how should I respond to really long written reference questionnaires?

A reader writes:

I supervise a team of seasonal, entry-level, front-line staff, many of whom are just beginning in their careers and are employed by me as a summer job. Since it is a well-respected and well-known organization in my region which provides good training for young people and interesting work, having this job on their résumé provides them with good experience and is a really great stepping stone for a lot of different career paths. I frequently get asked to provide references for them in their job search, which I am very happy to do and see as a key part of my role and setting up junior staff for career success.

My challenge is when hiring managers conducting reference checks on my former staff, instead of giving me a quick phone call, send me a standardized form with a long list of questions and expect a written response. These are not questions which can be responded to effectively in a few words or one or two sentences! For instance, here are a few samples from the most recent one:
– How does this person handle high-stress situations? Have you seen this person respond to a critical incident? If so, please describe how they handled it
– Tell me about their quality and quantity of work (complete work correctly and efficiently, prioritize and meet deadlines, pay attention to detail).
– We are considering this individual for [job title I am unfamiliar with that is clearly internal to their organization]. Do you think they will excel in this role? Why? (I was provided no context on what this team does within the organization and what the duties/expectations of the role are.)

There were 15 such questions, plus the usual “when did this candidate work for you, what was the nature and duties of their role, were you their direct supervisor, was there anything else you wanted to share” questions, making for a total of 20+ questions/boxes for me to complete. This is for what looks like another entry-level position!

The initial email asked if I could “take a few minutes to respond to the attached questions.” I type quickly but this would take me over an hour to complete properly. By “properly,” I mean write like two sentences to explain job-specific context and then a paragraph or so providing detail or an example and a few sentences explaining my thoughts on their performance, say 6-10 sentences or 100-150 words per question. I could much more easily answer these questions in a 10-15 minute phone call with the reference checker.

When I conduct reference checks when I hire for my own team, I usually give a quick phone call/heads-up through email to arrange a good time and to be respectful of the time of the person I’m calling and my own, limit it to about five questions for the key things that are good to have supervisor/management perspectives on (e.g., does the candidate have sound judgment, working effectively as a member of a team, taking constructive feedback, etc.). I am also of the opinion that it’s really hard to assess references when they’re in writing like this — I find you can ask follow-up questions much more readily over the phone, particularly if you pick up on an awkward pause when you may ask a question about judgment, for instance, and you get better examples.

I don’t want to push back so much that this former employee isn’t considered for the job, and it’s only a handful of reference requests per person, but I have a good number of former employees for whom I provide references, so in the aggregate these kinds of reference checks can be quite burdensome! I genuinely don’t have time to dedicate an hour here and there on short notice when it could be accomplished more effectively and efficiently with a short phone call. Am I being blinded by my personal preferences on how to communicate and opinions on how to best assess candidates? (Note: I think it would be not ideal, but I would be perfectly fine with responding in writing if they were asking a smaller number of questions instead of like 20.)

In this case, I sent an email back saying to the reference checker I’d be happy to provide a reference for this candidate but didn’t have all of the context to answer their questions (especially about the nature of the role at their organization) and am quite pressed for time, asking if it would be possible to set up a phone call instead. I also called later that morning and left a voicemail reiterating the same, so I consider the ball now in their court. Is there something I’m not considering, or is this something I should just suck up and spend an hour to do, or respond with very short answers and risk not giving enough info to demonstrate how the candidate shines? Answers with only a few words or sentences don’t seem to be the expectation of the reference checker given the size of the text boxes I’m to complete, and I’d be doing a real disservice to my former employees by just responding with, “Yeah, she’s good in high-stress situations. She got in a minor traffic collision once at work and kept her head to follow our protocols,” and then rinse and repeat for 19 more questions. Or are my expectations out of sync with standard practice?

You’re not wrong. The written reference questionnaire you received is over-the-top, and also becoming more common. It’s a significant imposition on the time of the reference — and most people feel as you do, that they could easily answer these questions in a 10- or 15-minute call but writing out answers will take much longer.

You’re also right about it being less effective for the reference-checker. Not only do they miss out on the sort of verbal cues you can get on a phone call, but most people are a lot more cautious about what they put in writing and often willing to be more candid in a phone call.

But of course, what makes it tricky is exactly what you’re grappling with: you don’t want setting reasonable boundaries on your own time to hurt the person’s chances of getting an offer. And you should be generous with your time when it comes to references for people you’re enthusiastic about … but in return, employers should be respectful of that time. Lengthy written questionnaires don’t do that.

As for how to respond … well, it sucks. I’d say err on the side of protecting the person’s chances at the job if you do think they’re a good candidate, and fill out as many of these as you can. But if you happen to get one in an especially crunched week or when you’ve already done three others that month or so forth, you do have the option of replying back with something like, “Jane is absolutely fantastic — smart, detail-oriented, a whiz at frog midwifery, and a pleasure to work with — and I can give her a strong reference. My work schedule is packed right now so I don’t have time to do this questionnaire justice, but if you can call me at ____, I’d love to tell you all about her.” They may or may not take you up on that call, but you’ll be making it clear that you think Jane is great and this is a time issue, not an enthusiasm one.

It’s not ideal — again, you want to help good people who worked for you get jobs — but it’s reasonable to do when you need to.