VALUE OF A GOOD REFERENCE TUMBLES, AS REFEREES ADMIT THEY’RE TO SCARED TO BE HONEST
Graduates who have worked hard to get good references from their university tutors and employers may have wasted their time, it has been suggested. Worse still, candidates from poorer backgrounds are being hit the hardest as the reference system crumbles.
Baroness Deech said that traditional references are “not worth the paper they are written on,” as those who give references (referees) fear legal action for negative comments they might make about individuals. The Data Protection Act gives people the right to ask to see all the written information that is held about them, including a reference from their school, university or former employer.
The claim will come as a blow particularly to those graduates doing unpaid (or low-paid) internships. For many of you, a strong reference is one of the main reasons for putting up with long hours and poor pay. Youth unemployment is now at a 17-year high, with one in five people between 16 and 24 out of work. A good reference is seen as one way that the hardest-working graduates can ‘stand out’ in an increasingly competitive jobs market.
But Deech — who gained extensive experience of looking at references during her time as a law tutor at Oxford University — has claimed that it may all be for nothing. Worse still, candidates from poorer backgrounds are likely to be affected disproportionately as references no longer allow referees to highlight outstanding commitment during exceptional circumstances, as these comments are deemed too personal. Deech explained:
“Before the Data Protection Act, we got references from schools. They might say: ‘Young So and So may be very shy and quiet, but we assure you she is very bright, give her a chance. Her mother is an alcoholic. Her father left her. But we know she will deliver.’ It actually helped you give under-privileged people a chance. Or from a public school, they would write: ‘Young Camilla will give a polished performance, but we have had to work very hard with her.'”
But Lady Deech said in an interview that the Act, which came into force in 1984 but was revised in 1998, has put an end to such honesty. Now, because referees fear being challenged by those they have written about, everyone gets a glowing reference — which means the value of a good reference tumbles. “It has destroyed the ability to choose,” Deech said.
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office – which promotes data privacy for individuals – dismissed Deech’s comment, saying:
“The Act gives individuals the right to access information that is held about them. This can help people in many areas of their lives — from ensuring information is accurate on their credit file to seeing their medical records, or seeing what a prospective employer has been told about them if they are refused a job. To suggest that this right prevents employers providing honest references is a misconception. All it means is that employers who write references should be able to justify their comments. If there are specific problems with an employee it would be reasonable to expect that the employee would already have been made aware of these.”
Graduate Fog is in two minds about this. It is important that employees are able to find out if a referee has said something unfair about them. But it is also important that referees feel they can be honest about a candidate’s true suitability for future positions, without having to defend themselves in an expensive law suit. For many years, the reference system has been useful procedure which helped recruiters to weed out candidates who may look great on paper but are, say, lazy in reality. For the hardest-working candidates to stand the best chance of getting the best jobs, there should be mechanisms in place to ensure that they can be identified as easily as possible.
*Should referees be brutally honest about candidates?
Does the law protect candidates from unfair references from those who simply don’t like them? Or does it unfairly penalise those who deserve the best references? If everybody gets a glowing report – whether they deserve it or not – how can recruiters be expected to spot the best candidate for the job?
In my experience, they only check references if/when they have decided to make a job offer. I didn’t manage to get to that stage! So the reference issue was the least of all hurdles
Deech’s comments on references probably reflect working experience as a university admissions tutor. Her role and attitude towards references are very different from those of employers and recruiters selecting graduates for jobs.
Sadly, I think jobhunting grads have been oversold the VALUE of getting good references.
Most employment references are brief, fairly bland and cover very few issues of potential interest to the recruiter. A reference might say, for example, “X worked in Y role for Z months, performing his / her duties to our satisfaction”.
Recruiters WOULD worry about a BAD reference (eg “X was dismissed from Y role”) and might not go ahead with offering the job to that candidate. Very few employers are willing to take the risk of giving bad references, however.
I’m not really certain if I’m posting this in the appropriate area, but I am preparing to relocate to the U . S . and am trying to secure jobs in the technology field. I currently have a job lead with a company (LTJ Management, LLC, 900 Congress Ave, Suite L-150, Austin, TX 78701 (512) 895-9500) and wanted some ideas on the easiest method to investigate them to discover if they could be a great company to work for. I’ve looked on their web page, but believed somebody here could have a few other ideas on where to look. Thank you in advance.
I would echo Joddle’s comment that recruiters frequently only ask for references once they have made a job offer, or at least once they have identified their shortlist. Barring a genuinely poor reference the likelihood is that the application and interview are going to have much more influence on your chances of being appointed, assuming the recruitment process is being carried out in accordance with best practice.
My understanding though is that employers providing references do generally shy away from giving negative comments, and that references now range from the lukewarm “X worked here and performed his duties satisfactorily” to the glowing “I can’t speak highly enough of X” etc. Any negative comments would be likely to be very factual in nature e.g. “X received a written warning regarding his punctuality” or whatever.
However, I’m not sure if this is a trend to be lamented. In the example above of “Camilla will give a polished performance but….” it seems this amounts to Camilla’s school sabotaging her chances before she’s even started. While I’m not keen on those with less talent suceeding over more talented individuals just because they have received expert coaching, neither is it the place of schools or former employers to shoot down the aspirations of their students/workers in flames.
The reference issue is a real challenge for employers. I am a head of Recruitment for a large retail chain and the reference work is incredibly time consuming, endless, expensive and adds absolutley almost no value and I have two resources who constantly chase and chase for references. Baroness Deech is totally correct and the spokesperson for the information commission is at totally naive to suggest that employer should put what is correct – let me tell you, employers will put the start date and end date, nothing more. Why would an ex empoloyer want to get into a battle a costly battle over someone who has left! They dont care its not their problem anymore they are far to busy trying to run a business that needs to keep running. How Naive! Also the other point that he is niave about is that it makes a recruitment decision, it does not, no one would ask a current employer for a reference before making an offer, that is bad practice for a candidate. The laws these days make things impossible. it is so obvious that when legislation is made it is made by people that do not do the job, understand the challenges of today with all the inventive ways our canidadate try and get through the system, its quite unbelievable, so thanks to the information commission to making our jobs so impossible.