Skeptical Reference Checks On Household Employees

One of the most important things that you must know
about a person who you are considering hiring is to
find out what the references have to say. If someone
comes to you applying for a job to care for your
children and/or your home, you want to be sure of the
following before entering any conversation:

1) Does this person have experience in the job
capacity he/she is seeking?
2) How many years of experience is there?
3) Are there working references that can be contacted?

Once you have the "yes" answer to the above three
questions, now you can proceed with the interview.
Let's assume that the interview went fabulously and
you are 90% sure you want to hire this candidate. You
have all the driving and criminal checks completed and
the candidate has voluntarily provided you with
medical testing. You are basically good to go, except
for one thing, you have yet to speak to the references
where this person worked.

So you sit down one quiet evening after the children
are asleep and with pen in hand, you take a pad of
paper and begin to call the references provided by
this candidate. Your first call is to the most recent
employer since this will be the most relevant
reference. This is how the conversation goes.

"Hello, my name is Mrs. Smith, and I am calling on a
reference for Maria whom I met recently and am very
interested in hiring as my Nanny. Could you please
tell me about your experience with her?"

The first thing you get is a huge hesitation. The
former employer is not even sure if she wants to talk
to you. She is reluctant because she isn't prepared to
say anything nice about this former employee. However,
she does know that, by law, she has to, at least,
provide employment verification. So she begins by
telling you that Maria indeed worked for the three
years as stated on her resume. Now you become
suspicious and concerned that there must have been
problems on this job and/or with this relationship. So
you begin to pry for more information.

"I sense that you were not completely satisfied with
Maria. Is there something that happened that I should
be made aware of?"

The employer is afraid that if she divulges how she
truly feels, Maria might get wind of this conversation
and become angry. Perhaps Maria will be angry enough
to retaliate in some manner. So you continue to pry,
and finally she blurts out the truth.

"Well, I just want to say that Maria was great in the
beginning and had a wonderful attitude with us until
about 1 year ago when all hell broke loose. She
simply decided she didn't want to do certain things
and she began changing her attitude with us. She was
always great with the children and they continue to
ask for her, but we had our problems."

You now know that the reference check isn't the best
and your 90% desire to hire this candidate has now
diminished to maybe a low 60. By the time the former
employer finishes talking, you are completely confused
about how to proceed.

Sometimes you are very lucky to find a person who has
top-notch excellent references across the board.
Other times, a person will have a few great references
but just one that is questionable. In this case, you
have to sincerely estimate how to balance what you
have heard and whether to give a person "the benefit
of the doubt". Here are some ideas for you to
contemplate.

Since we are dealing with human begins, not widgets,
there are bound to be chemistry issues that cause
changes in relationships. It would be next to
impossible to know every single thing that happened in
the three years that Maria worked for this family. It
well may be that the change in attitude came along
when Maria asked for an increase in salary and it was
not provided to her even though the list of duties
continued to increase over time. More work, less pay.
Certainly this isn't something that would make anyone
of us so happy. It might well be that the former
employer changed her attitude with Maria first over
issues that festered inside the employer. Issues that
she was either reluctant to discuss or simply let go.
Usually things that bother us can be put aside, but if
they are matters that really affected us, they will
never just be forgotten. The likelihood is that we
will simply lock them away in a corner of our mind and
let them fester until one day we just blow up.

Maybe this relationship between Maria and her employer
failed because they did not conduct "review sessions"
giving each of the parties an opportunity to voice
their problems and issues. Whatever the case, you
have to decide what to believe and whether you should
still give this candidate an opportunity with you.

There is an old saying: "every story has two sides".
When discussing a relationship between two people,
there is absolutely two sides, and especially under an
employment scenario. Unless there was gross negligence
or some form of dishonesty, my advice would be to give
this applicant the benefit of the doubt and a chance
to have a fresh start with you.

If you want to be assured that some of the issues that
occurred with the former employer do not happen to
you, then discuss these openly with the applicant.
Once the applicant is hired and you are working
together, have periodic review sessions to keep an
excellent open line of communication. All problems can
be solved one way or the other with discussion.

References may not always be perfect. Depending on the
problems, keep an open mind and weigh the information
provided so that you don't end up passing up a
potentially great employee.