Most reference checks are a waste of everyone's time because builders ask the wrong questions to the wrong people in the wrong order. A reference check process that actually predicts job performance does three things: it targets references who directly supervised the candidate's work in the field, it asks behavioral questions about specific situations rather than general impressions, and it listens for what the reference avoids saying as much as what they say out loud. Do all three, and you will learn more in a 12-minute phone call than you did in two rounds of interviews.
The standard approach goes like this: candidate lists three references, you call them, they say the person is great, you hire. That process filters out almost nothing. The candidate chose those people. Of course they're going to say nice things.
The reference check becomes useful when you treat it as an interview, not a formality. The goal is not to confirm what you already think. The goal is to stress-test it.
According to SHRM's guidance on reference checks, structured reference interviews that use consistent behavioral questions produce more reliable and legally defensible information than unstructured conversations. Builders who skip structure are rolling the dice.
The candidate's list is a starting point, not a rulebook. For a superintendent or field project manager role, you want to speak with someone who actually watched them run a job site, not their old college buddy who happens to be in construction.
Ask the candidate upfront: "Who was your direct supervisor at your last two positions?" Then request those people specifically. If a candidate says their supervisor is unavailable or they're not on good terms, that's information too. You don't have to make it adversarial, just note the gap.
For estimator roles, you want someone who reviewed their takeoffs or worked alongside them on bid submissions. For office staff, someone who managed their day-to-day workload and deadlines. Match the reference to the skills you're actually hiring for.
Ditch the open-ended softballs. "Would you rehire this person?" gets a yes or a dodge. Neither teaches you much.
These questions produce usable information:
The last question is the one Josh Cowen at Right People Co. calls the "proxy hire" question. It forces the reference off the diplomatic fence. A genuine yes sounds different from a qualified yes, and you'll hear the difference if you let there be silence after they answer.
A reference who genuinely respects someone will give you specific stories, not vague praise. "He's a hard worker" is filler. "She caught a framing error on a 28-unit project that would have cost us six weeks" is real.
When a reference pauses before answering a behavioral question, when they pivot to a general statement after you asked for a specific one, when they answer "what's their biggest weakness" with "he works too hard," those are signals worth noting.
You're not looking for dirt. You're looking for fit. A superintendent who struggles with detailed documentation but runs a clean, safe, on-schedule site might be perfect for your company if you have an office coordinator handling the paperwork. The reference will tell you who the person actually is if you ask the right way.
Most builders check references after they've already decided to hire. By then it's almost ceremonial. The information shows up and gets rationalized away because you've already mentally moved on.
Run reference checks before you make an offer, after the second interview. Give yourself room to act on what you learn. If a reference tells you the candidate walked off a job mid-project twice, you want to know that before you're negotiating salary, not after.
This is part of the Steps component in the 5S Hiring Model, which is a framework developed by Right People Co. to help home builders fix their hiring by fixing their messaging. Steps means your process is frictionless for good candidates and filters out bad ones, and reference checks placed in the right sequence do exactly that.
If you're doing one hire every few months, you can wing the reference call. If you're scaling and hiring superintendents, estimators, and field managers on a rolling basis, you need a call guide that any project manager or office lead on your team can run consistently.
Write out your five core questions. Leave space for follow-ups. Train whoever makes the calls to stay quiet after asking the scale question and wait out the pause. Document what you hear in the same format every time so you can compare candidates fairly.
If your hiring process still relies on gut feeling and a prayer, a free Signal Audit from Right People Co. will show you where the gaps are, reference checks included. And if you want the whole process built out for your company, The Hiring Package covers it.
Rooting for you,
Josh
Ask for specific situations, not general impressions. Good questions include: how they handled multiple subcontractors falling behind, a time they made a mistake and what they did about it, and whether the reference would hire them again if they were building right now. The "proxy hire" question, asking if the reference would want this person running their own sites, cuts through diplomatic hedging faster than anything else.
Before you make an offer, after the second interview. Most builders check references after they've already decided to hire, which makes the whole exercise pointless. Running checks before the offer means you can actually use what you learn. Discovering a candidate walked off two jobs mid-project should affect the offer, not come after you've shaken hands.
You can ask the candidate for the name of their direct supervisor at previous jobs, even if that person isn't on their reference list. Request those supervisors specifically. If a candidate says a former supervisor is unavailable or things ended badly, that's worth noting. You're not obligated to limit yourself to whoever the candidate coached to say nice things about them.
Ten to fifteen minutes if you have a clear question guide. You don't need an hour. You need five focused behavioral questions, the discipline to stay quiet after asking the scale question, and enough attention to notice when an answer is vague where it should be specific. Longer calls usually mean you're filling silence rather than gathering useful information.
Vague praise with no specific stories. Pauses before answering behavioral questions. Pivoting from a specific question to a general statement. Weak answers to the proxy hire question, things like "he'd be a solid addition to any team" with no real conviction behind it. And anything that contradicts what the candidate told you about why they left their last job.