Common trap: You ask for references.  You think it's implied that what will be provided will be professionals who can vouch for that candidate's work quality, integrity, performance, etc. 

Of course, you'd be wrong many, many times.

You let the candidate provide the references they want.  If you pay attention, those references are usually weak, including the following suspects:

1. Co-workers from other departments.  The friend of your candidate in another department, who has no line of sight into your candidate's actual performance.  They love your candidate and will rate accordingly, but they don't exactly know what your candidate does or how effective she is.  But they love her!  She's good people...

2. Managers the candidate didn't report to.  These are better than co-workers from other departments, but still filled with questions.  The manager title looks great on the reference sheet, but wait - did the candidate actually do work for them?  If not, there's a chance that the manager provided as a reference has some line of site into the candidate's performance, but more often than not, they're the same as the co-worker described in #1.  With a cool title.

3. Professional friends.  These are friends at another company who have a great title, but....you guessed it, they have no frame of reference that your candidate can do the work, other than knowing that they seem like a swell human being at PTA, church or the co-ed softball team.

It's a jungle out there.  The reality is that most companies take the references that are given, do the minimum related to the actual reference check, then cross the task off their list.

And we wonder why most companies feel like they have a retention problem...

Want to make this situation better?  Don't be a wallflower - DIRECT your candidates on the types of references you need from them.  Fair game includes the following:

1. The boss they worked for in any and all jobs.  Can you call them?  Why not?  It's a common play for candidates to provide a boss that liked them the most as a reference.  Take that one, say thank you, then ask, "What about ACME?  Who did you work for there?  Can I get them as a reference?"

2. Co-workers in the same department.  Want to get super fresh data?  Look the company and location up on LinkedIn, hone in on people who would have worked in the same department as your candidate, then spring a couple of names on them.  "Can I use them?"

3.  Customers.  Find a customer they're proud to have served, then do the unexpected:  Instead of accepting the one contact they gave you, ask for two other contacts at that same customer.  It's rare that all three people will have the same perspective, and you'll learn lots if you take the time to dig in on the customer side.

Does asking for the right types of references make you feel dirty or confrontational?  We get it, it's not the norm.  Do it on the next two candidates you check references on and you'll feel the reality - no one gets hurt and you'll have exponentially better information than you traditionally receive from the reference process.

Ask for more.  You deserve it.  So does your company.