Reduce referencing bias with competency based behavioural questions

Third party referencing can be highly valuable as a metric to add to the selection process.

Accurate, predictive and relevant referencing are critical success factors

The skill in gaining accurate, predictive and relevant information is where the true

value of referencing lies.

Who to speak to, how you ask the questions and what is not said are the critical success factors of referencing.

From the resume and during interview, it becomes apparent which of the candidate’s previous roles and skill sets are most relevant to the vacancy being considered. At interview, we ask “and who did you report to here?”. We can then request their manager’s details at the referencing stage. It is unreasonable and very unusual to have access to the current manager.  We generally request the previous manager, or one of most relevant to the role being recruited to.

Recognise the bias when you hear it

Referencing aims to understand the value the person brought and delivered in their previous role. This is best appreciated with examples of demonstrated behaviour in the relevant role. For this reason, we use behavioural competency questions specifically targeted to the vacancy. I have often heard referees asked to make a judgement on how well did X perform in their role, or solve problems. So they say “great” or “OK”. This really doesn’t tell you if they are going to perform well in the vacancy in question. The judgement response merely informs you of the opinion of the referee. They may have developed a friendship or their judgement is biased in some way, and let’s face it this happens to all of us in the workplace over time.

So how do you get around the potential of bias?  Asking the referee for their judgement you are faced with the dilemma of guessing their standards.   Gauging if the performance is relevant to your vacancy, you do need to be able to compare the behavioural example with your role directly.  So how do you do this?

Competency based referencing

What we have found very effective is to ask the referee to provide you with an example of how X solved a particularly complex problem and what was the outcome. Or we ask them to provide a particular example where they influenced the decision making process in an effective way and what were the outcomes. We focus on the competencies of the vacancy and ask for examples of these behaviours in the role being referenced. The referee then provides a specific example and you make the judgement. Ask yourself did this example demonstrate adequate skill or relevance to your vacancy. If the referee is unable to provide a specific behavioural example during your referencing, then they are not the right person to be providing you with a reference for your vacancy.