Posted on: Monday, January 12, 2004
References provide little help to employers
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Charles Cullen was recently charged with murdering a patient, and he claims to have killed as many as 40 more during his 16-year nursing career, a career in which he abruptly quit several jobs and was fired five or six times.
Despite his turbulent background, Cullen was able to move through nine hospitals and one nursing home in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was usually hired easily. There was a nursing shortage, and reference checks were apparently brushed aside as hospitals searched desperately for help.
But there may be another reason Cullen was hired over and over again.
Many attorneys and human-resource officials advise companies that when they receive queries about ex-employees who are now job applicants elsewhere, the companies should not share any performance information and should only confirm applicants' dates of employment, according to Scott Witlin, a labor and employment lawyer at Proskauer Rose in Los Angeles. "I'm seeing far more defamation suits against employers," Witlin said. "But if you're confirming objective criteria" — such as dates of employment — "that can't be contested; you're protecting yourself."
Historically, there have always been companies that provided only the bare minimum when giving a reference. But in the past three to five years, many more companies have become litigation-shy and have stopped providing references, good and bad.
Kathy Albarado, president of HR Concepts, a human-resources consulting firm in Herndon, Va., thinks she knows one reason: As the economy soured after the '90s boom, people were out of work for longer periods. During such times, she speculates, people become desperate and tend to file suit against former employers more often. Out of caution, companies often tighten policies when a weaker economy hits.
In the wake of the deaths associated with Cullen in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Sens. Jon S. Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, both D-N.J., called for formation of a national registry of "adverse actions" by nurses and other healthcare professionals, so employers can know when one of them has a questionable past.
Fewer employers now bother to check references when they hire someone. But how much time and effort will it take to fire a bad employee, or wipe up a mess he made?
In today's environment, Albarado suggests, potential employers should leave a message on a reference's voice mail, asking that the person call back if he believes this particular employee would be a great hire. That, she figures, gets former employers who are too nervous to give negative references off the hook, and still gives potential new employers their answer. "If it's a good employee" and the former employer wants to help, the company will call, she said.
