Sheri's Solutions: The importance of reference checks

"Do you contact every reference listed by a new employee?"

This is a very interesting question. I know that in our quest to hire someone who we feel is a perfect match from the initial interview, we may skip over one of the most important parts of the new employee acquisition paradigm.

We had a recent experience with a prospective employee. She looked great on paper. She wanted the hours we had posted, and we decided upon a mutually agreeable salary. She was anxious to start as soon as possible.

Sheri B. Doniger, DDS.

Sheri B. Doniger, DDS.

Many years ago, I had hired a woman without checking her references. The short version of the story: I noted she worked for a highly respectable dentist who not only was a popular clinician but a nationwide lecturer. I thought that if this practice had hired her for many years, that spoke volumes of her talents.

Well, I couldn't have been further from the truth. She had embezzled hundreds of dollars from that practice and was fired for cause. She caused some chaos in my practice, and we were concerned about embezzlement and credit card fraud after a patient contacted us to say her credit card was compromised. Her termination occurred after we did a check to find that she had outstanding warrants on her for check fraud. The police came to arrest her from my office. It was a very stressful morning.

Long after I had terminated her, we spoke with a dentist in her previous practice who informed me of her history. Had I only placed that phone call prior to hiring her, it would have eliminated a great deal of stress from our practice.

Since then, I always call references when considering hiring a new employee. This time, I did something recommended to me by one of my dear friends and mentor. She suggested not only calling the names listed on the references but the past employers as well. This was eye-opening. The references one of my applicants listed were from more than seven years ago! None of them returned my calls on a timely basis. When I was finally able to reach someone, the reference was good, but not glowing.

I started to call the recent employers listed on her resume. The first one I was able to reach did not recall the woman, but when a PA from the practice called me back he said she was professional but had some issues with transportation, which was the reason she quit more than two years ago. He was not clear on her exact dates of service as he didn't have any records in front of him. Not a major red flag, but something to know.

The last, most current listed employer was the eye-opener. I tried calling a few times, and no one seemed to know who this person was, even people who worked in the office during her supposed tenure. Finally, one of the other doctors in the practice spoke with me and recalled an employee who worked for them many years ago who he said was not a stellar hire. He went so far as to tell me he would ask his wife, who was the office manager, to check the hiring records because he was sure of the woman but the dates did not match. The applicant told us she worked in this practice from February 2011 to December 2012. But when the doctor called back, he said she worked for him for two months, from October to December 2009.

A glaring lie on a resume is not a good way to start with a new place of employment. For whatever reason she transgressed, this woman was not of the ethical caliber we would want in our office. Was she a changed woman, or was this an aberration? We were not going to take the chance to find out. Another practice may have offered her a position. We sent the woman a follow-up email and advised her we were going in a different direction.

It is always wise to check references. Most offices will either give a glowing recommendation or merely the dates of employ. If you receive just the dates of employ, you learn volumes about the prospective employee. Either not very memorable or too memorable. We were lucky this time. Someone gave us information that saved the office a potential mess in the future. We will gratefully go back to the drawing board and start again.

Sheri B. Doniger, DDS, practices clinical dentistry in Lincolnwood, IL. She has served as an educator in several dental and dental hygiene programs, has been a consultant for a major dental benefits company, and has written for several dental publications. Most recently, she was the editor of Woman Dentist Journal and Woman Dentist eJournal. You can reach her at [email protected].