Reference Bans?

Dear Liz,

I'm a manager in a mid-sized company. Our HR chief has proposed to the management team that we establish a policy that no manager can give a reference on any former employee. She says that reference-giving is risky. Evidently the company could get sued over a reference. I don't like the sound of this policy, which would make it impossible for me to give a reference for a person who leaves my team. What do you think?

Yours,

Greta

Dear Greta,

These reference bans began to pop up about a decade ago, not because there was any spike in defamation lawsuits but because it is far easier to put a blanket reference-ban in place than to train managers on appropriate reference-giving. The boogeyman in this case is a defamation lawsuit. One of those could arise when a manager gives a reference like this: "Yeah, Gretel, she worked for me. She's awesome - I mean, apart from her temper and some substance-abuse issues." Companies are afraid some oftheir managers will bash former employees in the reference-giving process and they'll be sued for defamation. Luckily there is an easy fix. A mandatory workshop in appropriate reference-giving might take an hour, tops.

Reference-bans are very unfortunate policies and I don't approve of them. They say "Our fear of a highly unlikely lawsuit, coupled with our inability to hire and train managers who are smart enough to give references appropriately, trumps your need for a reference from our company. Once you stop working here, honey, you're not our problem."

That's an awful message to send. We owe our former employees good references if they've helped our companies succeed.Please feel free to show your HR manager this message and to invite her to contact me if she's interested in chatting about this issue. This is bad HR at its worst. While you're still working there, be sure to get LinkedIn endorsements from a few of your company leaders - you may need them someday. Cultivate some potential reference-givers among your customer and vendor communities, and keep in close touch with senior-level people who leave the company. These folks will be your references down the line if you can't use the current leaders for references when you need them.

Cheers -- Liz