By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Rhee, a 38-year-old office worker who asked to be identified only by his last name, says he regrets leaving his former job without giving the proper two weeks notice. That's because he thinks his bitter ex-boss didn't put in a good word for him with his new employer.
``I ended up landing the job regardless, but I knew I had to prove my commitment more than others,'' he said, explaining that he got a feeling that there was some background checking involved.
Rhee was right. Maybe his new boss did have a chat with the unhappy, previous employer to get a few pointers on the prospective employee. In fact, a survey released Tuesday shows that almost 50 percent of local employers conduct reference checks before making recruitment decisions.
This is a pretty significant change compared with the past when background checks were not common practice here, says a spokeswoman of Career, an online job portal that carried out the poll on some 310 recruiters.
``More companies are recognizing the importance of knowing what kind of people they will be dealing with,'' she said, explaining that reference checks are the norm in the U.S. and European countries.
Prior screening can be as easy as approaching former bosses or going to the extent of getting help from professional institutions that run checks on criminal records.
Among local firms, relying on information provided by a prospective employee's former colleagues and employers is most common, the survey showed.
Recruiters, however, said they only gave 50 out of 100 points to screening results, largely because the information wasn't detailed and its credibility was weak.
Almost 40 percent said reference checks were used only for background information, 29 percent said the results worked as a decision-maker in the final round, while 25 percent said collected info was directly weighed into the evaluation. All in all, employers said the gathered history doesn't go to waste.