PRIME Recruitment Blog

Reference Checks - a winner Plan 'B' ? You may SAVE MORE than just the DAY!

This happened in my early days in recruitment in the Baltics when a friend of mine educated both here, there and the US, had to run a reference check without the guy knowing. My friend Martins Nigals, was a real whiz! -You see, having just completed his MBA he had a few insights. Namely, instead of calling round to the usual people he turned it into a small market study of 'The White Goods Market in Latvia'.

In a matter of days he had in the local language (and they can well hear he is not from there), called to various distributors where the candidate worked, and had interspersed some of these as places our candidate would have known, they would have met and thus could pass a second opinion of him! They did! And HOW! You see among these were also some of the initial references, but instead of being asked the usual - they were swept into this questionnaire about goods and ser-vices, opinions of known and unknowns (my friend added a few of those too:) and no one suspected anything. We asked bar owners, restaurant managers, a night club owner, people in the warehouses and the retail outlets and when he first posed the silly questions and then dropped a name or two - they were off guard and were very spontane!

The man, a very capable sales person, still is, the only qualified then speaking English in that role which was crucial to our success as I had visited the store just two years earlier, picked up his businesscard thinking it will come handy one day. Eventually our man got the job, and I later recruited him further and who knows, maybe he'll even become three times...LUCKY? Anyway, that's what I call a ''win-win'' !:)))

-What's your best story?

P.s. I am still interested in refridgerators...!

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PRIME Recruitment operates the Latvian and Baltic market since 1997, trailing back to 1994 and 1995 when the owner-to-be, Henrik Mjoman, first came to Latvia on a scholarship in aid of the young nation that had just regained its independence. Today we recruit for all sectors by matching carefully the client's needs with that of the candidate resulting in that people stay as they feel welcome and needed. PRIME Recruitment is also the representative of the THOMAS International (DISC to some) and therein can provide you with services that audit your staff and identify their best features for the your workplace's development. And more... www.prime.lv

P.s. Un es ari parvaldu Latviesu valodu - bet perfekts, ne, nebus!