I've completed a couple of similar online references--the official inquiry letter appeared to have originated from the colleague asking me to complete the evaluation on them. They had obviously asked me ahead of time. I took the time to complete the evaluations, but these were for long-time colleagues whose work I admired, and I wanted to do what I could for them. If your friend has already started the job, I wonder if it's necessary for you to complete the evaluation?

My cousin works in HR and evaluates candidates regularly. He doesn't like these types of evaluations (and really doesn't read reference letters, either). He has a psychology/counseling background and can get a pretty good read on people from conversations and interviews. He also recruits for a specific field and has identified traits that tend to be a better fit for the positions.

I know a lot of really knowledgeable people in HR with excellent communication and organizational skills. In fact, I met a woman yesterday who's earning a degree in HR, and I sensed from our conversation she would be excellent in her future roles.

In my particular field, however, HR protocols tend to be antiquated, and some even redundant. (My apologies to anyone who works in HR... the views expressed in this post do not reflect the entirety of the field.)

The only time I have received an employment inquiry like this was for someone applying for a job with the police department.

I have received a request to complete the kind of detailed form you describe only once. I was pretty put out by it because I had already provided a written reference and fielded a reference call. I did complete it -- but only because it was an employee we'd released after many years. He is a good guy but just couldn't "get" our newer tech stacks. I wanted to give him every opportunity to succeed in his new position. I am not sure I'd have completed it otherwise.

I think it was a lot to ask of a prior employer... and it was sent after he'd already started (like your scenario). What's the purpose of that? Once they hired him, his performance reviews are their responsibility!

I agree with funky.

I've seen my fair share of these online evaluations. If the prior employee contacted me beforehand and asked for my help, then I do them. I always answer honestly about strengths and weaknesses. We all have them.

If the prior employee didn't ask me to do this for them, then I don't answer. Some large employers use 3rd parties for these assessments and they can get very aggressive.

FWIW, this was a peer not an employee. And answering questions about the person's challenges and giving advice about how they could improve seemed inappropriate.

I clicked the link today and it's dead so problem solved.

My husband works in big tech. At two of these companies, peers can reach out to each other for evaluations, even if it's outside of their team. I believe they're allowed to turn some of them down if they feel like they don't work closely enough with them.

However, this is a process that is well known in the company. The fact that it's totally out of the blue for you is odd.

Is this the crazy form that has all these personality attributes? Yes, I’ve had to do those for students who went on to employment. I also regularly do reference letters for graduate programs. they have a short ranking survey attached to it, but honestly programs put more weight in the letter because everyone is a 4 or 5 on everything, especially at that level.