Hr question about references

[Goldendeliciousness]

I posted this on the chat thread. I am posting again here as I did not realise this forum existed.

I have been successful for a public sector role. They need five years worth of references. First reference will be very positive, I have worked there for 4.5 Years. Second reference could be negative, I worked hard, was never late but found the role difficult (it was a hard time in my life) and I did not get along with my manager.

Is it likely the local authority will withdraw the job offer if the second reference has some negative elements?

I think it's hard to say, of course job offers can be withdrawn on the basis of bad references but how seriously they take it will depend on (a) what exactly is said in the reference including the relevance to your new job and (b) the attitude of the person recruiting you and/or the HR department.

Contrary to popular opinion it is not 'illegal' to give or act on a bad reference but it ought really to be based on provable/evidenced issues rather than the subjective opinion of the manager, although of course the line between the two can be blurry and when reference forms ask things like 'do you believe the candidate would be suitable for this job' it kind of does invite opinion giving... Do you have reason to believe the manager from your old job really will give an actively negative reference rather than a neutral one or simply confirming dates of employment etc - a lot of places now only give these references as a matter of policy as they don't really want to deal with complaints/comeback from disgruntled former employees? If you are really worried this manager will slag you off, can you just put the HR department down as the referee and they'll issue a basic confirmatory reference, this should be ample for the local authority, as I say it's such common practice now a lot of people believe it's actually the law that only these can be given.

References do not usually contain much more than confirmation of employment, is there any reason to think this will be otherwise?

One of our contractor has just taken a role with a public body. They sent us a reference request and it was basically requesting a performance review - it requested huge amounts of detail about this contractors skills and abilities! We ignored it and provided dates, roles and said we wouldn't hesitate to have him come back and work with us.
I doubt your manager from 5 years ago is still in the same post - some one in HR will dig out your employment record and say yes Golden worked here and that will be it. Even if they say you struggle I'd expect your new employer to give you the opportunity to explain the reference after all they want to give you the job - they like you and don't want to lose you.

As part of my role I advise on recruitment issues in the public sector. Firstly, as most people have said it is highly unlikely that your reference will contain any subjective information. Secondly, if you are being asked for 5 year referencing I would assume that your role has some sort of safeguarding implications so this will be the focus of the checks. If the reference comes back less than glowing I would expect the hiring manager to have a discussion with you about it and give you the opportunity to explain. I would also advise that if this was minor issue it was a long time ago and there are subsequent references which may be more relevant. And in all honesty I’m not even sure my hiring managers actually read the references they are just so desperate to get people in post.

I know it’s a bit of a worry but it will probably be fine.

And congratulations on your new role!

No it will be fine. The ref will most likely confirm start and end date only.