Reference Check Guidelines
Reference checks of previous employment should be limited to:
a) Authenticity of the information provided by the candidate in his/her CV.
b) The employee should not have been removed due to actions involving moral turpitude (whether in personal or professional life).
c) He/she should not have been terminated because of theft or destructive activities of any kind.
If negative feedback is received, you must approach the company and ask whether they conducted any domestic inquiry and whether misconduct was proved. Merely blaming the employee without following principles of natural justice is unprofessional.
Occasionally, senior management professionals or HODs bear a grudge against a junior employee, and when he/she quits, they may give negative feedback to teach him/her a lesson. This feedback needs to be ignored.
Negative feedback on account of poor performance has to be ignored. While selecting a job candidate, you should have been cautious enough to test the candidate's knowledge or skills. If the candidate clears recruitment rounds, but you withhold his/her candidature because you receive poor feedback on performance, then it shows that you do not trust your recruitment ability.
Hope the above information is sufficient.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar