Benefits: When contacting a personal reference supplied by a potential employee, it is important to ask the right questions. Presumably, no one is going to give you the name of a person who will provide a negative reference. In light of that fact, it pays to focus the questions asked on the suitability of the individual for the specific position to be filled. It is all too easy for a reference to discuss what a great person the applicant is.

The attached file contains a sample letter that may be used as a starting point in drafting a letter to a personal reference. Remember that the questions should concentrate on the work to be performed and the suitability of the applicant to perform that work.

File Description: The file is in rich text format (RTF) that is suitable for use with most word processing programs used in the Windows environment.

Download: Personal reference check letter