A. This is a problem many business owners and human resources departments encounter. We know from experience that performing reference checks can provide us with valuable information and prevent us from making a bad hire. Yet many of us have company policies limiting the information we provide to prospective employers to dates of employment and position.

Following are some tips to getting the data you need.

• Ask the candidate for the name and phone number of their supervisor or lead. Many times these individuals will share more than company policy allows, especially if the employee was a good worker.
• Ask the candidate to provide a copy of performance evaluations. When used in addition to verifying dates of employment and position, this method can provide you with very detailed information about the candidate’s work style, strengths and weaknesses.
• And if at a dead end all you get are dates of employment and position, one trick I use often is to ask “If you could give a good reference for this person, would you?” Many times the person will give you a clue one-way or the other.

With a little ingenuity you can get the information needed to make the right hire.