Reply to How to verify if reference is real or fake?

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[quote=Anonymous]This is tricky, and I have wondered about this also.

When I've interviewed nannies I've always had multiple references.  One that we hired was quite young and she provided us with babysitter references, a highschool teacher, and things like that to be sure that we could speak with at least 3 people as a reference.

In her case even though her references were not all officially former employers, in speaking w/ all of them it gave us a pretty clear picture of her history, and a lot of consistency/confirmation of the authenticity of what she had told us.

You can ask some questions that might give you some insight into how well they know this person, and whether that knowledge matches what an employer vs. a friend might now.  Did you get to know Jane personally at all during the time she worked for you?  Do you know anything about her network in the area (friends, colleagues, family, etc...)?  What does she like to do for fun? Did she ever have family or friends come to your house?

You can also ask process kinds of things that a fake reference might not be able to handle deftly  - "I'm figuring out how we will handle withholding - what payroll service did you use?  Did you find that automatic deductions or handwriting checks worked better for you? How did you handle hours - were they guaranteed and set, or variable from week to week?" That kind of thing.

Just listen really carefully to the answers - for what isn't being said as well as what is.  As a mom, if I give a reference for a nanny to another mother I give a lot of information.  If you are getting stilted or canned answers that's usually a warning sign of something you should follow up on.

But mostly if your gut is uneasy then ask for more references and see if that gives you a more complete picture of the candidate.  
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