Employers invest considerable time and money in hiring and training new employees and therefore want to ensure a job candidate is going to be the right fit. Information gleaned from references – in contrast with a polished interview and resume – is pure gold for employers who are working hard to find the ideal matches for their positions. After all, the best indicator of future success is past performance.

Employers have a number of options with regard to checking the references of a prospective employee. These can range from having HR or the hiring manager call former supervisors directly to hiring a third party to handle the process to online solutions.

Our guest on Episode 72 of HR Works: The Podcast for Human Resources, is Ray Bixler, CEO of SkillSurvey and an expert on the critical role of job references. He speaks with us about what's changing in the world of reference checking and HR's options, and covers topics such as nontraditional ways employers can use reference feedback, the value of co-worker references and how they differ from manager or supervisor references, and what interesting or revealing information SkillSurvey has found in its reference data by grounding it in organizational science.