6 Ways to Increase the Value of References

6 Ways to Increase the Value of References

Jan 17, 2019 | Assessment, Organisational Psychology

What is the value of references?

A reference can defined as, “the action of mentioning or alluding to something, the use of a source of information in order to ascertain something.”

When it comes to hiring someone, we talk about “taking up references,” meaning that we will contact a number of people nominated by the prospective employee. These people become a source of information to help us, the recruiter, ascertain whether the candidate is worth hiring.

So far so good. A reference is a potentially useful data point to support better decision making. If you think about any hiring decision, it is similar to a risk assessment. We want to be as sure as possible that the person we are hiring will be able to perform successfully in the target job. References potentially reduce the risk of a bad decision and poor performance in the job by providing us with additional data about the candidate.

References also provide an essential check. They can corroborate information given by the candidate about qualifications, work history, salary, skills to do the job. This check is particularly important when you consider:

  1. A survey by Career Builder reported that 77% of respondents had caught candidates in a lie on their resume.

2. In a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey, 53% of respondents discovered falsified information during their checks.

3. 51% of respondents who checked salaries found misinformation had been given.

No wonder then that SHRM reports that over 80% of human resource professionals say that they regularly conduct reference checks for different positions.

But the actual taking up of references can be difficult.

  • The references listed on a candidate’s resume/cv are unlikely to be people who will say bad things about them. At times, we get asked to act as a reference for one of our clients. Inevitably we ask them, “What would you like us to say about you?” However truthful the positive comments, the recruiter won’t necessarily get an entirely balanced view!
  • If one of the references given is the candidate’s current manager, be aware that if the manager is feeling ‘left,’ he/she may not be as positive about the candidate as they might deserve. Alternatively, if the candidate is being ‘let go,’ the manager may feel some guilt and so be more positive than the candidate deserves. This tendency may well be compounded if the reference is written.
  • Legal constraints further complicate matters when it comes to providing references. Companies that provide references have a legal duty towards the employee, who is the subject of the reference as well as to the prospective employer. Too negative a reference, which results in the candidate not getting hired may lead to a defamation suit. While providing an overly positive reference or leaving out critical information may leave the company open to liability.
  • Far easier to avoid the liability and not to give any assessment of the candidate’s performance. Far simpler to give the barest details of the person’s employment history – dates of employment, job title and salary. Apart from allowing the prospective employer to check the box on references and ensure that the candidate has not fabricated everything they have said, this type of ‘no comment’ reference is worthless. With the risks and costs of litigation rising, nearly 75% of Fortune 1000 companies will now only provide ‘no comment’ references.

OMG! Faced with these difficulties you never want to touch another reference again – ever! And that’s before you’ve added in #MeToo.

But remember, references do provide useful data points to support our decision making about prospective employees, by giving us additional data. And references do give us a useful check.

Many companies now hire specialist firms to do comprehensive background checks on candidates, particularly for senior or sensitive positions. That’s one way to go.

But without the resources to hire specialists, how can we increase the value of references?

1. If necessary, obtain written approval from any candidate for taking up references which should include a signed release form, allowing former employers to speak freely without fear of legal liability.

2. Be aware that the anti-discrimination laws that apply to interviewing also apply to references. You cannot ask questions about age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status. Nor can you use this information in making your hiring decision.

3. Speak to references over the phone. Don’t rely on written references, but ask questions to supplement or corroborate what has been asked at interview.

4. Always focus on the knowledge and competencies you are seeking to assess for the target job.

5. Seek behavioral examples of the particular competencies you are assessing. Remember that past performance is the best predictor of future performance.

6. Document any reference check you make with thorough (and legible!) notes of what the person says. Your notes should form part of the recruitment record for the candidate.

 

Do these 6 common sense things and the value you obtain from the references you contact will increase exponentially.

 

References

Three Reasons to Invest in Emotional Intelligence

Three Reasons to Invest in Emotional Intelligence

Nov 27, 2018 | Organisational Psychology

I love when people remind me that it is not always the things we do that matter, but the way we do them.  So much of our lives are consumed with what we have to get done that we get little time to reflect on how we are doing it.  Yet it is the manner in which we do things that often makes the difference between success and failure.

A business development executive recently contacted me for coaching.  Her goal?  To move up to the next level.  She was successful in her current role and had just received great feedback on a 360° assessment.  She was at a loss as to why she was not getting the promotion she felt she deserved.  When asked about her biggest challenge, she laughed and said, “richly scheduled.”  I wondered what this even meant, let alone how it was getting in the way of her advancing her career.  It turned out that her days were filled with meetings.

Everyone in the company complained about so many meetings, “Are you kidding? Another *@%*g meeting!” But for better or worse, meetings were part of her company’s culture and how it communicated. 

Coaching allowed her to actively choose to look at things positively, whether it was meetings, work problems, or her boss!  Specifically, she came to see meetings as an opportunity to share ideas, promote her team, or help others in the organization.  She learned that the attitude she brought to a situation could influence others positively, which in turn made it more likely that a good outcome would be achieved.  And with success, it was easier to continue to think positively, thus creating a virtuous cycle. 

Another coaching client was also successful in his job.  He described himself as driving results for his team.  He set high standards for himself and for others.  He had the respect of his team, because they knew he would roll up his sleeves in a crisis.  However, he had got feedback that he was volatile, often allowing his frustration with situations and people to show.  He also had a tendency to take over tasks which he saw as not being handled well by his staff.  He too wanted to get promoted.  But he refused to see that his behaviour was negatively impacting others.  “They know how I am,” he said.  And he did not understand that he needed to change these behaviours if he wanted to move up through the organisation. 

 The difference between the two is in their Emotional Intelligence (EQ).  It is our Emotional Intelligence that underpins how we operate at work and in life in general. 

So what is EQ exactly?

When Daniel Goleman first published his book on EQ in 1995, it provided the missing piece to an intriguing puzzle: people with average IQs outperform those with the high IQs 70% of the time. This finding had thrown a massive wrench into what many people had always assumed was the sole source of success—IQ (General Intelligence).  

It has now been established, by Goleman and others, that EQ accounts for 58% of performance in all types of jobs.  Their research has shown that a high EQ is the critical factor that separates the exceptional performer from everyone else.  This is the number one reason why you should invest in your EQ.  And reason number 2?  Unlike IQ, which stays the same throughout our adult lives, EQ can be developed. 

Emotional Intelligence is our ability to recognise and understand emotions in ourselves and others and the ability to use this awareness to manage our behaviour and relationships.

In their excellent book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (2009), Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves define Emotional Intelligence as being made up of four core skills that pair up under what they call personal and social competence.

EQ is Made up of Four Core Skills

 Personal competence focuses on us as individuals.  It is our ability to be aware of our emotions and manage our tendencies and behavior.

  • Self-Awareness is our ability to accurately perceive our emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.
  • Self-Management is our ability to use awareness of our emotions to stay flexible and positively direct our behaviour.

Social competence is our ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviour, and motives in order to improve the quality of our relationships.

  • Social Awareness is our ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on – to hear the music behind the words.
  • Relationship Management is our ability to use awareness of our emotions and others’ to manage our relationships successfully.

 What are the benefits of developing our EQ?

 Emotional Intelligence enables leaders to identify and manage emotions in themselves and others for the benefit of their team, their customers and their organization.  But EQ also underpins a host of other skills which are important for success at work.   

A Little Effort Grows a Lot!

So, if we develop our EQ, we will also get better at managing stress, influencing others, communicating and making effective decisions.  In a nutshell, developing our Emotional Intelligence makes us more responsive, flexible and effective leaders – reason number three.

Studies by TalentSmart, a leading provider of Emotional Intelligence products and services, suggest that 90% of high performers are also high in EQ.  At the other end of the performance spectrum, only 20% of poor performers are high in EQ. 

People who work at developing their EQ tend to be more successful in their jobs, because the two go hand in hand.  With more success comes more money.  The link between EQ and earnings is so direct that every point increase in EQ adds $1300 to annual salary.  These findings hold true for people working in all industries at all levels in every region of the world. (Bradberry & Greaves 2009)

  • 515 senior executives analyzed by the search firm Egon Zehnder International, found that those who were primarily strong in Emotional Intelligence were more likely to succeed than those who were strongest in either relevant previous experience or IQ. The study included executives in Latin America, Germany, and Japan. The results were almost identical in all three cultures.
  • 358 managers in Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer & Personal Care Group were rated on a leadership 360° assessment. High performing managers had significantly more ‘emotional competence’ than other managers (Cavallo & Brienza 2002)
  • In a large beverage firm, using standard methods to hire division presidents resulted in 50% leaving within two years, mostly because of poor performance. When the company started selecting based on emotional competencies such as initiative, self-confidence, and leadership, only 6% left in two years. Furthermore, the executives selected based on emotional competence were far more likely to perform in the top third based on salary bonuses for performance of the divisions they led: 87% were in the top third. In addition, division leaders with these competencies outperformed their targets by 15 to 20 percent. Those who lacked them under-performed by almost 20% (McClelland, 1999).
  • Research by the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego has found that the primary causes of derailment in executives involve deficits in emotional competence. The three primary ones are difficulty in handling change, not being able to work well in a team, and poor interpersonal relations.

And my ‘richly scheduled’ client? 

She is now one of the top 10 business development people in the same multi-billion dollar business and has started coaching younger business development staff.

References

Bradberry, T & Greaves, J.  “Emotional Intelligence 2.0.” San Diego, TalentSmart (2009)

Cavallo, K. & Brienza, D. “Emotional Competence and Leadership Excellence at Johnson &

Johnson: The Emotional Intelligence Leadership Study.” Website: http://www.eiconsortium.org (2002)

Cerniss, C. “The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence.” Prepared for the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, Rutgers University (1999)

Goleman, D. “Emotional Intelligence.” New York, Bantam (1995)

Hunter, J. E., & Hunter, R. F. “Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance.” Psychological Bulletin, 76(1), 72-93 (1984)

McClelland, D. C. “Identifying competencies with behavioral-event interviews.” Psychological Science, 9(5), 331-339 (1999)

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