How to Add a Personnel Reference (Watch Video for Step-by-Step Instructions)

The following steps ensures the reference is associated to and appears in both the contact (or reference) and personnel records. These associations grant us a more comprehensive view, enabling a deeper understanding of our relationships across various personnel, project, and opportunity data in the system.

1. A reference should never be added using the 'Input Reference As Text' option.
   1. The only exception is when the contact doesn’t work in our industry or for a company that we would never work with.
2. If the contact exists in the database, use  'Input Reference from Existing Contact'.
3. If the contact does not exist, create them in the company record first (using Mobile, Outlook, or the Web App).
   1. Please ensure the contact has an email address and title - do NOT use “N/A, TBD” or other place holders.
   2. Include the primary relationship owner (if it isn’t yourself, you must change it to the correct owner before saving).
   3. Then, add the contact as a reference in the personnel record using the 'Input Reference from Existing Contact'.
4. Once you've selected the correct contact to use as a reference, please complete the following fields as necessary.
   1. Approval Date - Enter the effective date for when the reference was approved by a Swinerton personnel for use. Include any special notes in the 'Comments' field.
   2. Comments - Enter authorization use case or special notes. If a reference file will be uploaded, enter "See the Documents tab for the reference file" or a similar statement.
5. If the Contact wrote a Testimonial letter, please proceed with the following steps:
   1. Upload the letter to the Documents tab in the Personnel record.
   2. Click the '+Documents' in the Documents section (at the bottom).
      1. Select 'Choose File' to upload the file.
      2. Enter an appropriate title in the 'Title' field, such as '[Year] Reference [Document Type] [Reference Writer First Name] [Reference Writer Last Name]'. 
         • Example: 2023 Reference Email John Smith.
   3. To upload project-related references and testimonials, please refer to the following article.

Important Notes

1. Currently, Publisher Resumes will pull in ALL contact references on a personnel resume.
   1. Inactive references also get pulled in so if you do NOT want these references showing up on the resume, please reach out to Kim Tang to have those reference(s) deleted.
   2. If there are any inactive references (e.g., retired contacts) that should still be listed on a personnel resume, leave a note for reference to the next Marketer.
   3. As a best practice and workaround, please limit personnel contact references to around ~3 contacts so that only the primary references are getting pulled in.
2. Utilize the Approval Date hand Comments section to indicate which references should be used if there are more than 3 references listed.
3. Audit the personnel references annually and update as needed.
4. Reach out to Kim Tang if there are any references that need to be removed.