Thanks for sharing! You've hit on one of the reasons why this problem is interesting/hard. We hold referencers accountable by tying them to a specific work con

Thanks for sharing! You've hit on one of the reasons why this problem is interesting/hard. We hold referencers accountable by tying them to a specific work context and we ask them specific questions about the candidate's unique work style and abilities. We emphasize having a growth mindset even when we ask referencers to share one of the candidate's development areas. All referencers provide their contact information for follow up and therefore are discouraged against writing false information. Since we know references are generally positively skewed, we give references who don't want to advocate for a candidate the opportunity to decline. We mitigate black spots on a candidate by positively-framing our questions and then contextualizing the answers for that specific work environment. We absolutely do not want Searchlight to become a black-mirror rating system. None of the references are public except to employers that the candidate gives permission to.