What is your policy for giving these out? I seem to remember the law of libel could prevent the truth being told about some employees.
However, there is the old urban myth about a former boss writing "You will be very lucky to get this person to work for you."
How closely do you follow up references?
In this office it has become standard procedure for us to simply provide the dates of employment for anyone calling for a reference. Offering any more than that can really get you in "the soup" if it were to get back to the employee in question. I do know for a fact that I have heard the Dr.s here ask the question- Would you hire the employee back if you had the chance? with a simple yes or no answer, and they usually get a response. But if you ask me you could probably get complaints about that also. A touchy subject for sure. Chris..
As far as giving out on the phone dates of employment is about it. If a past employee is worth it I would happily write a recommendation if asked.Originally Posted by RGC_man
If you are trying to get information ask the prospective employee for letters of recomendation. if they can get them or not can tell you as much as the letter itself. If they burned bridges everywhere else what type of emploee were they?
Perhaps an employee who worked for a real a******? They're out there!
On employee references. Any negative, especially those put in writing should be documented in your employee records. If you claim he was: (whatever) and you cannot be able to back this up with anything other than your verbal opinion, your *** is hanging out for a lawsuit, discrimination suit, harrassment suit, or at least more time than you care to invest with the employment security commisssion.
I can't see anyone getting in trouble with with a positive recommendation of an employee though.
Chip
I know that in NC, you're allowed to say dates of employment and whether you'd hire them again. Keep in mind though, from an employee's perspective, if you refuse to even say whether or not they did good work, you're kind of screwing them out of their reference. My husband recently tried to get a job in optical after working at a "corporate one hour place" loyally for five years. He was a lab manager, won awards, NEVER called in sick. He wanted fewer night/weekend hours so he decided to look at private offices. Unfortunately, the fact that not one manager was allowed to say anything about his performance, was not usually understood by potential employers and ultimately led to his taking about a 45% pay cut. :-( It sucks, because you put in your time and loyalty to a company and then you have nothing to show for it.
Basically, if you have an employee who did a good job, don't hesitate to praise them. You'll never be sued over that. Or offer a letter of recommendation. If you didn't like them, be sure you know what the law says in your area.
I can't disagree I'm one of them and many former employee's would agree and three times that many would disagree. It isn't hard finding someone who knows their optics that you can find out yourself during the interview. The hard thing is finding the employee who is on time for work, who doesn't spend three out of their eight hours doing nothing, who in an effort to look busy finds the least important job to do no matter how many times you tell them do A then B then C and then and only then D if time permits.
In the past I have always asked for letters of recommendation from employers and have also asked potential employees if they can provide any.
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