Everyone You Call Is Going to Say They Were Great.

Mar 24
3 min read

How to run reference checks that actually tell you something.

Let us be honest about what a traditional reference check is. Your candidate has chosen three people who like them. Those people know they are being called as a reference. They have had time to prepare. They are almost certainly going to tell you the candidate is hardworking, collaborative and a pleasure to work with.

So the question is not whether to do reference checks. The question is whether you are doing them in a way that actually surfaces anything useful.

The answer, for most organizations, is no. But it does not have to be.

Why references are not useless - your questions just might be

The problem with most reference checks is not the concept. It is the execution. Generic questions produce generic answers. When you ask someone to describe the candidate's strengths, you are essentially asking them to recite the script they prepared. When you ask whether they would recommend this person, of course they will say yes - they agreed to be a reference.

The value in a reference check is not in what people say. It is in how they say it. Hesitation, vague language, an abrupt pivot to talking about the role rather than the person, enthusiasm that feels rehearsed versus genuine - these are signals. But you will only pick them up if you are asking questions that are harder to rehearse.

The value in a reference check is not in what people say. It is in how they say it.

The questions that are harder to dodge

A few questions consistently produce more honest responses than the standard script:

"Would you rehire this person?" This is the single most diagnostic question in a reference check. It is binary. It is personal. And silence, or a qualified yes, is data. Listen for how quickly and how cleanly they answer.
"What does this person need to do their best work?" This reframes the conversation from evaluation to intelligence gathering. Most references will answer it honestly because it does not feel like a trap. And it often surfaces things you would never get from a direct question about weaknesses.
"How did they handle a situation where something went wrong?" Ask for a specific example, not a general assessment. Specificity is hard to rehearse. If a reference struggles to come up with an example, or the example feels oddly polished, that tells you something.
"Is there anything about this role that you think would be a stretch for them?" Frame it around fit, not failure. People are more willing to flag a mismatch than a flaw.
"What advice would you give their next manager?" This question consistently unlocks honest, practical information because it sounds helpful rather than evaluative.

Using references to onboard, not just screen

One shift that changes the entire dynamic of a reference check: stop treating it purely as a screening exercise and start treating it as onboarding intelligence.

When you ask a reference what this person needs to do their best work, you are not just assessing fit. You are gathering information that, if the candidate is hired, will help their manager set them up for success. That framing also tends to make references more forthcoming, because it feels collaborative rather than evaluative.

Some organizations share a summary of reference insights with the hiring manager at the offer stage. Not as a vetting document, but as a "here is what we learned about how to work well with this person." It is a small shift that makes reference checks feel like they have a purpose beyond the checkbox.

A few practical notes

Call more than three references when the role warrants it. Three is a minimum, not a target.
Take notes on tone and pacing, not just content. What someone does not say is often as informative as what they do.
If a reference gives a qualified answer to "would you rehire," follow up. Do not let it pass.
Recency matters. A reference from eight years ago is less useful than one from the last two years.
For senior roles, consider asking candidates to provide references from direct reports, not just managers and peers.

Reference checks will never be perfect. But they can be significantly more useful than they typically are if you stop treating them as a formality and start treating them as a skill.

The candidate picked their references carefully. That does not mean you cannot learn something real. It means you have to ask better questions.