What questions can you legally ask a job reference?
6 Reference Questions Worth Asking
- How would you describe the candidate’s reliability and dependability?
- What are the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses?
- What was one of the candidate’s most memorable accomplishments while working with you?
What questions can you not ask a reference?
Here are some of the questions you should avoid when checking references in the US:
- “Does The Applicant Have Any Children?” It is illegal for hiring managers to ask about relationship status before hiring.
- “What Is The Applicant’s Religious Affiliation?”
- “How Old Is The Applicant?”
- What Should You Ask?
What is illegal to ask a reference?
It is illegal for an employer to give a negative or false employment reference (or refuse to give a reference) because of a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.
Is it illegal for former employers to give bad references?
Generally, an employer is not prohibited by law from providing truthful information about a former employee to a prospective employer.
What questions do References answer?
20 Best Reference Check questions
- What was your relationship with the candidate?
- How long did you work with each other?
- How would you rate their work?
- What were their daily duties?
- What were their main responsibilities?
- Were they dependable?
- Did they complete the tasks and assignments given to them?
What are previous employers allowed to say?
The truth will set you free Generally speaking, it means that as long as a former employer offers honestly held opinions about a former employee or states a documented fact about that person, there’s not much a former employee can do about it.
Are backdoor references illegal?
But are they illegal? It is not illegal to get an opinion from someone connected to a candidate, however there are particular practices to avoid. If you’re a recruiter, you will probably have a legal responsibility to your clients that are best met by ensuring you conduct (typically two) thorough reference checks.
Can an employer call a reference without permission?
Candidates should have given permission, generally, for reference checking to be conducted. Reference checkers should not reach out to anyone the candidate has expressly asked not be contacted. Reference checkers should not contact references from a candidate’s current employer without express permission.
Can a previous employer say you were fired?
A former employer can’t reveal information about a termination in an attempt to prevent you from getting another job. This is known as blacklisting, and most states have anti-blacklisting laws that specifically prohibit it.