The Complete Reference Checking Handbook: Smart, Fast, Legal Ways to Check Out Job Applicants [Hardcover]

Edward C. Andler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

One third of all job applicants lie on their resume! When these bad apples are hired, it means putting high turnover, discipline problems, low productivity, legal nightmares -- and perhaps even theft -- on the payroll.

This new book is the only comprehensive guide available to the delicate art of reference checking. Managers, small company owners, and human resources professionals can stop troubles before they begin by using the book's dozens of proven techniques for getting at the truth. It shows how to:
-- detect lies or evasions on resumes and during interviews
-- avoid illegal questions during interviews and reference checking
-- get meaningful information from what references say -- and don't say
-- check public and official records such as credit, criminal, driving, even workers' compensation claims.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Noting that it would be unusual (and unwise) to purchase a major piece of equipment without first examining its background and evaluating its suitability, Edward Andler, a nationally recognized authority on improving hiring practices, marvels at how many businesspeople will take on new employees without a similarly thorough inquiry. His Complete Reference Checking Handbook: Smart, Fast, Legal Ways to Check Out Job Applicants begins by puncturing the popular perception that truly significant information about work applicants is strictly off-limits. It then shows how to obtain the requisite data as efficiently as possible. --Howard Rothman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814404057
• ISBN-13: 978-0814404058
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,005,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not quite what I expected, January 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Reference Checking Handbook: Smart, Fast, Legal Ways to Check Out Job Applicants (Hardcover)

Although parts of the book are very helpful I feel that a majority of the content is aimed at getting a company to do reference checks. I found myself wandering when I was going to get past the "WHY TO" and get to the "HOW TO". I also found the number of errors in grammer and spelling to be annoying. Overall after reading the book I feel I could get by doing reference checks but I know for sure I could convince a criminal to check references on his future victims.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes the Case for Real Reference Checking, October 3, 2000

By 

Erik Neu (Fishers, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Reference Checking Handbook: Smart, Fast, Legal Ways to Check Out Job Applicants (Hardcover)

I thought this book was quite good, and there is nothing else out there like it. It demolishes the ridiculous mythology about liability, which contains about as much truth as your typical urban legend. The same handful of egregious cases, involving willful defamation, are the only ones ever cited in the literature on the subject of reference checking liability. But when you let lawyers run your company, that is what you get...

It also contains excellent practical advice for guerilla tactics for getting reference sources to talk. Good checklists for conducting the reference process. Well worth the cost.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Obvious Information & Whining, March 20, 2005

By 

D. C. Brown - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Reference Checking Handbook: Smart, Fast, Legal Ways to Check Out Job Applicants (Hardcover)

Most of the info was obvious.

One new thing - get the interviewee to set up the references to call you.

He kept whining about how companies refuse to provide more than the usual hire date, job title and last day of work. He never answers the question of why a company would want to help its competition in the hiring game.

He assumes that past performance ALWAYS PREDICTS FUTURE PERFORMANCE. This may be true in a theoretical sense but he fails to acknowledge that management styles, environment and hard lessons in life also predict future performance and never indicates that these also should be inquired about.

He also failed to mention that the interviewee is also judging the company and deciding whether they want to work there or not and that certain things should be done to mitigate the feelings of interrogation and controlling that some of Andler's recommended techniques will create.