With the unemployment price so low, empowered job candidates are flipping the script on conventional recruitment processes by asking potential employers for “reverse references”.
An estimated 70-80 per cent of employers are thought to finish reference checks on the job candidates they intend to enroll. It is a much-used, easy and well-understood course of.
But it has been far much less frequent for job candidates to finish reference checks on potential employers — past a fast web search to see if any purple flags emerge.
In as we speak’s world, the place job candidates might be spoilt for selection, an growing quantity are taking steps to study extra about their potential employers.
Some are asking a string of powerful questions of these interviewing them to assist consider any job supply which may come their manner.
Others are reaching out to present and former staff they’ve by no means met — normally by way of social media platforms akin to LinkedIn — for an off-the-cuff reference test of the organisation they’re contemplating working for.
And then there are those that converse up and ask potential employers to supply contact particulars of present and typically former staff to debate an organization’s office tradition, management, development alternatives and advantages.
Job candidates are more and more utilizing reverse reference checks as a way of verifying whether or not an organisation’s values and work types align with their very own, simply as an employer would possibly contact referees to make sure a candidate is the best match for them.
The pattern in the direction of reverse references gives candidates with a degree of due diligence they haven’t beforehand encountered.
There is a chance to think about a wide range of office subjects, together with whether or not versatile working preparations are fiction or reality; targets set are affordable and achievable; and an organization’s management workforce is as empowering as claimed.
While some employers take umbrage at being requested at hand over contact particulars for a reverse reference, others undertake a extra proactive strategy and supply job candidates an inventory of those that are ready to behave as referees.
Many specialists contemplate a reverse reference test much more essential when a candidate is contemplating working in a digital setting, or the place an organization’s head workplace is in one other State, Territory or nation. In these situations, a reverse reference would possibly present assurance {that a} potential employer is inclusive of staff who stay out of a direct line of sight.
A reverse reference can be a good suggestion in industries the place worker retention charges are low. In these circumstances, a job candidate is more likely to have quite a bit to achieve from conducting a reference test by means of listening to from present staff in regards to the work setting they’re contemplating coming into.
Love them or detest them, with a decent job market prevailing, reverse references will develop into an more and more distinguished a part of the recruitment panorama. So subsequent time an employer is looking your referees to substantiate your suitability for a job, you would possibly flip the tables and announce that you just plan to do the identical with theirs.
Professor Gary Martin is chief govt officer of the Australian Institute of Management WA
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
