When candidates put together their employment reference checks, most of them will only include people who will sing their praises and let potential employers know how wonderful they were. In other words, most references supplied by candidates are biased toward the potential employee. Some are even false. I've encountered people who have used their close friends as employment references and asked their friends to pose as their former supervisors. This happens more often than you think.

I don't want to downplay the importance of references supplied by the candidate. These references should be checked, but know that these references are prepared to say a bunch of good, fluffy things about the candidate. Far more revealing are the references from the supervisors, former colleagues and former subordinates whose names and numbers aren't on the candidate's prepared list.

Thorough Employment Reference Checks

Employment reference checks should be thorough, not some watered down task performed because it's something you're supposed to do. I've worked with a number of HR departments and some of the biggest companies in the world still pay very little attention to employment reference checks. They call a couple of people the candidate writes down on the application and they are satisfied. Then they wonder why turnover is approaching 20 percent.

During the first interview, ask some inquisitive questions, some questions that lead to the people he or she worked with during their last job. Don't be afraid to ask for names. These are the references you will eventually check. These are the people who will give you more objective feedback. In addition, make sure your candidate knows that you will be checking his/her references. If you're using a third party vendor to check references, you'll need to have your candidate read and sign a Notice and Disclosure Form to acknowledge that your company performs background checks as part of your hiring process.