What is a qualified reference? The employer evaluates your performance in the employment relationship.
If you are about to leave a company as an employee, one of the most important things you should take care of now is the job reference. Finally quite substantially for the coming application, as it gives future employers a Gives an impression of how you work.
But are you entitled to a qualified occupation-promoting work reference? And what do the formulations actually mean??
Specific topics around the employer’s reference:
Recommendation letter
Where a letter of recommendation is used and what it must say, we explain here.
Intermediate reference
What the interim reference is all about and when you are entitled to it, you can read here!
job reference: information about the content
Here you can find out exactly what the content of the reference is aimed at and what needs to be taken into account in the process!
Compact knowledge: Qualified job reference
Here you can read what characterizes such a reference.
Yes, every employee is entitled to a written reference upon termination of employment.
A translation of the most common phrases can be found here.
What is a qualified reference?
Write an employer’s reference yourself? Some employers are happy to have the work done for them.
Job references are issued by the employer and Inform about who worked, when, how long, where. If the reference consists of the same contents, it is an simple work testimony.
In addition, the boss can evaluate the employment relationship, in particular the performance of the employee, too. In this case it is a qualified reference.
It usually contains Information on the following:
- For whom it is issued?
- How long was the employee employed by the company?
- Which tasks had?
- How well he has mastered?
- What competencies has he acquired / what does he have?
- How he behaved towards colleagues and superiors?
If you have been employed by the company for a while, want to look around, however, which challenges the market still offers, you can also request a qualified interim reference. But it is not only a possible job change that can lead to you insisting on this. As other important decisive reasons usually apply:
- the promotion
- the parental leave
- a higher grouping
- a transfer to another department
- the exchange of the superior
If you request an interim report, however, you are depend on the goodwill of your superior, as there is no legal entitlement to such a reference.
Do I have the right to a reference??
Some employers find it difficult to draw up a qualified reference, must be spent for this nevertheless some time, in order to formulate a founded evaluation of the leaving coworker.
You have the right to ask for a qualified job reference.
In many cases it can therefore be useful to have a Work reference itself to write.
You yourself have it with it in the hand, to state in detail and in a focussed manner what you have achieved in the company you are leaving.
But care: Drafting a qualified reference is not that easy at all, there are some pitfalls you can fall over. The decisive factor is often not only the exact wording, but also, for example, who you name first etc. Therefore, proceed with caution. If they are unsure, an expert can also help them if necessary.
In Germany, every employee has by law an entitlement to a (qualified) certificate. written down in the Trade regulations:
(1) The employee is entitled to a written certificate at the end of an employment relationship. The reference must at least contain information on the type and duration of the activity (simple reference). The employee can require that the information extends beyond that to performance and behavior in the employment relationship (qualified reference).
(2) The reference must be formulated clearly and understandably. It must not contain any features or formulations which have the purpose of making a statement about the employee other than that which is evident from the external form or from the wording." § 109 Industrial Code
Not allowed is it according to labor law, this Evaluation of the work in electronic form, so for example as an e-mail, to make available.
Not only the trade regulations, on the other hand, state the legal entitlement to a qualified job reference. Also the Vocational Training Act (BBiG) stipulates in § 16 that trainees must receive a certificate at the end of their training. The evaluation of shown achievements and the behavior are to be demanded however explicitly, otherwise they are left out.
The wording in the job reference – what is really meant?
If you have been working for a long time and have been issued several references and possibly also letters of recommendation, you will notice when comparing the documents that they are similar in essential points. Not only the writing style is therefore often distinctive.
In a qualified reference supervisors evaluate the employee’s behavior and performance by assigning a grade. This is of course not noted in tabular form, as known from the school report. To be read out is the satisfaction of the boss from the chosen formulations, which at first glance may appear similar, but the devil is in the details. Do you want to interpret a reference thus, you have to look closely.
The wording in the reference is important.
In order to recognize a bad job reference, it helps to "Language of the employer" to understand. The following formulations mean that:
- very goodHe fulfilled his tasks always to the fullest satisfaction.
- well: He fulfilled his duties always to the fullest satisfaction.
- satisfactory: He fulfilled his duties to the full satisfaction.
- sufficient: He fulfilled his tasks for satisfaction.
- unsatisfactory: He fulfilled his duties on the whole to your satisfaction.
- bad: He has makes an effort.
It becomes clear: The Subtleties in the choice of words are marginal, have, however, had a significant impact on career advancement.
To file a lawsuit against a qualified employer’s reference?
The reason these and other phrases have become established is that employers are When writing a testimonial or job reference, observe a so-called duty of goodwill must. Therefore, he is not allowed to hinder his further career with statements that are harmful for the employee.
Before considering the step of initiating a labor court case, However, it is advisable to talk to the employer first. As a rule, an out-of-court settlement with much less effort and nervous strain connected, as a possibly long drawn-out process. Finally, evidence has to be secured and argumentation strategies have to be developed.
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