What is a reference check?
A reference check is a conversation with someone who has worked with a candidate, usually a former manager, used to test what the selection process has concluded so far. It is the last stage where a hiring decision can still change cheaply.
It is not a formality, and it is not a background check. A reference check asks people about performance and behaviour. A background check verifies records and legal status. They involve different sources, different questions and, in Belgium, very different rules.
What are the rules on reference checks in Belgium?
Consent is required, and it has to be specific. The Belgian Data Protection Authority guidance on recruiting candidates requires prior written authorisation from the candidate, identifying which organisations will be contacted, what data is being requested, why, and for how long the consent runs. A signature on a generic clause is not that.
The same guidance sets a second limit that is less well known: an employer may not systematically verify with third parties the information a candidate has given. Reference checking is a targeted step with a reason, not a routine sweep. Alongside it, collective labour agreement no. 38 requires that all information about a candidate be treated confidentially.
Does a candidate have to give references on request?
Partly, and the limit is the same one that governs every other question in a selection process. Collective labour agreement no. 38 obliges a candidate to cooperate in good faith and to provide the necessary information about their professional past and education, where it relates to the nature and conditions of the role.
The words at the end do the work. A reference request that bears on the role is inside the rule. One that is really an attempt to find out why you left somewhere four jobs ago is not. And your current employer is not a default reference: contacting them without your explicit agreement puts your existing job at risk, which is why that call is normally left until an offer is signed.
What makes a reference check worth doing?
Specific questions. Asking whether someone was good produces a polite answer that has no information in it. Asking what the person actually owned, what they were like when a project slipped, and what kind of environment they should not be put into produces something usable.
The most useful question is usually the last one: what would you do differently if you managed them again. It is answerable without criticism, and it surfaces the conditions under which someone works well. Sparagus runs references as part of its permanent and executive recruitment mandates, with the candidate's written agreement on who is contacted.
