Employment References

[elkitos]

I wonder if anyone has been in the situation I'm in and how they went about it. On requesting a reference from the HR department of a previous employer they insisted that it's company policy to only include the dates and position on any references. I tried to argue that I needed this for emigration purposes and was pleading with them to attach a full job description, to no avail. Yesterday I received this so called reference which while on a company letterhead wasn't even signed! Am I right to conclude that this reference is not even worth the paper it's printed on? How am I going to solve this problem? ... as I'm sure they aren't going to budge on this so called policy.

Thanks!!!

[nikci]

Hi Elkitos,

Unfortunately your employer is not doing anything unlawful in giving this kind of reference . There is an exception to this and that is when a reference is required by a regulatory body,such as the Financial Services Authority, to ensure that financial advice is given only by qualified people or if your contract says a full reference will be given (check the terms of your contract).If you employer normally gives full references (not the case here by the sound of things) failure to give you one may give rise to claims of discrimination. With that said my only advice to you is to pop down to the Citizens Advice Bureau and see if they are prepared to negogiate on your behalf with your former employer. If that fails send me a PM and I will see what I can do as have some experience in this. The only other way round this is to contact your line manager or someone senior in the company who might be willing to give you a reference.

You are right though about the reference not being particularly helpful as we had a similar problem with my OH's former employer and had to get a more indepth reference which has now held up our assessment for another 8 to 12 weeks - we are still waiting to hear back from them.

Know that this is not really what you want to hear but if I can be of any help let me know.

Kind Regards,
Nikci

[gpo1971]

Originally Posted by nikci

Hi Elkitos,

Unfortunately your employer is not doing anything unlawful in giving this kind of reference . There is an exception to this and that is when a reference is required by a regulatory body,such as the Financial Services Authority, to ensure that financial advice is given only by qualified people or if your contract says a full reference will be given (check the terms of your contract).If you employer normally gives full references (not the case here by the sound of things) failure to give you one may give rise to claims of discrimination. With that said my only advice to you is to pop down to the Citizens Advice Bureau and see if they are prepared to negogiate on your behalf with your former employer. If that fails send me a PM and I will see what I can do as have some experience in this. The only other way round this is to contact your line manager or someone senior in the company who might be willing to give you a reference.

You are right though about the reference not being particularly helpful as we had a similar problem with my OH's former employer and had to get a more indepth reference which has now held up our assessment for another 8 to 12 weeks - we are still waiting to hear back from them.

Know that this is not really what you want to hear but if I can be of any help let me know.

Kind Regards,
Nikci

Hi Nicki,

I think that is standard practice with references these days, all HR-driven and not very personal. I sent the ones I received with an advert from the company website for a similar job to mine. I also drafted a sheet myself of responsibilities, duties, reports etc. and they endorsed it. I would imagine some companies wouldn't though.
Although my ex-employers were quite kind in helping, they wouldn't draft anything themselves to say "he did this, and showed these skills..." etc.

Hope it gets sorted.

Garry

[nikci]

Hi Garry,

At least they endorsed it hopefully that will satisfy the requirements. Like I said if you need any help just PM - employment law is a speciality of mine. Good luck with the appplication.

Nikci

[elkitos]

The latest is that they won't budge. My former manager states that he would be breaking company policy if he provides references in a personal capacity as long as he's employed there (is this Burma or a profit making capitalist American corporation ... oops a slight slip of the tongue). Well it seems that this one will go down the statutory declaration route ... at least it's only a year or so.

[ali]

Hi,

I actually got a reference from my line manager and one from a consultant I worked with. I also included a letter from HR confirming my dates of employement, the role I was employed in, my grade and the hours I worked ie. full time.

I would still use the HR letter as confirmation - but contact them and say that they 'forgot' to include your job description and to sign it - and you wonder if they could re-send it to you/or that you'll collect it - ask someone else int he company for a more detailed reference.

Ali

[joelltah]

Hello..................We had the same problem! All we recieved was a "reference" on Headed Paper with an employment start & finish date! I persued this many times but they would not budge! No details of responsibilities or any personal info! We resolved this by asking a "favour" of a Manager in the Company who gave a personalised, detailed Character Reference! We obviously got the result we wanted but it was all very hush hush as I quote "My position will be on the line if they find out" he said........................hope you can resolve this! HR policy gone mad me thinks!