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Checking references and qualifications – contacting referee

12 June 2008

Checking job applicants’ qualifications and references needs to be done in a consistent and methodical way. Many of the skills required for checking references are similar to those recommended for conducting job interviews.

This article provides some practical guidelines for conducting the checking processes.

A previous article discussed the general issues and potential pitfalls involved in checking.

A future article will cover the questions to ask and the issues raised when they reveal discrepancies in information.

Consistency and fairness required

The principles of consistency and fairness apply as much to reference and qualifications checking as they do to interviews.

For applicants on your short-list, don’t check the backgrounds of some and not others: depending on what happens afterwards you could be exposed to a claim of discrimination; for example, if one applicant was rejected on the basis of an unfavourable reference when no checks were made for other applicants, and the reason for selective checking was based on a ground of unlawful discrimination.

Similarly, studies of recruitment and selection recommend that the process itself be consistent for all applicants. When contacting past employers or other referees, use a standard list of basic questions that you ask all referees about all short-listed applicants. This doesn’t mean relying solely on the standard list of questions.

Like interviews, there are other individual issues you may wish to explore, such as apparent discrepancies in information provided. These may crop up as a result of asking the standard questions first, or from other stages of the recruitment/selection process.

Standard checklist

Recommended practice is to prepare a standard checklist of questions covering suitability for position in issue and history of the candidate; and to have that form in front of you as a prompt when conducting the check. Questions to ask will be covered in more detail in a future article in this series.

Inform candidates

Another important issue is that you should tell the job applicant that you intend to contact referees and verify their qualifications.

Better still you are best to obtain their written permission to do so, eg by adding a question to that effect to the application form. Also state when you will do the checks, eg before deciding which applicants to interview, or only if the applicant is put on a short-list after the interview, selection tests, etc. The latter approach is usually better, ie only do it if you are seriously considering the applicant.

Contacting the referee

Telephone and email are the preferred contact methods because of their convenience and speed.

Telephone contact also has the potential advantage that referees may be more candid when they don’t have to commit their comments to the permanent record of print. However, some specialised types of jobs, and some areas of the public service, also send written questionnaires to referees, which are often quite lengthy.

Inform referee

Ensure you clearly identify yourself and your employer to the other party, and explain the nature of the job the person has applied for. Tell the referee how long your check is likely to take (5 minutes, 20 minutes, etc). Apart from being courteous, it reduces the chance of a ‘rushed’ call that results in important information being overlooked or covered in insufficient detail.

Verification

It is essential to verify the identity of the person you are seeking a reference from. For this reason, contacting referees via their mobile phone numbers is not recommended – the applicant may have ‘set up’ a friend or relative to pose as a previous employer. Best to make this clear on the initial application form and require work phone numbers only. Similarly, email addresses should be business ones, not hotmail or other personal addresses.

If a reference check form or checklist is used, the checker should record on it the means of verifying the referee’s identity.

If sending a written or emailed questionnaire, it may be advisable to contact the referee by telephone first to explain your request and verify his/her identity.

Some referees, when first contacted by phone, may in turn wish to verify your identity before replying. Therefore, they will offer to call you back at work rather than make comments on the spot.

Verifying qualifications

Where the particular qualification is essential, or very important, to performing the job (eg a law degree, practising certificate, trade certificate or driver’s licence), the initial step is to sight the actual documents, or at least a photocopy of them, but for applicants on your short-list this will usually not be enough.

Many employees have access to their employer’s stationery, and some printers can be used to ‘reproduce’ transcripts either in full, or even by changing a few subject marks. It is also possible to obtain fake copies of driver’s licences, educational qualifications, etc. This is why it is preferable to contact the employer, educational authority or licensing authority yourself.

In the case of driver’s licences, you can ask applicants to provide a statement of their driving record issued by the State licensing authority (such as the RTA in New South Wales). This record will show whether the licence is current, whether any demerit points have accrued and whether the driver has had any past fines or convictions. Alternatively, contact the authority yourself for the information.

Confidentiality

When contacting the relevant authority, you need to explain why you are seeking information about the person, and ensure that you handle any information you receive confidentially, and for no purpose other than assessing the job applicant.

You need to become familiar with the various types of documents, the authorities who issue them, and their requirements and policies.

If you rely on word-of-mouth assurances that the applicant has the required qualifications, you are taking a risk that the ‘evidence’ he/she has provided may be fake. This may make the employer legally liable if the applicant is hired and problems arise later on, particularly if a particular qualification (eg a licence) is required by law to perform the work.

Overseas qualifications

Providing original documents may be difficult for some recently-arrived immigrants; in which case, liaison with the government authorities that check and assess overseas qualifications is recommended – for example, Australian Education International (AEI)

University and trade qualifications

Accreditation status of any ‘university’, ‘degree’ or other qualification in Australia can be verified by the Australian Qualifications Framework. Trades certificates are also covered under the AQF. The licensing authorities operate within State and Territory Governments. You need to check that applicants are licensed to work in the relevant State or Territory because it is not always the case that a licence will be valid in every State/Territory.

Each State Department of Employment (or equivalent title) can provide information on licensing requirements for each occupation or type of work.

Other checks

Other checks that may be relevant to particular jobs include checks of credit rating, criminal record and suitability for employment that involves contact with children. The latter is covered by separate legislation that makes it mandatory for an employer to check – for example, in Victoria.

As with the other checks discussed above, inform the applicant in advance that you will be conducting a check.

Seeking further information on job performance

Apart from the standard types of questions used for most if not all reference checks, you may wish to seek more detailed information about an applicant’s job performance.

A follow-up article will discuss some techniques for doing so, plus how to handle the situation when discrepancies in information occur.

Further information

Australian Standard for Employment Screening, AS 4811-2006 can be purchased from SAI Global.

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