This is a great article which details why it is sometimes difficult to obtain employment verifications (i.e. references) while conducting a background check on a job candidate. Employers are sometimes reluctant to provide negative information about a former employee due to the threat of a lawsuit. The author of this article does a good job of detailing why it is actually in the employer’s best interest to be honest about their former employee when providing a reference.
Job Reference Chill Grows Icier
Employers’ growing reluctance to talk about former employees frustrates both those doing the hiring and those trying to get hired
By David Hutton, GlobeandMail.com – June 18, 2008
Name, rank, and serial number. That’s pretty much all headhunter Mark Reidl has been hearing lately about job candidates.
“I can’t get references anymore,” complains Mr. Reidl, the president of Acchuman Inc., a Toronto-based executive-search firm.
“I’ve been in the business for 16 years, doing background checks, and companies just aren’t giving references any more. They don’t say anything and, if they do, they certainly aren’t looking to give me the goods,” says Mr. Reidl, who tracks down references for about 80 candidates each year,
Call it job-reference chill. Many employers have long been hesitant to give extensive job references about former employees but, lately, that chill has grown considerably icier, experts say.
That’s causing growing frustration for employers who can’t get the information they need to ensure they’re making the right hire – even as they might be stymieing the efforts of others to do exactly the same.
It’s also causing frustration among job candidates, who may find themselves frozen out of opportunities by the lack of a reference.
Yet, the reluctance is misplaced, legal experts say. Employees have the law on their side and are beginning to fight back. And employers may actually do themselves more harm than good with reference reticence, these experts add, for the law actually protects them in giving honest, even negative, references, over not giving any at all.
