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View full libraryThis guide examines the legislation and practice guidelines for references. It contains advice on both offering and obtaining references, as well as an overview of relevant Data Protection guidelines.
<p>If you are managing employment reference responses, the toolkit brings together practical HR templates covering requests, verification, review, response and record keeping.</p>
Employers must use caution when providing references. They must guarantee, in particular, that any information they offer to another employer about a current or former employee is truthful and accurate, and is not affected by personal preferences or dislikes.
As a result, organisations should implement a policy that allows only identified managers (or an HR manager) to submit references on behalf of the organisation. Such a strategy should be followed for both written references and those obtained over the phone.
Is it appropriate for an employer to provide a reference?
Many businesses have a policy of not providing references or of simply providing basic information such as the person's job title and dates of employment. While this strategy avoids legal difficulties, it is inconvenient for other employers who may benefit from accurate, true information about, say, the individual's talents and performance.
A reluctance to offer a reference without an explanation is likely to be viewed as an indicator that there was an issue with the individual about whom the reference was asked. As a result, if the company has a policy of supplying just the most basic information in references, the fact that this is its general policy should be disclosed.
What information should a reference contain?
If
You've seen 20% of how the Managers guide to providing references is structured. Get the complete editable template instantly and customise it for your organisation.
This Managers guide to providing references aims to offer you a versatile and customisable tool, serving as a solid foundation for your needs. Utilise it to ensure consistency, enhance accuracy, and save valuable time.
Adapt it to suit your unique requirements, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in your HR processes.
Yes. This template has been designed for organisations of all sizes, including small businesses, charities and growing employers. It follows UK employment law best practice and can be adapted to suit your organisation.
Our templates are developed with UK employment legislation, Acas guidance and HR best practice in mind and are reviewed and updated as relevant requirements change. However, every employment situation is different, so the template should be adapted to the circumstances and checked against the employee's contract and your organisation's procedures before use.
Yes, we highlight the areas of the document that you need to update with your own details, and where you need to make decisions to suit your situation. This saves you time and ensures that you meet best practice.
Yes. Once purchased, you'll be able to download it instantly. Templates are provided in editable format (such as .doc or .xls) so you can customise them easily, and in PDF format for easy sharing.
If you're looking for broader support, we also offer toolkits and library bundles that include the Managers guide to providing references, along with other HR templates and policies for fully managing your situation. These may be more cost-effective if you need deeper advice.
AI can produce a document quickly, but effective HR documentation needs to be more than well-written words. It needs to reflect relevant UK employment law, HR best practice, practical considerations and the circumstances in which it will be used. These resources have been professionally developed around that wider HR context, drawing on extensive practical experience, rather than simply generating a generic document from a prompt.
How this content is developed and reviewed
The Managers guide to providing references is developed using a practical HR methodology that considers current UK employment legislation, ACAS guidance, CIPD good practice and the real-world HR process it supports. Templates and supporting information are regularly reviewed and updated, with additional reviews triggered by significant changes to legislation, guidance or established HR practice, helping ensure each document remains practical, relevant and suitable for UK employers.
Darryl Horn, Chartered HR Director
Darryl is a Chartered HR professional with over 25 years' experience in senior HR and employee relations roles.
He has extensive practical experience of managing reference response HR processes and founded hrdocbox to provide businesses with practical, professionally developed HR resources grounded in UK employment law and best practice.
HRDocBox has been creating practical UK HR documents since 2009.
"Darryl provides support and advice with excellent judgement, and has a strong understanding of people, policies and UK employment legislation."
"He is someone I trust; consistent, dependable, and committed to doing things properly."
Whether you employ 5 people or 50, hrdocbox gives you the structure, documents and expertise needed to manage employees professionally and legally.
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