If I name HR as my reference, will they tell my manager?

[Lemons1571]

I’m job hunting and looking for a new role (finance), but keen that my managers don’t know this until I get an unconditional offer from another company. If I name our HR as the referee, will they automatically tell my manager? How can I find out if they automatically do this ? I work for a company but it runs similar to a public sector organisation, eg like a further education college. So they are all about policies procedures and compliance with rules.

Will there be an internal policy on this do you think? I’d also like to know if my current employer provides a basic reference or adds in more detail like sick leave days.

You can ask your HR department to keep this to themselves. I have done this before.

References are typically factual based on your employment - and what is on your record. They should have no need to contact your line manager but you could just clarify this with them - they will be understanding. I guess it all depends on the size of the company too - if it’s a small company, slightly harder

It’s a medium size company - 160 employees ish

You should be OK then - unless your line manager is ‘close’ with HR and they tell them ‘unofficially’ of your request….

Tell them not to take up references until you have a job offer on the table.

It depends on company policy. Our HR don't write references! So you couldn't keep it a secret. The closest you coyote get is to say that employers references can only be taken up if an offer is made.

Do not give references unless you have been made an offer.

I wasn’t sure if an offer would be conditional or unconditional based on the references. My sick leave is not great due to being signed off following a bereavement.

So it’s a one off period of sick leave. But I don’t know if my current employer will include this in a reference to my new employer who might then retract the offer?

Usually you get a job offer subject to references, so the references are taken out afterwards!