Anyone experiences that your potential new employer asking "May We Contact Your Current / Previous Employer?"?
Instead the HR insisted to reach superiors / bosses / top management who may provide more detailed info than my colleagues aka friends/buddies.

There are 2 reason for this imo. First it tells me whether the candidate is open and honest or has something to hide. An unwillingness to allow might set off warning flags. Second, it applies more to middle and upper mgmt to verify what is stated in your cv, and get a perception on how the candidate did in the previous employment. This question is one of those tools that is useful to gauge the potential candidate. For me, any hesitancy to answer this question tells a lot.

as my case, the head of department offered a position to me as confirmed for employment yesterday and any HR related issues can deal with him only.
Out of sudden, someone titled "HR & Admin" requesting for more details and expecting for the of contacts current / previous employers.

after some thoughts, I decided open book instead as thinking transparency to new employer, list down all my previous and current bosses no matter had conflicts before or not and highlight the reasons for previous resignation, eg: staff welfare, poor sales performance, different thoughts/mindset, etc.

However regret that I hostile purposely to current boss for the past few months as I planned to propose for early release during tender resignation for allowing me to join the new company soonest. Unsure what my current boss will feedback to the HR today.

you choose to be hostile so your current boss will let you go early?
lesson learnt is that always try to be civil cos you dont know you might meet again.
dont worry prob HR just wants to double check your current salary you claimed in your interview.

bcos my boss have "cost-cutting" approach, eg: move to smaller office size for rental saving, management retrench some staff and closing down offices.
thought the early release will "help" the company for some saving, on top of that I sitting duck in office doing nothing too and enough spare times to play games in office as too boring. so I rather join the new company early for new works without wasting precious time for nothing.

It's pretty obvious they're serious about hiring the candidate and wanted to make sure this person:
- not a troublemaker
- no lying
- no misconduct
- work attitude is good
etc

Colleagues, seniors, buddies oftentimes would usually put in good words rather than give an objective feedback. If I'm the HR, i'd also prefer to hear from the previous employer, or the reporting supervisor/ manager.


HR should know better than anyone that there's always 2 sides to the coin. If your ex employer threw out some pretty severe accusation, they'll check with you on some of the facts of the 'story'.

Then it defeats all purpose of the employers asking that question isn't it? If that is the case, they can just say something along the lines of "We may or may not contact your ex employers for work reference or background checks". That question is redundant to say the least.

Like another user here has already mentioned - your issue for lashing out at your superiors. No matter how much you do not like or disagree with your superiors, you do not lash out at them. If you disagree, best you can do is to discuss with them a better way out for you. Like you mentioned, your company is cutting cost and what not. If you have interacted with them nicely, they may have agreed to let you go at an earlier time.

One of my previous employers was like that. They let me off earlier than the required serving months and I don't have to pay for the extra month's salary in lieu of. Next employer, try not to do this again.


Fair point. I have to agree with the "putting in good words for you" part though. Sometimes they may even go the extra mile for you if you were nice to them. Just sad that there weren't a lot of those kinds of employers...

not too sure what you meant by your statement and why it is redundant

Not encountered this and if there is, my answer will be no. The logic is simple, if HR don't divulge the identity of the candidates they are interviewing, they can't expect for me to disclose to my existing employer that i am evaluating other job opportunities. If the HR insist, this is not a company I will be interested to join unless they have an extraordinary reason for this.

Your latest pay slips should already sufficient for most companies to do background checks.

What about previous employer? Not current employer. What would u say?

Previous employer sure, no problem

[QUOTE]

Because that kind of question "doesn't mean much" if they are still gonna ask anyway, isn't it?

my friend who is a manager had this experience once.

he once had a subordinate with work attitude problem (always push his task to other colleague and likes to borrow money). later on, this problematic subordinate wanted to hop to other company.

the other company contacted my friend about this subordinate's history and he did not say anything bad about him. he just mentioned briefly that this guy is an all rounder. the reason is because my friend would prefer if the other company take him in than to stay in current company.

needless to say, the problematic employee got the offer and resigned a month later.

in other words, contacting a previous employer may not be a good move too if they want him out desperately. just put in a few good words and let the employee move out, hoping he will never come back.

This post has been edited by klch87: Jan 7 2021, 09:13 AM

An asshole move but I get why your friend did what he did.

in fact, my boss mentioned that my paid is at the high side of the market rate as my position but still retaining me. True enough, no increment and little incentive (upon request only) for the past recent years. Hence, retrenchment and cost-cutting approaches (happened before MCO), sound like hinting I getting irrelevant to the current company anymore. but still unsure what my boss commented about me, unsure how the HR generate the report and still puzzled for employment letter even though head of department confirmed to take me.

but i understood where the new employer come from, 2 interview conducts, questionnaires filled for better understanding on my previous working performances & attitudes which spent me 1 whole day to puzzle out all my memories and experiences in paper and almost giving up for submission since HR asking for more references' contacts, that HR contacted my current and ex colleague but unsure any of my superiors contacted or not as I didn't inform up-front about the phone call interview from my new employer. but still i open book and honest to that HR for the reasons of resignation, eg: staff welfare, poor sales performance, irrelevant assigned jobs, etc which leaded conflicts with my boss and no expecting for good comments.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 7 2021, 11:04 AM

judging form your comments, i guess your new employer wants to really know how well you performed in your previous company because your pay is already at the high side of the market.
their concern is that if wrongly hire you but cannot perform then it will be a waste of hiring process.

i guess if you are honest and hardworking employee, there is nothing to be worry. cheers.

my major issue is, company going downhill and downsizing and I cant perform with my full strengths.
If I cant perform as their expectation, they can terminate me during the probation anyhow.

anyhow, I just received a call from head of department.
They no going to proceed for my confirmation due to negative comments from my contacts.

Unsure why my boss want to retain me back but I no longer have the passion to work for the company.
but still I pursue with head of department that their HR should no judge the people from one side comments only.

i see. thanks for the feedback. if you old boss wants to retain you meaning you still valuable to them.

continue to pursue for your next career. all the best!

They have the right though.

That's why always quit in a proper manner.


I was very lucky with my previous employer.

Got 2 awards and a very friendly Team Leader.

WTF, I received my previous boss phone call just now. He is one of the references provided to the HR.
He said that someone called him for phone interview about me and asked why looking for new jobs.
He mentioned that his current company have some staff resigned and "see how". I felt like sabotaged purposely.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 7 2021, 01:25 PM

from my experience, i think unless you are applying for an upper management job that hold essential role, else they will not spend time to contact your current/previous employer. it is just for a reference.

just simply the roles for engineering and implementation of projects. not holding any "manager" titles.

In your application form, you should have put the referral contact number for your past employment and they should contact those numbers. If they insist to have another contact, this is highly unusual unless they really doubt your credentials.

I am only aware that C-Levels or Board of Directors position will go through this kind of scrutiny but they would have normally engage professional agencies to handle all this.

You apply for CIA is it?

If the inputs of referral are highly important to evaluate the staff performance attitude, so what the purposes of probation period? The employer should evaluate the staff during probation period for actual performance, different people have different kind of view to judge how good or bad they are.

I tired to pursue with the head of department that HR or their system should not judge the quality of candidates from one side comments or they can terminate me within 24hours during probation period if I failed to fulfills my JD or poor working attitude.

This depends on the nature of work. In certain companies, they rarely fire people and they have very stringent criteria of who they want to bring in. For example, glcs or banks have many benefits for staffs and a lot of procedures to incorporate your medical benefits, prs, registration with regulatory agencies, ...etc.

If let say you have issues with your past companies, you can state this in interview and when hr gathers data for the management review, they can corroborate the data.

Probation period works both ways. It's also a period for you to determine suitability and fit with the company. You can also resign with 1-2 week notice should you dislike the fit.

Then again, this depends on the type of company you apply to. The bigger or more prestigious they are, it's reasonable for them to have more stringent requirements as well.

Not defending or criticising anybody, just providing objective views on the matter.

I do inform upfront to HR the reasons of resignation along bosses contact and claimed that no expecting no good review from some bosses. I expecting HR can compile along with my comments rather than steer by my previous bosses for either YES or NO only. At least understand "Why he said YES" and "Why he said NO".

But no luck. My company business went downhill, hopeless on his commitment, bad EQ raised for argument and conflicts as the sake of company benefits and my future. If he HR define all bosses in this world are always RIGHT, i cant do anything.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 8 2021, 01:37 PM

Is this some MNC or some company that is too free to do detailed background checks?

For a non manager role, i find it strange.

It dont benefits you.

You can give him field references such as customers, suppliers etc but not current employee.

I have no ideas for this why they asked for my bosses contact. however I do highlight to HR in advance that i no expecting good review for them.

I conflicting with my current boss as he failed to commit for business expansion, he facing problems on his on-going projects too, how happy can i if under his management my previous boss due to staff welfare, unfriendly working environment, I left and join other companies and be his direct competitors, caused him lost some sales business. So how I can get a good recommendation as the reasons above. But still the HR submit the review reports exactly what they said.

till now the head of dept never get back to me.
I guess is gone cases just bcos of current & ex employer's review.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 9 2021, 03:54 PM

the HR insisted my current and ex superior's contacts as their system requirement even though I provided a list of contact from my business partner, voluntary society, my current and ex colleagues.

It doesn't make sense as this move don't benefit the company in long run in term of talent acquisition and it don't benefit you.

Basically, they want to burn your bridge regardless they going to hire you or not..

Request to seek to the head of the company or the person you going to report too. Ask them to waive this as this seems to a bad faith. Else you might want to consider other offers.

It is like your new gf/bf want to seek your current gf/bf to validate your sincerity..

This post has been edited by chamelion: Jan 9 2021, 04:15 PM

I guess, the company looking for good ATTITUDE employee. The head of department keep expressing I look good with attitudes and impressed the top & another teammates during interviews, keep informing me that he want to take me and preparing for offer letter.

As their point of view,
Attitudes more priority than talents, skills and experiences.

I do have the company email of the top as the invitation link sent for interview.
But i doesn't feel comfortable now even they reconsider me back since their system are so rigid. i doubt the head of dept dare to challenge their system for my case.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 9 2021, 04:28 PM

Dont mistake both.

Good atiitude have nothing to do with meeting with your current employer. Meeting with your current employer cannot disclose anything meaningful to new employer due to conflict of interest.

Dont doubt, just call the head and explain your pov. Seem bad faith from their end.

This post has been edited by chamelion: Jan 9 2021, 04:34 PM

He claimed that the system show all the references that I provided are no positive nor neutral, current employer contact is a MUST.
But one of my ex colleague that contacted by HR and he appraised my work performance. He told me no worry to getting that job as he did his part.

After a phone call from head of dept, i text him immediately and explained should not hear one-side comments only, confessed upfront for not expecting good review from my employers and requested to reconsider for my application from there.

I guess no suitable to pursue further if he cant against the system
Maybe they expecting "prefect" employee with both good attitude and working performance.

If there is such "prefect" employee, u think the current employer will let other new employers to hire them?

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 9 2021, 05:00 PM

You are correct on last part. He just want to save his ass. In event the candidate is not good, he will report that he done necessary to check the back ground and is not his fault at your career expense by burn your CURRENT bridge. If i am his head, i would screw him for his work ethic. For most organisation sme or mnc, talking to candidate’s current employer is not a must especially in competitive sectors.

Typical manager with poor leadership.

This post has been edited by chamelion: Jan 9 2021, 05:44 PM

Some matters are beyond the HR managers' power & control. It is not that simple to challenge an existing system as you please due to factors like organizational culture (top-to-bottom hierarchy) and workplace politics.

At the end of the day, HR managers are still "coolie" and they have to act according to their upper managements' order to avoid any unwanted drama & to secure their job security (aka be leader-pleasing).

I came across one story about an HR manager who wanted to hire a fresh graduate with CGPA 2.9 but got screwed by his upper management for not abiding by the hiring requirements of CGPA 3.0 (not listening to his boss's order).

In my current job, when I interview that time, I did provide my references during job application. Then once finished interview and upon received the letter of offer, HR did ask me to double confirm my references details which I did.

Then, in between the first month of the job, my HR manager did contact my previous EX boss to ask the details about me. I don’t know this untill the EX boss let me know.

I left the company in a good term, but 1-2 weeks into current job, my ex company colleagues and bosses find out that I went to join competitor company and only the director doesn’t like me now.

My EX boss still a very good friend to me, and are my mentor now. Hope my experiences help.

u r lucky that u still have a superior as your references who still can treat you as friends.

For my case, I don't have any superior to report for the past 10 years.
Either report to CEO and country manager, direct conflict occurred without middle man involved...