Prospective employers often want a third opinion about candidates, writes Ann-Maree Moodie.
Can you answer this question with reasonable accuracy: what would the people who work with you like to change about you?
This is one of the questions an executive search consultant, Heidi Mason, likes to ask referees to obtain a truthful picture of a candidate for a job vacancy.
"It's a question that leads to a much more open and honest answer than the more traditional question asking about the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate's leadership style," says Mason, of executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Choosing someone to be a referee is a tricky science. The person needs to know you well enough to provide a fulsome perspective of your personality, as well as how you perform at work - your achievements as well as your failures. They should be an advocate but not an acolyte.
"Consider asking people you worked for, with and who worked for you over the past couple of roles," Mason says. "I would recommend that the person isn't someone with whom you've kept up a personal relationship as their comments are assumed to be biased."
For these reasons, the decision to accept an invitation to provide a reference should not be taken lightly. The search consultant will want you to be open and honest as well as appropriately balanced in your views; you will need to be able to answer a variety of questions.
"The questions should be carefully targeted both to confirm the strengths the consultant sees in the candidates but also to drill down on open issues and finally to understand the areas of perceived weaknesses," Mason says. "Questions should be open-ended and seek evidence not just opinions. They also should be relevant to the way in which the referee worked with the candidate. For example, if the referee is a peer they are not the right person to ask about the candidate's people leadership."
Reina Nicholls, of Sydney-based search firm Emissary Partners, says a reference interview will take about 45 minutes, so a potential referee needs to consider the time and emotional energy required before agreeing to be involved.
"One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself is whether you respect the employee/candidate in question and are a supporter of their career given their professional performance in recent years," Nicholls says. "If the answer to either of those questions is 'no' then you need to decline the request to be a referee immediately.
"Secondly, you need to ask yourself whether you have worked closely enough with this person to be able to answer detailed questions about their achievements, work style, and strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise you will perform badly as a referee and it will be an extremely uncomfortable telephone call."
Typically, the questions will ask you to:
- Verify the information provided by the employee/candidate about the level of seniority and breadth of their professional experience at a firm;
- Confirm the candidate's performance in the role - style, behaviour, professionalism, technical skills, leadership capability, stakeholder management and so on;
- Determine a third-party view of the person in action from a day-to-day perspective of a peer, a manager and sometimes either a client or a junior team member;
- Gain a perspective as to how they behave in a team, leadership, business development situation;
- Provide an opinion of whether the new role being offered to the candidate is appropriate for them and whether they feel the candidate will perform well in that role.
Another issue a potential referee needs to consider is that under privacy legislation candidates can gain access to the comments made by the referee.
"In all likelihood, candidates will only be seeking that information if they did not get the job and are possibly looking for a reason as to why," Nicholls says. "A host of things could then happen from that point - all of which will take up the referee's time and emotional energy."
Potential referees should also check with their employer as to whether they are permitted to provide references before agreeing to do so.
Some employers don't allow incumbent employees to discuss another employee's performance on the record.
Ann-Maree Moodie is the managing director of The Boardroom consulting group.
How to choose a referee
Determining a list of referees who will provide a recruiter or future employer with an accurate assessment of your personality, work style and capabilities requires much thought. The first consideration is how well the person knows you. A recruiter is likely to take 30 minutes to an hour of the referee's time for the interview — does the person know you well enough to answer 45 minutes of questions?
A well-chosen referee will be able to offer a balanced view. There is no point in the person only talking up your achievements — even the most ideal candidate for a position will have flaws. A referee who can talk about your failures and how you bounced back, for example, will be much more useful to a recruiter.
Another consideration is how much you trust the person you've put forward as a referee. If you think the referee is likely to divulge to your current employer that you're planning to leave, choose someone else.