How to do a Reference Check on your Remote Worker
Nov 12, 2025
It's not rocket science but you have to get a couple of basic things right.
Here are some tips on how you can check your remote worker's references properly.
Try connecting with the most high-credibility references possible.
If you can contact your applicants' direct manager, that would be your best bet. Of course, not always possible.
Next would be current clients / indirect managers / stakeholders who depend on them to deliver work or results.
After that, previous managers who may have moved on from that company.
It gets trickier if the applicant has been with his current company for over 2 years.
If that's the case, try to contact the previous managers or stakeholders at candidate's previous companies.
The more recent, the better.
You must gain TRUST before asking to contact the references.
You can allude to this during the interview that you MAY contact references from a certain job.
But it might come off a bit threatening. You definitely don't want to lose trust and rapport at this point in the journey.
Candidates need to feel that they're seriously being considered before they take the effort to seek permission from references.
If a candidates can't provide their current manager/s, work with them to find a solution. Never make it an absolute deal-breaker.. YET.
How to contact references
Generally, start with an email.
From there, you can gauge if the reference has the appetite for follow up questions or to hop on a call with you.
Validate the remote worker's references
Ideally you'd like to contact them through two channels – eg. Email and Linkedin or Email and Mobile.
You can also validate some email address domains to check if they match the actual – eg. If the correct email is mark@domain.com and if applicant shares mark@dom-ain.com, that would cause doubt.
Tip: References are usually very receptive, I'd say... about 99% of the time. But when a reference replies in a deflective or "too busy tone", it may point to fraud. We say this with experience.
What to ask the remote worker's references
I'm still finding the right balance between getting as much meaningful feedback as possible versus trying to keep it as short as possible...
Some sample questions
How would you rate Applicant against similar staff you've managed before?
Would you consider Applicant as a Superstar?
Do you trust Applicant?
Did the Applicant really strive for excellence or would you say they were content being average or above average?
How reliable was Applicant?
You can also customize your questions based on the role or context
How fast-paced was the environment you were in?
Can you validate if Applicant indeed led a CRM implementation project?
Applicant mentioned they played a key role in growing your business 4x in 2 years. Could you tell me more about that?
What to watch out for
When an applicant can't share refererences due to "NDA" – it's sometimes true but when they can't share ANY reference due to NDA, that's usually a red flag.
When reference give out "lukewarm" responses like "they were OK" or "I had no issues with Applicant" that's usually a negative indicator.
Try to look for superlative indicators instead like "Applicant was one of the best" or "I trained Applicant personally and can vouch for them."
