Gathering References for C-Level Talent Recruitment: How To Do It Right?

Selecting a person for a C-level leadership role is a non-trivial task for any business at all stages of development. When it comes to replacing, sometimes the search and transition of responsibilities for a CEO can take 2-3 years, and the interview process can last 4-6 months and involve 15 stages.

One of the crucial stages, primarily conducted after the interviews, is working with references and recommendations. 

This article will discuss the ins and outs of gathering recommendations for C-suite executives.

C-Level Talent Reference Basics

Is a recommendation from the current workplace mandatory?

• Recommendation from the current workplace is highly desirable but ultimately optional.

Direct recommenders for C-level employees can be: 

• business owners; 

• shareholders; 

• investors; 

• colleagues (at the same level)

• subordinates for a broader perspective. 

Contacting owners and providing a heads-up about the call is best done by the candidates themselves. 

If the candidate is in a discreet search, it’s necessary to have at least two recommendations from previous workplaces. 

Recommendations from subordinates are preferable to source independently since, in practice, contacts provided by managers are more likely to be positive.

Important to note

Allocate around an hour for the conversation to inquire about the past work experience in as much detail as possible. 

• It’s also ideal if this is a video call, allowing you to gauge how well the respondent aligns their answers and allowing you to ask follow-up questions if something doesn’t match.

Ensure that the person’s contact information aligns with the profile that was presented to you. 

• Among Ukrainian specialists, during years of reference checks, we encountered cases twice where the person on the other end of the phone line differed from the one supposed to be there. 
• This issue is resolved through video calls and the LinkedIn profile, where you can match the face.

What Questions to Ask the Recommender?

Below is an extended and universal list. 

Depending on the position and observations made during the interview with the candidate who left questions, it can be condensed and adapted. 

• Pay attention to whether the details match. 
• As a result, you will get as much information about the candidate as possible.

If not, someone among the respondents might need to remember the specifics. In such cases, these questions require clarification from third parties or additional information.

C-Level Reference Questionnaire

• Can you provide the timeframe during which you worked with the candidate?
• What roles did they hold, and what positions did they occupy?
• What was the hierarchical interaction like? Who reported to whom (if this information needs to be clarified or changed during their time together in the company)?
• How would you describe the candidate’s management style?
• What were the candidate’s most significant achievements in their C-level role within your company?
• How did they collaborate with teams? What are their people skills?
• Does the candidate have experience in leading changes or transformations within an organization? What were the outcomes of these efforts?
• How did they manage strategic planning and company development?
• How did the candidate handle stressful situations or crises within the company?
• Was the candidate successful in attracting investments or expanding the business?
• What were the candidate’s strengths that contributed to their success in the C-level role?
• What were the candidate’s weaknesses, and how did they work on improving them?
• How often did the candidate provide feedback to colleagues, and how did they respond to your feedback about their work?
• What qualitative changes can you note from the time when the candidate held the position?
• Were any conflicts or issues with the candidate that should be considered before hiring?
• Could you share an instance where the candidate demonstrated high professionalism or initiative?
• Are there areas where the candidate could improve their skills or management approaches?
• How did you part ways with the candidate, what was the duration of their employment, and how was the transition of responsibilities handled for the next in line (if the parting wasn’t due to downsizing)?

Important to Note

• If the respondent’s answers are brief and straightforward, indicating everything was good and there were no issues. 
• It’s important to ask open-ended follow-up questions to delve deeper and ascertain what worked well and whether it was consistent throughout.

What else to ask?

Here are a couple of additional questions that can reveal new aspects about the candidate not directly related to their experience:

• Would you rehire the candidate for projects or consider collaborating with them in the future? If yes, in what capacity?
• What previously unmentioned information could be valuable for deciding the potential engagement of the candidate in a new company? What to note during onboarding and ongoing work?

Things to do if the candidate doesn’t provide the necessary recommendations

Inquire about the reasons. Consequently, if the candidate seems like a perfect match in all other respects, consider independently seeking recommenders and asking about their work experience and how the collaboration concluded. 

If there are no clear objective reasons for why recommendations cannot be provided, this could be a reason to reconsider extending an offer. 

Of course, this assumes that the candidate was aware of the entire selection process, including the collection of recommendations, from the initial interview stages.

What to do when receiving openly negative feedback?

Any negative feedback requires additional validation. 

• Depending on the details and the feedback others provide, you can consider everything and adjust during the probationary period.

It is essential to discuss the feedback with the candidate after obtaining prior consent from the recommender. Of course if they are okay with it or decline if red flags for the company have been raised. 

• Also, ensure no additional motivations exist for the recommender to provide such a negative review.

What if it takes too much time to get a reference?

Sometimes, the candidate expects to get an offer before the recommendation-gathering is over. 

• You can replace responsible parties with more available ones. 

However, in our practice, there was a situation where the recommendation-gathering process took 2.5 months during the closure of the CTO position, and both sides were awaiting the results throughout this time.

• Because of that, in the fast-paced work environment, employers sometimes skip collecting recommendations but mention them during probation or a year or two later when they encounter unsatisfactory work results. 

Typically, candidates possess highly developed soft skills for C-level roles, excel in interview scenarios, and complete test assignments (if applicable). 

You can obtain fundamental insights into diverse cases and how the owners evaluate candidate’s work can from recommendations and feedback from colleagues they’ve worked with.