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I'm the founder of a company and I recently received a call for a reference check on one of our former employees. I'm wondering what standard protocol for handling these. I've heard that in many companies the former employer will do nothing more than confirm dates of employment for liability reasons. But I don't want to throw our ex-employee under the bus either. Having said that, he wasn't the greatest employee so I also don't want to lie of course.

What is the best way to handle this?

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That will depend on the culture and the laws of the land. Please tell us which country / area you're in. :-| – Jesper Mortensen♦ Mar 19 '10 at 12:07

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I am not a lawyer, but my business law professor said you should be careful in these situations. Providing a bad reference leaves you open to lawsuits from the former employee, but providing a good reference when you you shouldn't leaves you open to lawsuits from the new employer. This is why many companies only confirm dates of employment. Hopefully someone with more knowledge in this area can clarify this.

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+1. I would only confirm dates of employment and titles held. Even with releases companies make candidates sign, I just would not want any chance of issues arising. If an employee was an exceptional one, then I would provide a review on the value he/she provided directly to your company. I would never answer questions about their character, compensation, or anything else beyond direct contributions to the company bottom line. – Apollo Sinkevicius Mar 18 '10 at 20:08
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If the employee did not ask you to be a reference, just give the basic information and indicate that is your policy. It's your former employees obligation to explain why he didn't use you as a reference.

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The answer may vary slightly by the jurisdiction in which your company operates, but from what I have learned over the years, here's what I do:

  • I never respond verbally, I only respond in writing.
  • I always require that the entity sending the request do so in writing, and that they also include some form of blanket authorization signed by the former employee.
  • I never provide more than dates of employment and last position held, in my written response

However, if the former employee left under bad circumstance, and if I know the owner of the entity making the request, I will call that owner on the phone and ask whether he or she would like to go out for coffee...

Here's a trick I use when I'm trying to get a reference out of a former employer that my company is trying to hire: if that former employer has a policy similar to ours, and will only give dates of employment and last position held, I will try to talk with a supervisor or HR manager and ask if there's any way they can help me. If they say no but seem to be sorry about that, I will ask them, "Let's try this: think about that former employee for a moment. Do you have a mental picture of them now?" and if they say, yes, they do, then I ask them, "Well, are you smiling or are you frowning?" Every once in a while that one will connect with the person on the other end of the line, and they'll cooperate with me by answering my question.

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