Include a section that authorizes the release of information and have the applicant sign it. You may want to check with your legal department for wording. Then follow up with each reference by telephone if you don t get your answers within a reasonable amount of time. Use a list of questions to guide your phone discussion. Take appropriate notes, particularly if you have references to check on many applicants.
Modern militaries have a variety of methods for gathering intelligence.
One source is old-fashioned human intelligence. Businesses do it everyday in gathering marketing data as well as checking references on job applicants. Ideally, you ll want to check references yourself. You may have someone in the human resources department do the work for you, but you run the risk that the reference checker won t be as familiar with the job requirements as you are. This can lead to a less than satisfactory outcome.