Crosschq 360 Feature: Candidate Self Reference

Knowing what your candidate’s references think of them is one thing - how your candidates rank themselves as employees is another. A self-reference can act as a good baseline when doing reference checks, so Crosschq 360 has created a feature to do exactly that.

Self-reference checks hinge on an assessment performed in the system by the candidate themselves, using the same key criteria presented to the individuals who will be providing references for them. Here’s how it works:

The Crosschq Reference Check Process

All candidates and references will be asked to complete a survey, answering a series of scaling questions about overall performance. These questions are structured to elicit responses that compare the performance of the candidate to their manager, coworkers, and colleagues.

Each question presents a range of values corresponding to the numbers 1 - 5, with low indicating not a good match (would definitely not agree, would definitely not recommend, did not portray x attribute) and high being a positive match (would definitely agree, would definitely hire again, absolutely portrayed x attribute). 

Using this numerical scoring scheme makes it possible to arrive at a quantitative assessment that is delivered in the form of a convenient, concise set of candidate performance indicators related to specific areas.

Final scoring

The score-averaged keystone questions include the first main question and the second question (made up of nine attributes to be individually scored.) The survey further asks each reference and the candidate to choose a number for the candidate’s performance both on each of the key attributes as well as for their overall performance. 

For the final reference score for each candidate, each individual set of attribute scores is calculated, then averaged across both keystone questions for a final, definitive score that can be compared with scores for other candidates in the running for the same role. That process goes like this:

The reference average is calculated from the first two keystone questions: the first keystone with its single 1-5 rating, and the second keystone question consisting of the nine attributes and their individual 1-5 ratings. These nine ratings from keystone 2 are averaged for a single number and then calculated with the rating from keystone 1 for a final average.

Comparing scores

The self-reference average can be compared to the averages from the candidate’s references to determine where candidates should be ranked in terms of suitability for the role. This can assist in hiring decisions and lead to better quality of hire and higher retention.

The self-reference check can provide a useful benchmark as well as deliver the candidate’s sense of their fit for the role based on their score compared to their references’ evaluations. This data is invaluable when figuring out whether a candidate will be a good fit and act as a guide for skilling up in areas needed if they are hired for the role.

Learn how to read a Crosschq report and dig deeper into raw data for additional insights. To learn more about Crosschq 360 digital reference checking, request a free demo.