How many of us have heard this oft-spoken mantra before: Your former employer is only allowed to divulge your employment dates and title you held with the organization. Their company policy states that no negativity about you as a former employee can be offered.
If you’re confident that your former employers will always adhere to this policy, you might want to think again. Reference checking firm Allison & Taylor indicates that approximately half of the thousands of reference checks they conduct, reveal some form of employer negativity (typically from either former supervisors or Human Resources personnel). Put another way, what you don’t know can – and almost surely will – prevent you from getting new employment at some future date.
To address this, it is critical that you first identify exactly what your former employers are actually “offering up” about you to potential new employers. In addition to intentional negativity, employers sometimes inadvertently offer information that (for example) may contradict information you have put on your resume. Here is a summary of why you would be well advised to check your own references before embarking on a new job search:
- Your references may not be saying what you expect. If your reference is offering any negativity about you whatsoever, it will put you at a disadvantage vis a vis other candidates whose references are either glowing or neutral. Your odds of landing that job will be negligible at best.
- Prospective employers will not tell you if they have uncovered any reference negativity about you. Instead, they will simply tell you that they have “decided to go in a different direction” or – more likely still – you will simply never hear from that company again.
- The company’s comment policy may not be what they think it is. Again, many people assume that an employer can’t or won’t say anything of a negative nature, and are unpleasantly surprised to find out this may not be the case. Employers all-too-often say unflattering things about former employees.
- Your reference contact may no longer work for the company. Many job seekers make the mistake of not staying in close contact with the person they intend to use for a reference. You need to ensure that person is still there to respond to inquiries. If your reference is no longer there, a reference checker may end up with someone who won’t cast you in such a positive light.
- Your resume information may not reflect their HR records. Beware a scenario where your former employer has different employment dates, position title, or supervisor listed than what you have presented. This type of discrepancy might suggest to a new employer that you are being less than truthful about your former position’s title or responsibilities.
- You may have been omitted from the HR records entirely. This can occur in the case of mergers, where not all records make the transfer into a new system. It is also not uncommon with the self-employed; many companies do not hold records for a contractor in their HR system. It will reflect poorly on you when an employer calls and is told that there is no record of you ever having worked for their company.
Fortunately, reference-checking organizations such as Allison & Taylor can quickly and easily help you verify exactly what your former employers will say about you. In the event that any “unpleasant surprises” are revealed, be aware there are tools likely to ensure that a reference problem is successfully addressed. Again, the first step is to find out what your previous employers are really saying – the career you save, may be your own.
For further details on services and procedures please visit www.AllisonTaylor.com.
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