How many references should I check per candidate?

Two references is usually enough for most roles, ideally from direct managers at the two most recent employers. For senior or highly sensitive roles you might check three, but adding more rarely adds new information once you have two solid, detailed conversations.

Is it better to check references by phone or in writing?

Phone or video calls almost always get you more honest, detailed answers because tone of voice reveals hesitation that written responses hide. Written references are a reasonable backup when a call genuinely is not possible, but keep any written questionnaire short, no more than three or four questions.

What if a candidate cannot provide a recent manager as a reference?

Ask why directly and listen to the explanation, since there are legitimate reasons such as a company closure, a very new role, or a manager who has since left the industry. If the explanation feels evasive or the candidate keeps steering you toward peers rather than managers, treat that as worth exploring further rather than a dealbreaker on its own.

Can I legally ask any question I want during a reference check?

No, what employers can ask and what former employers can legally disclose varies significantly by country and region, and sometimes by industry. Check your local labour regulations and official guidance before finalising your standard reference check questions.

What should I do if a reference sounds hesitant but will not say anything negative outright?

Ask a calm, direct follow-up question such as whether there is anything you should be aware of before moving forward, since many referees will open up when asked plainly even if they would not volunteer concerns unprompted. Pay attention to flat, short answers and a lack of specific examples, as these are often more telling than anything explicitly said.

How to Check References Without Wasting a Week

A practical system for getting honest, useful reference checks done in a day or two instead of letting them stall your whole hiring process.

Reference checks are supposed to be a quick sanity check before you make an offer. Instead, they often turn into a week of unreturned calls, vague voicemails and a candidate quietly getting snapped up by someone faster. The good news is that reference checking does not have to be slow. It is slow because of how most people approach it, not because it is inherently a lengthy process.

With the right preparation, the right questions and the right way of reaching people, you can complete solid, honest reference checks in a day or two. Here is exactly how to do that.

Why Reference Checks Turn Into a Week-Long Ordeal

Most delays come from the same few habits. Hiring managers wait until after the final interview to even think about references, then send a single email and wait for a reply that may never come. Referees are busy people juggling their own jobs, so a generic email sits at the bottom of an inbox for days.

Add to that vague questions that require a referee to sit down and think for twenty minutes, and you have a process that drags on far longer than it needs to. The fix is not to skip references. It is to make the ask smaller, faster and easier to say yes to.

Start the Clock Earlier: What to Do Before You Pick Up the Phone

The biggest time saver happens before you contact a single referee. Ask for reference details as soon as a candidate reaches your shortlist, not after you have decided to hire them. That way the check runs in parallel with your final interview or decision-making, instead of adding days at the end.

Tell candidates plainly what you need and why, and give them a deadline. Most people will move quickly if you are specific.

"Thanks for making it to our final stage. To keep things moving, could you send me contact details for two former managers by tomorrow, including their preferred way to be contacted? We aim to complete reference checks within 48 hours of receiving them."

Ask for the right references, not just any references

A personal friend listed as a "colleague" tells you almost nothing. Ask specifically for people who directly managed the candidate, ideally from their two most recent roles. If a candidate cannot provide a recent manager, ask why, since there may be a legitimate reason such as a company closure or a manager who has left the industry, but it is worth understanding.

Ask for at least one direct manager from the most recent role
Ask for a second reference from an earlier role if the current one is very short tenure
Get the referee's preferred contact method and best time to reach them upfront
Confirm the relationship and how long they worked together before you call

Build a Simple, Reusable Reference Check Script

Winging it on every call is what makes references slow and inconsistent. Write one short script you can reuse for every hire, then adapt it slightly for the role. A good script takes ten to fifteen minutes to run through and gives you comparable answers across candidates.

Keep your opening short so you get to substance fast.

"Hi, thanks for taking the time. I'm calling about [Candidate], who has applied for [Role] with us. This should take about ten minutes. Everything you share is confidential and only used for our hiring decision. Can you start by telling me how you worked together and for how long?"

Having this ready means you are not improvising, and referees answer more naturally when the call feels structured rather than like an interrogation.

Reach People the Way They Will Actually Respond

Email is the slowest channel for reference checks because it is easy to postpone. A short, polite phone call or a scheduled video call almost always gets a faster and more honest response, because tone of voice reveals far more than typed words ever will.

If a phone call genuinely will not work, send a short message asking for a specific time to talk rather than a long list of written questions. Written references have their place, particularly where local rules or company policy require it, but they should be your backup option, not your default.

Call first, and if there is no answer, leave a specific short voicemail with a callback window
Offer two or three specific time slots rather than asking an open-ended "when works for you"
If email is unavoidable, keep it to three or four questions maximum
Set a real deadline, such as "by Thursday at noon", rather than "whenever you get a chance"

The Questions That Matter, and the Ones That Waste Time

Long reference check forms with fifteen questions rarely get you fifteen useful answers. Referees give their best information in the first few minutes, then start giving shorter, vaguer replies as fatigue sets in. Focus on a handful of questions that actually predict job performance.

What were their main responsibilities, and how did their performance compare to expectations?
What would you say is their biggest strength, with a specific example?
What is one area they were still developing?
How did they handle pressure, conflict or a difficult deadline?
Would you hire them again if the right role came up?

That last question is often the most revealing. A quick, confident yes tells you a lot. A pause, a qualifier, or a change of subject tells you even more.

Avoid generic questions like "were they a good employee" or "any weaknesses", since they invite polite, meaningless answers. Specific, example-based questions get specific, example-based responses.

Reading the Signals: What a Lukewarm Reference Really Means

Most people will not openly say negative things about a former employee, partly out of courtesy and partly because of local rules around what employers can legally disclose in references, which vary by country and region. That means you have to listen for tone and gaps rather than expecting blunt criticism.

A referee who answers everything with short, flat sentences and no examples is often signalling something they are not comfortable saying outright. Compare this to a referee who volunteers detail unprompted, tells a specific story, or laughs warmly when recalling a project. Enthusiasm is hard to fake convincingly, and its absence is a signal worth noting.

If something feels off, ask a direct follow-up rather than letting it slide.

"I noticed you paused there. Is there anything about their performance or reliability I should be aware of before we move forward?"

Many referees will give you an honest answer if you ask directly and calmly, even if they would not have volunteered it unprompted.

Use the Right Tools to Reclaim the Time You Are Losing Elsewhere

Reference checks feel slow partly because the rest of your hiring process is also slow, so every stage compounds. If screening resumes, scheduling interviews and drafting offers already eat up most of your week, there is little time left to chase referees properly.

Platforms built for smaller hiring teams, such as Hyrewell, can take pressure off the earlier stages. Candidates apply through a link, get automatically screened into a ranked shortlist, book their own interview slots, and receive e-signed offers once you decide, which frees up real time in your week to actually call referees properly instead of squeezing it in between other tasks.

The goal is not to skip reference checks to save time. It is to make sure they are the one part of your process you do carefully, because everything else around them runs efficiently.

Common Mistakes That Slow Reference Checks Down

Waiting until after a verbal offer to start collecting reference details
Sending one email and waiting passively for a reply
Asking vague, generic questions that invite vague, generic answers
Accepting friends or peers listed as former managers without asking why
Not setting a clear deadline, so the request has no urgency
Skipping follow-up questions when a referee sounds hesitant or unclear
Running a completely different, unstructured conversation for every candidate

Fixing even two or three of these habits usually cuts your reference check time in half.

A Realistic Timeline: Reference Checks in a Day, Not a Week

Here is what a fast, thorough process looks like in practice, spread across roughly 48 hours rather than a full week.

Day one, morning: request reference contact details from your shortlisted candidate, with a same-day deadline
Day one, afternoon: send a short, specific scheduling message to each referee offering two or three call times
Day two, morning: run each call using your reusable script, keeping each one to ten or fifteen minutes
Day two, afternoon: compare notes across candidates and follow up on anything that sounded hesitant or unclear

This is not about rushing a decision. It is about removing the dead time that comes from disorganised requests, slow channels and vague questions, so the days you spend are actually productive ones.

Always check what your local labour regulations say about reference checks, permissible questions and what former employers are allowed to disclose, since this varies by country and sometimes by industry, and your own company policy should reflect those local rules.

Done well, a reference check is one of the cheapest, fastest ways to confirm you are making the right hire. It only becomes a week-long headache when it is left disorganised and reactive. Treat it as a structured, time-boxed step with clear scripts and clear deadlines, and it will earn its place as one of the most useful parts of your hiring process rather than the part everyone dreads.