What is Employment Reference?

Full Definition

An employment reference is information a current or former employer provides, usually to a prospective new employer, about a worker's employment history, conduct, or suitability for a role. In most cases in the UK, there is no general legal obligation on an employer to provide any reference at all (regulated sectors such as financial services are a notable exception, where a reference is often mandatory under sector-specific rules), and many employers choose to provide only a brief, factual 'basic' reference -- confirming dates of employment and job title -- specifically to avoid the risk of a dispute over anything more subjective. Where an employer does choose to give a reference, whether basic or detailed, it must be true, accurate and fair, and must not give a misleading overall impression, because the employer giving the reference can be liable to the employee if a careless or malicious reference causes them financial loss (for example if it wrongly costs them a job offer), and can also be liable to the recipient employer if a reference is negligently favourable and omits information it should reasonably have included. Many employers now have a written reference policy setting out exactly what will and will not be disclosed, partly to ensure consistency and partly to manage this dual legal risk, and job offers are frequently made conditional on receipt of satisfactory references before they become fully unconditional.

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