To expect proper references?

[MrsKahlo]

Would appreciate help from HR people here or anyone with experience.

Worked for my employer for 8 years and a few colleagues have recently left. They be all reported issues with references being given.

It turns out that as an organisation (small private secto) we have a policy of only being given references that state our job title, term of employment and sick days.

Does this send a bad message to new employers?

I'm also worried about the sick record as although I've been here a long time I had 8 months off sick 2 years ago for MH and the fact that they don't give context does concern me in regards to future job prospects.

Can I ask for MH related absence to not be disclosed under the equality act? Would the bog standard reference make me look like a bad employee?

I’m surprised they give out sick days. Neither of my previous employers have. I’d contact them and say you don’t want medical data (including sick days) sent out.

I work in finance and usually references only say role, dates of employment

Factual information is a proper reference

Dates of employment and job title v standard. Sick days less so and not a good idea.

I should add that the references we request are fairly detailed so it seems inconsistent to expect other orgs to comment on suitability for position and role description when they aren't willing to provide this information when requested. I just don't like the fact that I can work for nearly a decade somewhere and at the end it's just a report of my job title and sick days basically

The company I work for only provide Job title and the dates you were employed. I think this is pretty standard across the board now.

There is no right to a reference beyond confirmation of facts such as job title, dates of joining and leaving, and it can include sick days.

Lots of companies provide these type of references as they can't be challenged on them as they are fact based rather than opinion based.

We always ask for more than that but receive and accept these type of references without being concerned

As an employer giving a reference would you adhere to the request of an employee not to disclose sickness record?

Anything more tends to lead to being sued

Mrs Kahlo. If OP requests that they don’t, then they can’t. Sick days is health information which is a special category of information under GDPR. If the OP doesn’t consent to that information being given out then they should not give it out. OP have you asked your previous employer to delete any medical information (including sick days) that they hold on you? Under GDPR you have the right to ask that any personal data is removed

Mrs Kahlo! Just realised you are the OP!

Generally companies have a policy on references that HR will give basic information.

A good reference collector will call your line manager or similar and have a chat. I have no idea if the person taking your references will be good or not but most people will say in conversation things they won’t commit to in writing.

Anything more tends to lead to being sued

Nonsense.

OP
yes, it's ridiculous

my last employer went above and beyond to try and get more information out of the previous employer

but the policy of the last employer was also just to give name and date. It's often a mismatch between HR and everyone else, but it's quite normal. Completely fecking stupid like everything else in Job World.

If its nonsense why have so many places stopped doing it?

I have recently employed someone and she had a reference come back from her most recent employer - it was basically yes she worked for us for this long and if you want any further info then tough as we don't give it. It was a care type setting so I guessed it was just their standard thing but yes it could put potential employers off - luckily she had a lovely reference off her other one.

Employers have stopped giving detail because of the risk of litigation. In reality very very few cases are or were brought as a result of a reference, especially a truthful one. It's just minimum hassle to put as little detail as possible.

You can request that the employer does not give your absence history. However the employer could state "sickness absence information declined due to employee request" or similar. They could also refuse to give a reference at all, which is generally seen as a negative by prospective employers.

I think the fear of being sued or being accused of being discriminatory leads some employers not to give detailed references. Perhaps the law should protect those giving references from being sued, within some limits.

Nothing more annoying than a person who is a square peg in a round hole or somehow useless being able to move from one good job to another.

It’s not just the legal risk, it’s that the resource required to produce bespoke references for all ex employees whenever it’s requested would be too onerous and have no value to the employer writing them. Hence keeping it simple as it’s reducing the risk of legal issues and also efficient.

My employer only gives start and finish date and job title. His reasoning for this is that there is nobody employed in our company whose job it is to provide references, nor will there ever be, because why should he pay to employ someone to give references to staff that won't be coming back and that he's gone to additional expense in order to recruit their replacement.

Usually when I apply for jobs I have had to give HR details to back up the last 3 years worth of roles (for which HR would give the start date, end date and last job title held there) and then a couple of email addresses of people I have worked with who are happy to give a character reference.

I'm in HR and this is very standard, I'm sure your new employer will have seen this type of reference before....it isn't at all uncommon to have a policy of only confirming basic information. I have only ever seen number of days absent provided for the past 12 months so would be surprised if they included something from 2 years ago but do speak to your HR department if you're concerned to double check and ask that it isn't included.