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Let’s skip over the fact that asking someone’s best friend about their best friend is absolutely silly. (And as far as insanity goes, this is an enormous thing to skip over.)
What exactly are you hoping some stranger tells you?
More importantly:
👉Why are you holding some rando’s answers with more weight than the person you just interviewed?
Granted 99.9% of reference checks come back positive. (This number is somewhat made up. It's based on the exactly 1 negative review I’ve gotten from a best-friend reference in my career. Back to that point above we skipped over…)
Why trust one stranger’s opinion more than the stranger you spent 10x the time interviewing?
I know, I know. Perhaps reference checks are more about career development? So let’s be honest about that:
👉The “what could they improve upon” question is the only one that matters.
Still: how many times can you hear ““they work so hard they sometimes burn themselves out”? 🤔
There’s value in background checks. And employment verification. And even more well thought-out employee development convos.
Let’s start 2022 by leaving the compliance driven, check-box busy work in the rear view.
Full episode of The 10 Minute Talent Rant w/Jeff Smith, ep 28 “Reference Checks Are Stupid” here.
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