Content of Qualitative Feedback Provided During Structured, Confidential Reference Checks

The present study used text analytics software to examine the unstructured (or qualitative) data provided by job references during confidential, multi-rater reference checks. With respect to both work-related strengths and areas of improvement, job references more frequently provided words or short phrases relating to “soft skills” such as working with others and communication as opposed to “hard skills” such as computer programming or...