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Create incredible candidate experiences that communicate your brand, mission, and values with recruitment marketing solutions.
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Learn moreRebound and respond to the new normal of retail with hiring systems that are agile enough to help you forge ahead.
Learn moreAccelerate the hiring of key talent to deliver point of care and support services that meet and exceed your promise of patient satisfaction.
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Learn moreSimplify how you recruit finance, insurance, and banking candidates with a unified platform built to match top talent with hard-to-fill roles.
Learn moreYour business strategy depends on your people strategy. Keep both in lockstep with the iCIMS Talent Cloud.
Learn moreBuild an engaging, high-converting talent pipeline that moves your business forward.
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Learn moreDeliver tailored technology experiences that delight users and power your talent transformation with the iCIMS Talent Cloud.
Learn moreThe #1 ATS in market share, our cloud-based recruiting software is built for both commercial and large, global employers.
Learn more Talk to salesAttract the best talent for your business with powerful, on-brand career websites that excite candidates and drive engagement.
Learn more Talk to salesBuild talent pipelines, engage candidates with multi-channel marketing campaigns, and use machine learning to automatically surface the right talent for the job.
Learn more Talk to salesEmpower candidates with automated self-service, qualification screening, and interview scheduling through an AI-enabled digital assistant.
Learn more Talk to salesSimplify employee onboarding with automated processes that maximize engagement and accelerate productivity.
Learn more Talk to salesRecruit in the modern world and expand your reach with built-in virtual interviewing.
Learn more Talk to SalesFocus on qualifying candidates faster with fully integrated language assessments.
Learn more Talk to SalesImprove employee experience, retention, and reduce internal talent mobility friction with the iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace.
Learn more Talk to salesCompliment your sourcing and engagement efforts with sophisticated lead scoring and advanced campaign personalization.
Learn more Talk to salesModernize, streamline, and accelerate your communication with candidates and employees.
Learn more Talk to salesTransform the talent experience by showcasing your authentic employer brand through employee-generated video testimonials.
Learn more Talk to salesGive your business a competitive edge with a complete solution for creating personalized, timely, and accurate digital offer letters that inspire candidates to want to join your team.
Learn more Talk to SalesGet robust analytics that help you make sense of your data and illuminate your talent pool.
Learn moreSimplify recruiting, dynamically engage talent, and reduce hiring bias with job matching and recruiting chatbot technology.
Learn more Talk to salesThe #1 ATS in market share, our cloud-based recruiting software is built for both commercial and large, global employers.
Learn more Talk to salesAttract the best talent for your business with powerful, on-brand career websites that excite candidates and drive engagement.
Learn more Talk to salesBuild talent pipelines, engage candidates with multi-channel marketing campaigns, and use machine learning to automatically surface the right talent for the job.
Learn more Talk to salesEmpower candidates with automated self-service, qualification screening, and interview scheduling through an AI-enabled digital assistant.
Learn more Talk to salesSimplify employee onboarding with automated processes that maximize engagement and accelerate productivity.
Learn more Talk to salesCompliment your sourcing and engagement efforts with award-winning lead scoring and advanced campaign personalization.
Learn moreImprove employee experience, retention, and reduce internal talent mobility friction with the iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace.
Learn more Talk to salesModernise, streamline, and accelerate your communication with candidates and personnel.
Learn more Talk to salesTransform the talent experience by showcasing your authentic employer brand through employee-generated video testimonials.
Learn more Talk to salesGet robust analytics that help you make sense of your data and illuminate your talent pool.
Learn moreSimplify recruiting, dynamically engage talent, and reduce hiring bias with job matching and recruiting chatbot technology.
Learn more Talk to salesHow PRMG attracts 50% more applicants for niche finance roles with the iCIMS Talent Cloud.
Learn moreThousands strong, our global community of talent professionals includes creatives, innovators, visionaries, and experts.
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Learn moreExpert guidance about recruitment solutions, changes in the industry, and the future of talent.
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Learn morePartner with iCIMS to build the right strategies, processes, and experience to build a winning workforce.
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Learn moreWatch the recording of our latest webinar looking at key findings from a recent study and explore short-term and long-term solutions for the talent crisis in 2022 and beyond.
Watch on-demandView press releases, media coverage, and the latest hiring data. See what analysts are saying about iCIMS.
Learn moreiCIMS is the Talent Cloud company that empowers organizations to attract, engage, hire, and advance the talent that builds a winning workforce.
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Learn moreWe believe the future of work isn't something that "happens" to you. It's something you create. We actively create the future of work with our customers every day.
Learn moreStreamline your tech stack and take advantage of a better user experience and stronger data governance with ADP and the iCIMS Talent Cloud.
Learn moreThe combined power of iCIMS and Infor helps organizations strategically align their business and talent objectives.
Learn moreOur award-winning partnership with Microsoft is grounded in a shared desire to transform the workplace and the hiring team experience.
Learn moreOur partnership with Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) supports the entire talent lifecycle by bringing frictionless recruiting solutions to UKG Pro Onboarding.
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Recruiters and talent acquisition professionals know the best questions to ask candidates. But what are the best questions to ask job references?
Recruiting professionals gain invaluable information by speaking with job references. These conversations supply insights that no resume or candidate interview will ever reveal; the influence your candidate had over her teammates, a head’s up on her blindspots, or the reason why she missed out on a big promotion.
To elicit this kind of perspective, recruiters should conduct their conversations with job references thoughtfully and intentionally. Consider these conversations as having four steps. By taking each step, you not only gather important information about your applicant, you build rapport as get to the bigger, more revealing questions.
Here, we walk you through these four steps and suggest several questions to ask at every stage.
Read iCIMS’ Guide to Hiring Talent to learn how you can build a best-in-class approach to hiring.
When speaking with job references, recruiters can’t just cut to the chase. They need to use the early part of their conversations to confirm a few details, set the tone and establish trust.
The best way to do this? When brainstorming questions to ask job references, remember your manners. Ask how the person’s week is going and thank them for taking the time to speak with you. These talking points aren’t simple formalities — they lay the groundwork for you to ask bigger, harder questions later on.
Don’t stop with the basics. Remember, your goal is to glean as much as you can about what it’s like to work with the candidate in question. Start with the good stuff: Ask the reference to talk about areas where the candidate excels. If the answer isn’t illuminating, try a different angle. Jog her memory by prompting her to recall specific projects she worked on with the candidate.
Behavioral questions help recruiters dig deeper into candidates’ skills. While these questions will vary according to the job, they all work toward the same goal: Revealing how the candidate works. If you want to know if a candidate gets along well with her teammates, ask the reference how she was able to collaborate with her peers. If you want to gauge her level-headedness, ask how she handled angry customers or frustrating coworkers.
Next, ask about a candidate’s weaknesses. If you don’t, you not only risk making a bad hire, you also shortchange the candidate. When you understand a candidate’s weaknesses, you’re able to anticipate them in onboarding and beyond.
A job reference may struggle to discuss the candidate’s weak points. If this is the case, prompt her to consider an applicant’s soft skills, from professionalism to interpersonal relatability. Such insights will show whether the person is a good fit for the role, the team and the organization.
Of course, these queries can be hard to get to in a 15-minute phone call. Tools like iCIMS SkillSurvey automate this process by delivering feedback from references in a much quicker and more candid way.
Once you’ve established key details, talked over a candidate’s strengths and asked about her weaknesses, it’s time to give the reins to the job reference. Ask for her opinion: Would she rehire this applicant? In all honesty, what does she think?
To end the call, ask the reference if there’s anything she wants to discuss that you didn’t ask about. This question blows the conversation wide open, inviting the reference to mention an important tidbit you might not have discovered otherwise. If the reference has nothing new to mention, she may circle back to the point she found the most important — that she heartily recommends the candidate, or that she’s just not sure this would be the right fit.
Conversations that follow these four steps will illuminate insights that can save your organization from nightmare hires. But in today’s job market, many hiring teams simply lack the time and resources to pick up the phone and make these essential calls. That’s why talent professionals are turning to skills verification software like iCIMS SkillSurvey that automates reference checking.
As you improve your reference checking process, consider how you can smooth out other parts of recruiting. Read iCIMS’ Guide to Hiring Talent to learn how you can build a best-in-class approach to hiring.
and receive free tips on how to attract, engage, hire, & advance the best talent.
Alex is well-versed in content and digital marketing. He blends a passion for sharp, persuasive copy with creating intuitive user experiences on the web. A natural storyteller, Alex highlights customer successes and amplifies their best practices.
Alex earned his bachelor’s degree at Fairleigh Dickinson University before pursuing his master’s at Montclair State University. When not at work, Alex enjoys hiking, studying history and homebrewing beer.
February 27, 2023 
4 min read
