Does the sentence “We do it this way because that’s the way it’s always been done” sound familiar to you? If you’re an HR or talent acquisition professional, it’s time to let go of your traditional and conservative mindset.
When a baby circus elephant is trained, one leg is chained and tied to a metal stake in the ground strong enough to prevent escape. Any attempt to do so results in failure and pain as the chain cuts into the baby elephant’s leg, which learns that any further attempts become futile. This experience engrains into the elephant’s head even as it gets older and bigger, eventually able to easily break free from the same chain and stake used; yet it does not, because it assumes the past experience will lead to the same outcome in the present and future.
How does this analogy compare to talent acquisition efforts today? Comparing the minds of elephants and HR recruiters may be far-fetched but the message relates. We agree that traditional phone reference checking of the past results in:
- Lower participation by references
- Unreliable, ambiguous feedback about a candidate
- Rarely causing organizations to take action from a poor reference check
- Too much time wasted to perform
However, based on these past limitations, many still assume reference checks to be inefficient and useless. This type of hubris leads to HR departments’ downfalls so to speak. Organizations waste valuable resources interviewing and hiring less qualified candidates than they actually believe, and end up operating at minimum capacity.
Based on data we collected from a national survey in addition to from our own feedback tools, we confidently conclude the opposite of the 4 common myths listed above.
It is time to break free from our own “chains” of traditional talent acquisition and realize fast and successful reference checking becomes easily possible in today’s digital age.
As technology revolutionizes HR functions and processes, we must also let it revolutionize how we think. Ready to choose modern instead of myth?
Let us disprove your other myths of traditional reference checking. Schedule a demo for a personal walkthrough of how Harver’s automated reference checking can increase references per check, deliver clear feedback, save recruiters an hour per check, and more.
