Many organizations will conduct a reference check before making an employment offer to the candidate. Typically, employers will ask the candidate for three names, and their contact information, of people that can contact for a reference check.

At the end of the day, when a candidate supplies the potential employer with 3 contact names, the candidate supplying the names will have a good sense that the people that will be contacted will more than likely give a good reference. The question is really, who would supply names to an employer that would knowingly give a bad reference?

Please comment on the validity of reference checking, knowing this scenario described above. What information could you extract from a phone reference check, knowing that you (the employer) will be asking canned questions from a questionnaire list? Comment on when a reference check becomes illegal.