As an employer, you would want to check the prospective employee reference in order to have a better insight on his past performance.

Some references will give detailed information about the employee, while others won’t share all the information they have.
Those who are willing to discuss in details are most likely references that had good experience with the employee.
They can tell you their experience on the candidate’s job performance, attitude and other important aspects that may be the ‘make or break’ for taking a decision about the candidate.

The article deals with checking references. It provides questions for reference check form and discusses about some reference checking points to consider.

This article is part of the articles’ series called – reference check for employers.
Refer also to:
1. Job Reference example: job reference format for applicants.   
2. Employee Reference Check: Questions for Reference Checks (this article is for candidates).

Reference Check Form: Questions for Reference Checks

Employment Reference Check Questions: The first reference check questions are aimed to verify the basic employment info about the candidate such as: employment dates, positions and responsibilities.
If the basic employment information doesn’t match what you’ve heard from the candidate during the interview process, you’d get the first warning sign to have doubts about the candidate ethics.

The other questions may give you a better insight on the candidate’s performance and other personality aspects.
Here is a reference check questionnaire as a reference check template/form:
1. Tell Me about [Candidate Name]. How many year he work for [the company name]? When did s/he leave?

2. What was his/her Work Experience? Position, job title and responsibilities.  

3. Was he promoted while working with your company?

4. Did you evaluate his performance on a regular basis? How did s/he react and cope with feedback?  

5. Did he lead a team? How effective he was? How would his teammates describe him?

6. Can you describe the main traits of [Candidate name] for us?
   • Some leading questions could be: Is he/she a problem solver? A good communicator? An initiator? An organizer? Is he a team player?

7. Why Did [Candidate Name] Leave his Job? If he/she was fired – What were the reasons that he/she was fired?

8. Can you tell us about any issues that impacted his job performance?

9. What interest him about the job?

10. Why do you think he chose this career?

11. How did he handle/cope with challenges?

12. How did he handle conflicts or pressure and stressed situations?

13. What are his/her Strengths and Weaknesses?

14. What did [candidate name] like/dislike about the job?

15. What was his/her relationship with supervisors and co workers?

16. What motivates him?

17. What was his/her Greatest Achievement in the [company name]?

18. If it’s possible to tell – What was is salary?

19. Can s/he be a manager or a team leader?

20. Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

The last question – Would you hire this candidate back?

How to Check References – Checking Employee References

You can establish a reference check policy before the hiring process based on the following factors:
• Ask for references: Tell the candidates that you’re going to perform due-diligence (reference check) before taking the hiring decision.

• Who is the reference: Ask each candidate to tell you the type of working relationship he has with the reference.

• Questions to ask the reference: Ask those questions that are important for the job requirement and those that you would want extra information based on what you learned from the applicant during the interview process.

• Reference Answers: Listen carefully to the answers. Are these answers made up or prepared before? Are the answers too similar to the candidate’s answers?

• Positive or Negative reference: If the reference has only positive comments about the candidate, you would be wise to give less weight to this particular reference.