Exchanging Honest Employment References

There are two distinctly different and often
conflicting sides to the matter of employment
references — checking the references of individuals we
may be interested in hiring and giving out reference
information at the request of other employers. Both
sides of the process are not without their traps and
pitfalls.

by Charles R. McConnell NFIB.com

Surely we want to obtain as much pertinent information
as possible about someone we’re considering hiring. If
we’re like a great many present-day employers,
however, we hesitate to say anything at all about
individuals who have left our company.

In these days of heightened concern for individual
rights and in the presence of a growing body of
legislation addressing privacy, many managers who are
asked for reference information are so sensitive to the
possibility of legal action that they’re reluctant to
give out any information at all. These days many
businesses will give out only job titles and dates of
employment, essentially just verifying employment, and
some employers will not respond to reference requests
at all.

In responding to reference requests there are potential
problems associated with both giving out information
and saying nothing. Many managers are familiar with the
possibility of legal action for violation of privacy;
far fewer, however, seem knowledgeable of or even
concerned about the prospect of legal action associated
with ignoring reference requests.

On the one hand, the business might be sued for
defamation resulting in one’s inability to obtain a
particular job because of something that was said in a
reference check. On the other hand, if the business
providing the reference fails to disclose a serious
problem with an individual who is hired and later
causes harm, the hiring organization might be charged
with negligent hiring, and the business that provided
the reference can in turn be sued for failing to reveal
a potentially dangerous circumstance. Small wonder that
so many managers feel uneasy about exchanging reference
information.

With care, however, it is possible to exchange useful
reference information with minimal legal risk. In fact,
positive or negative statements can be made with
relative safety as long as their truth can be verified
and the information is furnished without malice. It is
of course necessary to always obtain written
authorization to release or request information about
an individual, and it is essential to provide
job-related information only. All information exchanged
must be relevant to employment.

When checking a job applicant’s references:

1. Obtain the individual’s signed release. This must
be employer-specific, noting individually which past
employers should or should not be contacted. (This can
be built into the employment application.)

2. Ask the employer to describe the individual’s job
duties, promotions, demotions, transfers and the like.
Do not solicit opinions or impressions. Doing so is
frequently the source of many of the controversies that
arise over reference information

3. Verify employment dates, job titles, salary
history, attendance record and reason for leaving.

When supplying reference information, give out
information that is verifiable in the person’s
employment record. There is a saying that is applicable
in most legal actions concerned with employment: "If
it’s not in the personnel file, it never happened."

Also, avoid generalities like "He was always late."
Instead you can state, if it’s in your records, "He was
late by more than 15 minutes seven times in June and
nine times in July."

Even honest references can sometimes be a source of
trouble; but in the long run, truth in reference
checking is less hazardous than opinions, impressions,
unproven assertions or deliberately concealed problems.

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