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reference check questions

Reference Check Questions: 27 to Ask, and What to Listen For

·7 min read

The short answer

Good reference check questions ask for examples, not opinions: what the person actually did, how they handled a hard moment, and whether the referee would hire them again. Confirm the facts first, spend most of the call on the two or three things the new role depends on, and listen for hesitation as closely as for content.

  • Talk to former managers first: they saw the work and had to judge it. Peers and reports add how the person worked with others.
  • Call rather than email. Written references come back polished; a conversation lets you follow up.
  • Ask "would you hire them again?" last, and notice how long the pause is.
  • Get the candidate’s consent before you contact anyone, and never ask about health, family, age or other protected characteristics.
Check the work before the references →Read the full article ↓

References confirm a pattern; a work sample shows what someone can do in your role. Cohesyve, which publishes this blog, builds those from a job description.

A reference check is the last chance to learn something you couldn't find out yourself. Done as a formality, it confirms what the candidate told you and changes nothing. Done well, it tells you how the person actually works, from someone who watched them do it.

The difference is almost entirely in the questions. "Was she good?" gets "Yes, great." "Tell me about a deadline she was going to miss, and what she did" gets a story you can use.

Before the call

Do it late, and with consent. Check references once a candidate is on your shortlist, not before the first interview: it is a real cost to the referees, and to the candidate if their current employer hears about it. Ask the candidate for permission and for the names, and tell them roughly when you will call.

Pick the right people. A former manager is worth more than anyone else, because they saw the work and had to judge it. Ask for at least one. A peer or a direct report adds how the person treats colleagues. Be wary of references who only knew the candidate socially, or for a few weeks.

Decide what you need to learn. Before you dial, write down the two or three things the role depends on, taken from your scorecard or the gaps your interviews left open. "Can she run a month-end close without supervision?" is something a reference can answer. "Is she a good fit?" is not.

Book a call, not an email. Fifteen to twenty minutes on the phone gets more than any form. People write carefully and speak honestly, and you can't follow up on an email.

How to open

Tell the referee who you are, the role you are hiring for in one sentence, and that the candidate gave you their name. Say how long you need, and that you will keep what they say confidential to the hiring team. Then start with the easy questions: they warm people up and confirm the facts.

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The questions

Each question below comes with what to listen for. You won't need all 27; pick the ones that test what your role depends on.

The relationship (confirm the facts)

  1. How do you know [candidate], and for how long did you work together? Listen for: a working relationship long enough to judge, ideally a year or more.
  2. What was their role, and what were they responsible for? Listen for: a match with what the candidate told you. Small differences in title don't matter; a different job does.
  3. How closely did you work with them, and on what? Listen for: specific projects. A referee who can't name any didn't see much of the work.
  4. Were you their manager? If not, who was? Listen for: the answer to who else you might ask.

The work itself

  1. What were they best at? Can you give me an example? Listen for: an example that comes quickly and has detail. Strengths that need thinking about are not strengths.
  2. What's one piece of their work you still remember, and why? Listen for: what the referee valued, which tells you as much about the referee as about the candidate.
  3. We need them to [the role's main task]. Have you seen them do something like it? How did it go? Listen for: direct evidence. "I'm sure they could" means they haven't seen it.
  4. How did they compare with others you've had in the same role? Listen for: a ranking. "Top of the team" and "solid" are very different answers.
  5. What did they get noticeably better at while you worked together? Listen for: growth. People who improved before tend to improve again.
  6. What would you have wanted them to do more of, or less of? Listen for: a real answer. This is the softer way to ask for weaknesses, and it gets more honest replies.
  7. Tell me about a deadline they were going to miss. What did they do? Listen for: when they raised it. Early and with options is what you want.

Working with other people

  1. How did they handle someone who disagreed with them? Listen for: whether they listened, and whether they could still work with that person afterwards.
  2. How did they take feedback? Can you think of a time? Listen for: what changed after the feedback, not how gracefully they received it.
  3. What kind of manager or team got the best out of them? Listen for: a description you can compare with your own team. A mismatch here is useful to know.
  4. How did they deliver bad news? Listen for: early, plainly and with a plan, or late and softened.
  5. Who did they work best with, and who did they find hard? Listen for: a pattern. Everyone finds someone hard; the type of person matters.

Judgement and integrity

  1. Tell me about a decision of theirs you disagreed with. What happened? Listen for: whether the referee respected the reasoning even while disagreeing.
  2. When they made a mistake, how did you find out? Listen for: "they told me." Hearing it from someone else is a pattern worth asking about.
  3. Did they ever push back on something you asked them to do? How? Listen for: pushback that was reasoned and respectful. Never pushing back can be as much of a concern as pushing back on everything.
  4. Is there anything about how they work that would help me set them up well? Listen for: the honest caveat. Referees often give it here, framed as advice.

Growth and fit for this role

  1. What support did they need from you? Listen for: how much management they took, and of what kind.
  2. Where do you think they'll grow next? Listen for: whether that direction matches the role you have.
  3. What kind of role would they not enjoy? Listen for: a description of your role. If it sounds like yours, ask more.
  4. Here's the role in two sentences. Where would they shine, and where would they struggle? Listen for: a direct answer about your job, the most useful one you will get on the call.

Closing

  1. Why did they leave, as far as you know? Listen for: a reason that matches the candidate's.
  2. Would you hire them again, given the chance? Listen for: the pause. An immediate "Yes, in a heartbeat" means something; "Yes, for the right role" means something else, so ask which role.
  3. Is there anything I haven't asked that you would want to know in my place? Listen for: whatever comes next. Referees sometimes save the most important thing for an open door.

Reading the answers

Specific beats warm. A referee who tells you a story about the candidate's work is giving you evidence. One who says "great team player, really positive" is being polite. Neither is lying, but only one is useful.

Faint praise is information. Many companies ask managers not to criticise former employees, so people signal instead. Short answers, generic adjectives, and long pauses before simple questions are the signals. When you hear them, ask for an example.

Look for patterns across referees. One lukewarm reference may be about the relationship. The same concern from two people who worked with the candidate at different times is about the candidate.

Compare with what you already know. References are strongest when they confirm or contradict something specific: an interview answer, a gap in a work sample, a claim on the résumé. Go into the call knowing which of those you want to test.

This section is general guidance, not legal advice: the rules depend on where you and the candidate are, so check them with counsel.

  • Get consent first. Ask the candidate before contacting anyone, and only contact the people they agree to.
  • Ask the same core questions about every finalist, so candidates are compared on the same evidence.
  • Stay off protected ground. Don't ask about health, disability, pregnancy or family plans, age, religion, race, marital status or anything similar, even when the referee volunteers it. If they do, move on and don't record it.
  • Don't ask about pay history where it's banned. A growing number of US states and cities forbid employers from seeking a candidate's past salary, and some of those rules also cover asking a former employer.
  • Expect some companies to confirm only dates and job title. That is usually a company policy, not a warning sign about the candidate.
  • Keep notes factual and use them only for the hiring decision. Record what the referee said, not your impressions of them.

A reference check template

Copy this into your notes and fill it in during the call.

  • Candidate and role:
  • Referee, their role and relationship to the candidate:
  • Worked together from / to:
  • Consent from the candidate confirmed on:
  • What the role depends on (two or three things):
  • Evidence for each, with the example the referee gave:
  • Concerns or caveats, in the referee's words:
  • Would they hire again, and how quickly did they say so:
  • Anything that confirms or contradicts the interviews or work sample:
  • Overall read (one sentence):

Where references fit

References are good at confirming patterns: how someone treats people, how they handle pressure, whether they are who they presented themselves as. They are weak at telling you whether the person can do the specific work your role needs, because the referee saw a different job, at a different company, some time ago.

That is better answered before the references, by asking the candidate to do a piece of the work. A short, realistic task scored against the same criteria for every finalist tells you what references can't, and gives you something specific to ask the referees about. If you want help building those, this is what Cohesyve does.

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