These are questions that I am asked frequently by people at meetings or by clients seeking to build an inhouse database.
Employers are afraid to do much more than verify former employment in fear of being sued for libel.
At Access Innovations, Inc., we have devised a list of questions to ask potential employees, the answers to which we think give us a good indication of what kinds of people they are. The questions are completely fair to them and also acceptable from a legal standpoint. In this column I would like to outline those questions, indicate what kind of a response we look for, and note what we can tell from those responses. The first and obvious activity is to look over the resume with the potential employee, asking them questions about previous jobs and encouraging them to talk about themselves. This gives a good indication of the job history of the person and what they think is important about the job.