Let’s assume that you interviewed six candidates: Tony, Sara, Laura, Harry, Phil, and Dennis. Of the six, you have chosen Sara as your new customer service rep. She is currently unemployed, and she can come to work as soon as you can put through the paperwork—next Monday.
Before you offer her the job, you may want to do a reference check. Work history and education are perhaps the easiest qualifications to verify. Deciding that candidates wouldn’t lie about something that could easily be checked, many managers don’t bother checking references, and consequently, false claims on resumes go undetected.
Do check references, including such basics as education and job experience. Bill, a good friend, hired a young editor who claimed to have a degree from Harvard. Maybe the job candidate was at Harvard, but it was as a visitor to the campus—he had never attended the school. His lie was discovered two months later when further discrepancies caused the HR department to investigate his background extensively. He had made up some of his personal references, his Harvard degree, the death of a fiancée so he could take a week off immediately upon being hired, and the name of the hospital where he supposedly stayed after being mugged.
Needless to say, he was terminated as soon as the organization uncovered his trail of lies.
Unlike my friend Bill’s hire, the candidate you hire—Sara—passes the reference check, and, as planned, she is scheduled to come to work on Monday. What should you do next?