Zero Defect Hiring

It turns out the college dean suffered from severe migraine headaches. But regular exercise lessened their occurrence. So, as a perk in the contract we negotiated, we included a gym membership at a fitness center near the college campus. The woman could easily take the time to work out. Assuming the deanship would be stressful, the goal was not only to predict problems, which are inevitable, but also to incorporate solutions that had been helpful in the past. The gym membership seemed like an inexpensive solution in the dean's case, and it was.

Checking References

A young Washington Post reporter named Janet Cooke created a false rÉsumÉ claiming that she was a graduate of Vassar College. Cooke later won a Pulitzer prize when she wrote a fabricated story about an eight-year-old drug addict. According to Time, reference checking by employers increased as much as 10-fold after Cooke was exposed.

The lesson is clear. When you're looking for demonstrations of a candidate in action, one of the most obvious places to turn is to the candidate's previous track record. If used correctly, references offer not only a snapshot of a person's life but a photo album of strengths and limitations. Increasingly difficult to find in today's litigious climate, references also provide insight into a candidate's behavior.

When it comes to hiring, especially if we fall in love during an interview, most of us balk at taking the next step. Not wanting to hear negative information, we have an allergic reaction to reference checking, and when we do force ourselves to do it, we have a tendency to confirm the facts rather than obtain information.

In Information Anxiety, Richard Saul Wurman gives a marvelous example of the difference between facts and information: "Facts in themselves don't solve the problem. Facts are only meaningful when they relate to a concept that you can grasp. If I say an acre is 43,560 square feet, that is factual but it doesn't tell you what an acre is. On the other hand, if I tell you that an acre is about the size of an American football field without the end zones, it is not as accurate, but...I have made it infinitely more understandable to most Americans because it is as common a plot of ground as we have. We have a sense of that size. And you don't have to play football to know this."

Too often, reference checking is just fact checking and no more. Most people feel that checking references is about as appetizing as eating fish eyes. And most human-resources and legal departments are wary of litigation and advise their employees never to give out reference information except dates of employment. However, no one should ever hire anyone without getting additional information.

If you're persistent, you'll eventually hit pay dirt. Persistence means digging deeper--asking the candidate's references for other references, for example. Your patience will be rewarded as themes, both positive and negative, emerge in the process.

Ask the References to Call You Back. Here's the simplest, most effective reference check that I know. It's also fast and legal. Call references at what you assume will be their lunchtime--you want to reach an assistant or voice mail. If it's voice mail, leave a simple message. If it's an assistant, be sure that he or she understands the last sentence of your message. You say: "Jane Jones is a candidate for (the position) in our company. Your name has been given as a reference. Please call me back if the candidate was outstanding."

The results are both immediate and revealing. If the candidate is outstanding, I guarantee that people will respond quickly and want to help. Take such a response as a green light. Proceed to the next level by checking out the individual. However, if only 2 or 3 of the 10 references selected by the candidate return your call, this message is also loud and clear. And yet--

• No derogatory information has been shared.
• No libelous statements have been made.
• No confidences or laws have been broken.

Ask Candidates, "What Will I Hear?" Always ask candidates, "What am I likely to hear--positive and negative--when I call your references?" The question is both practical and fair. Practical, because it allows the candidates to alert their references to your inquiry. Fair, because it tells the candidates that you will be checking their references in depth, and it gives them a chance to tell their side of the story.

Remember the story of that graduate student we mentioned earlier, whose rÉsumÉ showed him working in France and Japan? Although his potential employer knew nothing about Japan, she asked the candidate, "What will I hear from your references?" The applicant said, "From Japan, you'll hear that I was a whistle-blower. From the American joint-venture partner, whom I didn't list as a reference, you'll probably hear me damned with faint praise." Then the interviewer asked the candidate for his side of the story.

In Japan the young man had discovered that his boss was lying about the company's finances, sales results, and advertising expenditures. These problems aside, "individuality does not exist in Japan," said the candidate. "Loyalty, a paramount cultural value, is to your boss, the group, and the company." Consequently, as a liaison between the joint-venture companies in America and Japan, the candidate had felt that his allegiance was divided. To what boss (and which country) should he tell the truth?

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