Not long ago, we were speaking with an associate from Toronto. He had been working as a consultant on a project in the U.S. One day during the course of business, he found himself in the office of a senior engineer. Originally from a European country, this Director had been in the US for a few years and had been with the client for about six months. My associate had been asked to meet with him regarding the project. While he waited for the executive to finish a phone call, my friend's eyes travelled around the room, finally settling on an arrangement of university degrees and college diplomas. One in particular caused my friend to sit up and rub his eyes. Here's what it said: "Master of Civil Engineering Degree, University of 'Torona' 1983. Of course, it should have read 'Toronto'. Inadvertently, my colleague had stumbled upon what a high-end international recruiter had missed completely. The search firm had charged a significant fee for a major search …and made a serious mistake. You know the rest of the story. The executive begged my friend to say nothing. Within twenty minutes integrity had won out. My associate reported the situation to the chairman. Not surprisingly, the Engineer was terminated that very day. All the embarrassment, upset and resulting turmoil could have been avoided had an effective reference checking job been completed.

We believe that finding out about a person starts with good reference checking . . . plus knowing who to ask! While the spoken word is powerful, our experience has shown that in a oral reference checking world, people are often hesitant to say anything that may be construed as negative. For this reason, we have taken the "spoken word" out of the reference process. We use a process called 360 Referencing.

Back to Top

Please contact Ravenhill Group executive search and recruitment firm for more information.