Lost (and Found) in Translation: How to Gather Reference Feedback Across the Globe

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Blue global technology background with the planet Earth map Most reports for HR trends list “the globalization of talent” as one of the leading trends for the coming years.  This presents recruiters with the challenge of assessing candidates in another country.  Reference-checking is hard enough when done locally—how can recruiters gather feedback from references in another time zone and for whom English is a second language?  Technology can now come to their aid.  

The Drive to Go Global

Increasingly, companies are viewing the “world as their oyster” when it comes to staffing.  Management consulting firm Deloitte observes, “The evolving vision for many [companies] is a flexible operating model where work can be shifted to whatever global location makes the most sense, based not only on the cost of labor, but also the area’s future revenue potential and supply of skilled talent.”

While the initial wave of offshoring was motivated by the lower cost of labor, today there are many other reasons to nurture and draw upon an international talent pool:

  • Hard-to-find skill sets may be in abundance in other regions of the world
  • Corporate clients frequently mandate that companies employ local workers
  • Hiring a local workforce helps a company get in touch with, and then meet the needs of, its customers
  • A diverse workforce fortifies companies by improving their ability to innovate and adapt to competitive conditions
  • A commitment to diversity and inclusion is tied to many corporations’ business strategies

And you Thought Recruiting Locally was Challenging

While hiring for a global workforce can provide many rewards for an organization, it is not without its challenges, particularly for the talent acquisition department. Recruiters must contend with:

  •  Time Zone Differences:Scheduling time to interview references by phone is difficult even when the reference is in the same time zone as the recruiter. It isn’t unusual for a week to elapse just in playing phone-tag. The complications are magnified when the reference is on a different continent, and recruiters are often forced to work odd hours to accommodate references’ schedules.
  •  Language Barriers:It’s easy to assume that someone who speaks English as a second language completely understands all the nuances of the language and can converse easily on such a delicate subject as a person’s on-the-job performance and aptitude for a position. In reality, that’s often far from the case, and important points can be lost in translation.

By the same token, recruiters may be unaware of the cultural differences influencing the responses that references provide to probing questions. In some cultures, for example, individuals tend to use the word yes to acknowledge that they are listening to what is being said.  It does not necessarily mean an agreement was made. In short, it is very difficult to know if the feedback gathered through such an interview is valid, because of the language and cultural differences between the interviewer and the reference.

An Automated Solution

Technology now offers a solution to these difficulties in the form of an online survey for a candidate’s references—automatically translated into the reference’s preferred language—containing carefully selected questions pertaining to the skills and behaviors that correlate with success in a particular position.

Here’s how it works: Candidates are asked to provide contact information electronically on a prescribed number of their references (usually five). Typically, a certain number of references must be managers, with the remainder being peers, subordinates or business partners. The idea is to collect feedback from people who have observed the candidate on the job. Over time this provides the kind of insight that cannot be gleaned from interviews alone.

The references then automatically receive an email notification from the candidate, requesting their participation. This invitation succeeds in getting a high-response rate, typically 85 percent, because the request comes as a personal appeal from the candidate. Along with this email comes a signed waiver releasing the reference from any liability, and also an explanation that all feedback is aggregated to preserve reviewers’ confidentiality.

The job-specific surveys consist of approximately 25 questions where references are asked to rate the candidate on behaviors that have been validated against measures of success in each type of position. These include:

  • Core Items:  Hard-to-measure attributes that all desirable employees should possess, such as honesty and integrity
  • Job-Level Items:  Factors that are linked to operating as an individual contributor or to managing others, such as mentoring
  • Job-Function Items:  Skills related to specific job responsibilities for the opening in question

The references’ responses are then summarized in a report, comparing candidates to one another, for the recruiter to share with the hiring manager.

And all the way through the process, the applicant and the references interact with the software in the language of their choice, which includes the six most commonly-spoken languages:  English, Chinese, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese.

Hiring without Border Restrictions

Validation studies with six different organizations using one such system found that, once hired, candidates who were rated high in the surveys by their references have:

  • Higher supervisor evaluation
  • Greater satisfaction ratings from their hiring manager (at 60 days post-hire)
  • Lower involuntary termination
  • Higher job satisfaction
  • Lower intention to terminate in the near future

The fact that such a process can be used to survey references in other countries in their language of choice means that reference-checking can become:

  • Time zone-neutral — candidates and references can participate at their convenience, no matter what time of day it is locally for them, and, similarly, recruiters need not extend their work hours to reach references in other countries
  • Comfortable for candidates and references who speak English as a second language, or not at all

Competitive Advantage

This all adds up to a competitive advantage.  Companies that are able to attract, screen, and hire candidates in more places throughout the world can gain a rich pool of diverse talent to further their objectives. Software that supports the process of gathering feedback from references—while removing language barriers—is a major step forward in the globalization of talent.

By Scott Fuhr