Guidelines for meaningful ref check

• Conducted by the hiring manager
• At least 2 different ref calls
• Know your why ? Is there specific aspect you're looking to verify/double check thanks to this reference call ?
• Keep in mind that conducting a ref call is also a way to sell the role. When reaching out to referrers, some information will probably be forwarded to the candidate.
• Be aware of the legal aspect. You cannot schedule reference calls by yourself. You'll need to ask the candidate to provide you with a list of contact (former colleagues or managers) with whom you could conduct reference calls. It's up to the candidate to decide which persons they will put you in contact with. Good to know : going through wild reference calls is illegal in most EU countries.

Conducting a ref check

1. give the the referrer more information regarding the role you're hiring for and your expectations.
2. give context regarding the hiring process you've conducted with the candidate. At this stage, you may want to highlight to the referrer that you have an overall positive feedback about the candidate otherwise they won't be moving so far in the hiring process.

<aside> 💡 During a reference call, it is important that you're being 100% transparent about the strengths and doubts/weaknesses you were able to identify during the hiring process. It will help avoid the referrer to emphasize only strengths to compensate (the other way around being true as well).

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1. Then you'll need to explain the purpose of this reference call, which is to make sure that you have a complete overview of the candidate's fit for the role.
2. Then start deep divin' by asking specific questions. Here are examples of questions you could ask :
   • Would you be able to share with me your overall feedback on your experience working with X at Y? OR We're aware that you were working with X at Y, and that you were their manager at Y for over x years. How closely did you work with X ?
   • What is something X was able to help you do better? On the other hand, what is something you think you were able to help them do better?
   • On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate her performance? It anchors the evaluation in reality with a notion of comparison. 7 = bad; 8 = average; 9 = great
   • We identified [this problem/doubt] during the ref checks? Could you tell us more about it?
   • Would you hire them today, especially for a role similar to the one I described earlier and why?
   • If you were to give us some advice on how to help them be successful in our company, what would that be?
   • If you had to give them one piece of advice for the rest of their career, what would it be?