Regardless of the type of position you are trying to fill, finding the person with the best qualifications and the one that will fit in best with your team can be two different challenges.
This photo suggests that everyone in it gets along, but you really don’t know that to be true. Similarly, a resume documents qualifications but doesn’t adequately tell you “who” the candidate is. Traditional recruiting approaches rely heavily on the impression that the candidate makes on the interviewer(s) during a short period of time when everyone is finely attuned to the process and the objectives. Sequential interviews are a great way of broadening the basis for “knowing” who will be joining your team. But that still leaves gaps.
Prior employment verification is an important way to verify timelines but doesn’t fill the need because prior employers really aren’t at liberty to give much information. Plus, they can take valuable time.
That’s where professional reference checks can play a key part of the process.
Using personal phone calls works but the biggest limiting factors are the time it takes to make the connection and the willingness of the reference to speak freely. Most often, employers ultimately forego serious reference checking because it’s just too much work for too little payback.
BCG SmartCheck offers a full suite of tools and approaches, that includes interactive Pre-Employment Assessments, deep background checking, and drug/alcohol testing, and each of those are effective ways to fill in pieces of the puzzle. BCG SmartCheck eReferences can be the perfect solution to this need.
- Are professional references that are directly introduced by the candidate (by email or text) and are directly made online at the convenience and privacy of the respondent.
- Uses questions that are tailored to your needs and interests that can be answered by free-form text, multiple choice answers, or ranking.
- Presents answers to these questions so they can give insight into behavioral, technical, or functional aspects of the candidate’s potential.
- Makes everyone more comfortable because responses are kept confidential or shared based on the agreement between you and your candidates.
- Provides responses summaries that can be reviewed and compared for the insight to nail down those last few questions you might have before delivering the offer.
A Quick and Cost-effective Solution
- eReferences take the burden of making personal phone reference calls off of Human Resources and other administrative/management personnel
- this standardizes the quality of the responses.
- this increases the likelihood that they will get completed.
- Experience shows that
- References get completed quickly. 85% of Respondents answer the email or text within 2 days of being asked.
- Respondents tend to feel more comfortable giving a candid answer because they know the candidate specifically asked them to do so.
- People tend to be franker when responding online rather than when talking to someone they don’t know personally.
- eReferences are cost-effective
- They can be performed as a stand-alone or as part of a more robust screen.
- They are priced on a sliding cost scale that makes it logical to use professional reference checks as a metric in making sound hiring decisions.
For more information about eReferences, contact Ben Ventresca, Managing Partner – Brandywine Consulting Group, Inc at 610.696.1905.