Make Reference Check A Part Of Executive Screening

By Author: Naman Vohra
Total Articles: 42

Senior leaders represent the values of an organisation to a large extent as they are the ones who make strategies and planning in order to reach the business goals. A wrong leader at the most authoritative position can result in heavy losses for the companies in case the leader decides to take the illegal route to further his/her personal interests at the cost of the company's interests. This is why, it is very important that the company takes enough measures to be ensured that the person filling the leadership position is someone who has a record of showing integrity all throughout his/her professional tenure. Thus it is important to make sure that the candidate being recruited after being subjected to advanced background verification has high integrity, is honest and an ideal leader. One check that is capable of bringing out information on a person’s integrity is reference check.

Background screening of a senior leader comprises of various checks which are address check, education verification, criminal background check and reference check etc. Most of the checks are about verification of the information stated by the leadership candidate. Unlike the other checks reference check involves an extensive research to come up with references other than what is stated by the candidate.

Reference check as a part of leadership screening process is conducted in a discreet manner keeping in mind the sensitivity of the position. While conducting reference check, multiple references are dug out and contacted to get a feedback on the prospective candidate's personality traits. Through reference check references are asked to provide their feedback on the prospective leader's integrity, skills and performance. While conducting reference check as a part of executive screening interaction should be made with everyone with whom the prospective leader had worked closely. While a reference check is being carried out in the course of an executive screening, key points should be paid attention to as it might bring out any critical and vital information relevant to be known. Necessary probing should be incorporated to extract the maximum information possible.

Information gathered from reference check plays an important role in the background verification for leaders as it helps in fetching fact-based information from genuine references. Reference check when carried out through a third party professional, acts as an important source of true and valuable information in their compilation of a comprehensive and usable verification report, based on which can a company take an informed hiring decision.