An HR professional with 30+ years of experience under her belt thinks the question says a great deal about an organization’s culture, according to a recent post on Monster. She feels strongly that a firm that won’t allow its managers to provide in-depth references for staffers who have moved on does not value its talent.
As she rightly points out, former employees aren’t known for suing their ex-employers for defamation over a job reference. What’s more, the writer’s opinion is that a company that doesn’t trust its managers to properly evaluate their people doesn’t trust the managers to manage, period.
She encourages prospective employees to get a clear-cut answer of whether they can expect a reference from their boss should they take another job down the road; and also urges HR managers to lobby their firms that don’t allow manager references to get that policy changed pronto.