They Still Pertinent?
In the category of old furniture are the famous pre-employment references. By old furniture, I mean that they are still there, because they have always been there and we forget to question their relevance, especially in the current context where speed is of the essence in a selection process.
The reality is that, scientifically, pre-employment references are recognized as being among the least effective selection tools for predicting future job performance. I doubt anyone can be truly surprised by this fact.
Let’s face it:
- Not easy to ensure that we are actually talking to the person we think is on the phone….
- Difficult for referrers to be 100% honest in their assessment or not of the candidate in question…
- Not easy to reach the reference in a reasonable time frame to make a decision and not lose the candidate along the way…
- Not great for said references to be bombarded with calls – often considering that a single candidate is applying to multiple locations and is much more mobile than before…
- Sometimes it is impossible to reach the targeted reference, because they themselves have changed jobs…
In short, it is neither a reliable nor valid tool in terms of predictivity. However, they are still very (too?) popular.
So the question is:
Why?!
Well, if at this point you still want to do pre-employment referrals, it’s time for my counter-attack tool: the metaphor.
If your weight on your scale varies by a pound or two (or three…!) from day to day or during the course of a day, you won’t care. Weight has been shown to fluctuate by a few pounds in a day – so it’s not the scale’s fault (although sometimes we wish it were).
However, if your scale varied by 20-30 lbs from one day to the next or during the same 24 hour interval and on top of that, it did not correspond at all to the reality validated by your trainer or doctor or would sometimes show lbs, sometimes degrees, sometimes centimeters…you would throw that scale in the garbage quickly.
You see where I’m going with this.
Why?!
- To ease your conscience?
- Is it just habit?
- Is it out of concern?
- After all, it’s one person’s opinion…simple.
- Just one side of a coin.
Conversely, it’s also possible that a reference has a poor opinion of the candidate when that candidate would be a very good employee in another organization X or simply under a different manager. After all, an employee with a lot of potential, but poorly integrated, coached, directed, could appear to be a *lesser* employee…when he or she is not really at fault.
The other proof is that you yourself have hired several people who didn’t make the cut, whom you had to let go for reason X. Yet, these same people had been referred to you by the company. Yet these same people were referred?
That being said, I am well aware that many of the more critical positions require some level of verification. This would only be the dates of employment and the reason for leaving. But the reality is that for many positions, this does not apply.
Humans are multidimensional. An organization, itself composed of multiple humans, is just as multidimensional…if not more so. To presume that a reference can be the proof of what happens when the work, the environment, the colleagues, the supervisors, the objectives, the constraints are different would be a simple utopia. As they say, you have to compare apples with apples.
And who’s going to argue that there’s a labour shortage?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not telling you to hire the first person you see.
I’m the first to insist on the importance of using proper and effective selection tools, even if it takes longer.
The scientific essentials remain the structured interview and the appropriate and properly used psychometric tools.
However, knowing the above, I ask you one last time…
Why?!
**Joking aside, I have still (very rarely) had very bad references and I must admit to feeling a sense of relief that I took them at that time. My bottom line is that it remains a rather subjective and *time consuming* process. With today’s fast-paced environment, I think this is an unnecessary step for most positions.
Andréanne Thibault, CRIA
Senior consultant, Talent Management
