We’ve seen the “Great Resignation,” quiet firing, quiet hiring, and the “Great Layoff” all in a matter two-to-three years. The advent of a hybrid work environment and the restructuring of the workforce in a post-pandemic work world has galvanized a lot of these changes, but some argue it has more to do with leadership and new employee expectations than anything else.
A 2021 Leadership Transitions Report found that:
Poor leadership from unqualified or undertrained leaders can lead to a whole host of problems, especially if you need to fill a time-sensitive role. From employee engagement and meeting deadlines to company culture and cultivating a positive workplace environment, it all starts with leadership.
A Gallup study found that leaders account for at least 70% of employee engagement, which means that your levels of employee productivity, engagement, and enthusiasm at work depend a lot on your leadership.
Reference check questions need to identify if your candidate has the skill set to organize, lead, and motivate a workforce, however big or small it is. Although reference checks aren’t everything, they’re a valuable aspect of a holistic and optimized recruiting process, allowing you to verify skills, experiences, and work history.
You model the following reference check questions in your own search for a leader.
This is a great opener that will help jog your reference's memory and give them an opportunity to make some general statements about their experiences with the candidate.
This is a good question that will allow your reference to get a little deeper into what kind of leader the candidate was. If there are any red flags or serious problems in the candidate’s history, they will likely come up here.
A lack of motivation and approval from leaders are high complaints among workers today. You need a leader who can bring out the best in their workers and be a motivational figure.
This is a great way to get some concrete details about how your leadership candidate accomplished a task and demonstrated their leadership style.
80% of employees say that open communication is important to them, and teams with effective communication strategies outperform the competition by 3.5 times… which means communication style should be a top priority when evaluating leadership roles.
Collaboration is essential with other team leaders as well as employees, and this question will help you get an idea of how effective of a communicator your candidate is.
This is one of the most important questions you could ask anyone for a reference check, regardless of what position you need to fill. It’s a polarizing question that asks the former employer to identify any red (or green) flags.
The best time to conduct a reference check is at the beginning of the hiring process. Here’s why:
Team leaders, recruiters, and corporate executives want to find quality candidates in the shortest possible amount of time. Traditional reference checks were done manually, which made them slower and less accurate. With digital automated reference check solutions, like Crosschq, you can:
Finding a hiring leader in a timely matter isn’t just a matter of meeting deadlines or benchmarks; the decline in productivity, engagement, and morale with a lack of leadership could cost you hundreds of thousands a year. Crosschq’s automated reference check technology will enable you to find a quality leader without the time sacrifice of manual reference check processes.
Crosschq’s “Q” Report looked at 24+ million pre-hire and post-hire decisions we’ve helped leaders make, along with the radical insights from those data points that can help you hire more efficiently than ever before. Want to learn more about how Crosschq can help you attract the right leaders? Sign up for a demo today.