4 Best Questions to Ask Professional References

To better understand whether a candidate may be an excellent fit for a role, you need to talk with their professional references. Because these people worked with the candidate, they can attest to the candidate’s work ethic, hard and soft skills, achievements, strengths, and other pertinent information. You can gain insight into projects they worked on, how they interacted with team members, and whether they would excel with your organization.

Here are four questions to ask a candidate’s professional references.

How Would You Describe the Candidate’s Reliability and Dependability?

Find out how strong the candidate’s reliability, dependability, and related soft skills are. Determine whether they prioritized activities, maintained a consistent schedule, and were relied on as a source of accurate information. Discover how well the candidate collaborated, made themselves available for help, and followed through with commitments.

What Was One of the Candidate’s Most Memorable Accomplishments While Working with You?

Determine which achievement made the candidate stand out for a previous employer. Perhaps the candidate took the initiative on a project or showed leadership in finishing an activity. Find out what the outcome was and how it benefitted the company.

Which Type of Work Environment Do You Think the Candidate Would Be Most Likely to Thrive in, and Why?

Uncover whether the candidate would thrive in your work environment. If the reference discusses an environment different from yours, talk further with the candidate about your culture. Assess whether they’d be comfortable working in an environment different from what they’re used to. If not, consider other candidates who may be a better fit.

Which Skills Would You Have Liked to See the Candidate Develop to Reach Their Full Potential?

Discover gaps in the candidate’s skill set that are relevant to the position. Ask whether the reference believes the candidate may be willing to develop the necessary skills. If so, use this information to help create a plan for the candidate’s professional development. If prior development of the missing skills is required for the role, consider looking for a more qualified candidate.

Always Check References

Always check a candidate’s professional references. Know whether their hard and soft skills will help them excel in the role and your organization. Be certain that the candidate’s previous accomplishments can be built on to attain successful outcomes for your company as well.

For help filling your accounting and finance roles, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We’ll identify six candidates for an opening, then narrow it down to three candidates for your interview and selection process. You choose which candidate to hire. Get started with us today.

What Questions Should You Be Asking Job Candidate References?

A recent survey indicated that recruiters will remove one in five candidates from consideration during the reference check process. Upon interviewing over 1,000 hiring managers, they found:

  • 36 percent said they were interested in getting more insight on the applicant’s past job duties and experience
  • 31 percent used a reference check to learn about candidate’s strengths and weaknesses
  • 21 percent removed a candidate from consideration for a job after speaking to professional contacts

It’s really not surprising that hiring managers eliminate certain candidates during the candidate reference check process. Very often, candidates elaborate on their experience, inflate their own value, and even falsify information hoping no one will check. The smartest hiring managers use a consistent series of reference check questions for all candidates before offering them any employment.

Here are some questions that you can legally use when checking professional candidate references. Along with verifying their position and dates of employment, you will want to ask:

1. What is your relationship to the candidate?

If someone is a good reference for a candidate, they have had some direct supervision or observation to the candidate. Ask specifically about how they worked with this job candidate during their time with the company. Learn about the specific daily interactions, either as a co-worker or a supervisor. The office receptionist or a cousin of the candidate don’t count, sorry.

2. Would you bring them back?

This very simple question is also very important to understanding the reputation of the candidate. If the reference says Yes with no hesitation, it’s a great sign. If they hesitate or refuse to answer, this can be a red flag. Regardless of the answer, follow-up questions are important to gain more insight from the job reference.  Some companies have policies that don’t allow the company to hire a person back once they have left the organization, no matter what the circumstances were when the person left.

3. What are their strengths and weaknesses on the job?

Once you break the ice with a reference it’s perfectly legal to ask about the performance of the candidate. Ask for the candidate’s biggest strengths and weaknesses, which can then be compared to how the candidate answers later in the interview. If the reference is being hesitant to talk about anything specific (especially in the weakness area), then have a list of questions prepared to gain the information that you want. When a bland answer comes from “What are their biggest weaknesses” then ask more direct questions about attention to detail, creativity, etc.

As part of the job hiring process, job references can become an integral piece of that process. They give information that you can’t learn directly from the job candidate. A well thought-out plan of questions for the job references can lead to great information that helps you make the best decision.

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