Do's and don'ts when deciding on new employees

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Last week, Career offered exit employers advice on how to avoid pitfalls when giving verbal references. This week: what do new employers need to know?

1: Reference checks should be just one part of a comprehensive application process, which might include structured interviews and psychometric testing.

2: The burden to check facts is on the new employer. Ensure you have the right questioning skills - ask thorough and searching questions, such as: how can the candidate's performance be rated against peers?

When and how did that person go beyond the job description to the company's benefit? In what ways will the candidate be missed? Why did they leave? Request examples to back up what is claimed.

3: You have the right to label an application process incomplete if an applicant refuses to release names of referees, says law expert Bill Hodge. Such baulking should ring alarm bells immediately, even if privacy is cited.

But phone calls for references without permission from the candidate are "on the edge of legality", he says.

4: Consider ringing and telling a referee that you would like to set aside time to talk with them rather than ring out of the blue.

5: Put the onus on candidates by having each fill out a comprehensive application form which asks about any impediment to employment. Go through it page by page to ensure it's comprehensively filled out, says Hodge.

6: Read between the lines. Do questions to referees elicit long silences or awkward answers? They may be trying to minimise their exposure to liability.